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Blog Tour and Review Daisy Belle: Swimming Champion of the World by Caitlin Davies Today I am very honoured to kick-start the Blog Tour for the wonderful new novel Daisy Belle. My Review Isn’t the cover artwork just beautiful? I love that misty sepia vintage image of Daisy in her Victorian swimwear. I loved the book too!  Daisy is such an endearing and engaging character, from her first forays into the water aged just four – right through to her adult life and the trials and tribulations of being a women born to succeed in a world dominated by men, and some of them pretty nasty men at that. This book is Historical Fiction based firmly on real-life female swimming pioneers who broke the mould of swimming not being a ladylike pursuit and it is a real tribute to strong and determined women throughout the ages especially those who battle against the odds to achieve their goals. This is one of a number of books I’ve read recently with swimming as a theme and it makes me want to don my swimm

MY REVIEW of The Binding by Bridget Collins Isn’t it wonderful when you hear about a book you’re certain you’ll love. Isn’t it awesome when you are granted a copy to read and review before most folk get to read it? (Thank you Harper Collins and Edelweiss+) Isn’t it amazing when you love it even MORE than you thought humanly possible? Isn’t it brilliant to be able to shout about it and tell people how amazing it is? And isn’t it hard to find the right words to do it justice? To say I adored this book is a gross understatement, I devoured it and it satisfied every need. First, it is fantasy realism which is utterly believable. There is really only the one element of fantasy - the premise that real memories can be taken from your mind by binders who create them into a book which allows all your worst most hurtful memories to be hidden, even from yourself, forever. It is set in an unnamed historical era which feels like late 1800s. Peopled with many wonderful characters I fell in love with

Today I welcome Linda Huber to my blog as part of the blog tour for her book The Cold Cold Sea. Linda has provided an enticing extract from her book to whet your appetite. Book Description and info: Blurb: They stared at each other, and Maggie felt the tightness in her middle expand as it shifted, burning its way up… Painful sobs rose in her throat as Colin, his face expressionless now, reached for his mobile and tapped 999. When three-year-old Olivia disappears from the beach, a happy family holiday comes to an abrupt end. Maggie is plunged into the darkest nightmare imaginable – what happened to her little girl?  Further along the coast, another mother is having problems too. Jennifer's daughter Hailey is starting school, and it should be such a happy time, but the child is increasingly moody and silent. Family life has never seemed so awkward, and Jennifer struggles to maintain control. The tide ebbs and flows, and summer dies, but there is no comfort for Maggie, alone now at th

Review - Open Your Eyes by Paula Daly A well-written fabulous new page-turner from an author whose books never fail to grip you by the larynx and apply increasing pressure throughout, exactly what Grip-lit should be. This is a stand-alone domestic Noir thriller about Jane, a would-be author, married to Leon, the couple have 2 young children and everything is going fine apart from the books Jane writes being constantly rejected for publication. She knows how hard it is to break into publishing, she is a creative writing tutor and her husband has several successful published books under his belt already. One fateful day everything she knows is about to come crashing down around her ears, when suddenly Leon is attacked, right outside their own home and whilst he is in a deep coma in hospital she has to try and keep things at home on an even keel. But how can she ever feel safe where such a dreadful thing happened? The story is gripping on two levels, there is the deep mystery of who did t

Review - A Little Bird Told Me by Marianne Holmes What a terrific debut novel, I take my hat off to the author who has recreated the long hot summer of 1976 and turned it into a simmering heat haze of suspicion, misunderstandings and mystery. A Little Bird Told Me is the story of siblings Robyn (nicknamed Little Bird) and her older brother Chistopher also known as Kit. The book sweeps effortlessly back and forth in time from 1976 when the pair were children and 1988 when as young adults, they return to the small town of their childhood so that Robyn can try and make amends for an injustice she blames herself for. In 1976 as the youngsters swelter in the heat, make dams by the river, play with friends and put up with bullying as well as a fractured family life. As they watch their Mum, keeping things hidden and constantly trying to evade someone or something it's clear that there is more going on than meets the eye. Events which occurred in the past have left their mark on both thes

Review – The Lion Tamer who Lost by Louise Beech Be careful what you wish for it might just come true, is definitely the moral of this lovely, engaging romantic and heartbreaking read. Ben has always wished he could work with lions, whilst Andrews wishes are more complex, so he keeps his written on post-it notes and concealed inside his Wish Box. When these two meet it feels like fate could have thrown them together and this book is certainly a series of bizarre and pretty improbable coincidences. When you read a book that breaks a piece of your heart and you turn to the back and discover your own name in the mentions and thankyous … perhaps that’s just another of those bizarre coincidences, for not only did that happen to me in my proof copy of this book, which eventually found its way to me via a long and circuitous route (and I was so thrilled to be mentioned I yipped out loud on the bus) but a similar thing also happens in the book to one of the characters. The book alternates in p

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden: Blog tour and review. Today I am part of the blog tour for the beautiful haunting tale which is the Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden. The Girl in the tower is the second book in the Winternight Trilogy of which the first book is The Bear and the Nightingale.  I am in the privileged position of having recently read both books which has left my heart pounding, my head reeling and my imagination well and truly fired. I will provide a brief synopsis of the first book in the series which I highly recommend you read first, as a) it helps make better sense of the second and b) It’s blooming amazing and you just don’t want to miss it. This series admirably fills the gap left by the Abhorsen trilogy (Garth Nix) and His Dark Materials (Philip Pullmann) yet they are completely different based on traditional Russian folklore they seem as old as time, new as freshly baked bread and very, very original. These are fairy tales with no fluttering glittering

Blog Tour The Theatre of Dreams - Rosie Travers Today I've hopped on the Blog Tour for The Theatre of dreams by Rosie Travers as invited by @rararesources This colourful and fascinating debut romantic novel sounds wonderful and I'd like to be one of the first to wish the Author great success with her new book set in the world of theatre. Purchase a copy from Amazon UK Here's what it's about to whet your appetite: The Blurb Musical theatre actress Tara is down on her luck and in desperate need of a job.  When terminally-ill octogenarian Kitty invites her to take over the running of her former dance academy in the old-fashioned resort of Hookes Bay, Tara thinks she’s found her guardian angel.  But it soon becomes very clear Kitty is being far from benevolent.  Too late, Tara realises helping Kitty will signal the end of an already tarnished career, unless she can pull off the performance of a life-time... The Author: Rosie Travers Find her website here Join her on Faceboo

Blog Tour Today I bring you my thoughts on a wonderful new book, welcome to the blog tour for the new book Fatal Inheritance by Rachel Rhys which was published on 26th July 2018 and you can find it here. As my contribution to the tour and to whet your appetite here is my review of this wonderfully enjoyable book Review I’m deliriously happy to be included in the blog tour for this absolutely wonderful, feel-good romantic mystery by Rachel Rhys, aka Tammy Cohen, a brilliant novelist who turns her hand to two different genres with each persona she dons and does it with ease and panache. She demonstrated this succinctly in her first historical drama “A Dangerous Crossing”, which I also loved. you can read my review of that book here. Author Rachel Rhys If you’re looking for the absolutely perfect book to enjoy on holiday or curl up and relax with over the weekend then look no further you’ve found it in Fatal Inheritance. The period setting is post war England in 1948, where our heroine Ev