Book After Book

Publication: 6th February 2020 – Michael Joseph

Aidan Poole logs onto his laptop late at night to Skype his girlfriend, Zoe. But to his horror, he realises she is not alone.

Completely helpless, all he can do is listen to the sounds of a violent struggle.

And then a chilling silence.

He’s desperate to find out if she is OK. But then why is he so hesitant to call the police?

When his messages finally reach them, DCI Jonah Sheens and his team take the case.

And discover the body. . .

Watching from the Dark is an enthralling new thriller that you won’t want to miss.

Amazon.co.uk: https://amzn.to/31CLvYd

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As someone who reads many, maybe too many thrillers, I always appreciate a novel that keeps me on edge the entire time and the new novel by Gytha Lodge certainly delivers.

Watching From The Dark starts with a man skyping his girlfriend and watching helplessly as someone kills her. Who killed her? Also, why didn’t he call the police right away? And why, when he finally did call, he didn’t give his name or where the police could find his murdered girlfriend? To answer all these questions the author brings back DCI Jonah Sheens and his team who we already met in She Lies in Wait (if you haven’t read it, do it… it’s brilliant!). The more they investigate, the more the list of suspects grows, from her boyfriend to her closest friends and her landlord, everyone seems to be hiding something.

The suspense and the tension skyrocket in this novel. Each suspect is hiding a secret (or more than one) that the author unravels bit by bit so that when you think you have figure it out, another truth comes out and suddenly someone else becomes the suspect number one. And this happens over and over again, so that I had to wait for the big revelation at the end. The twists just keep coming and the different timelines and multiple perspective add a lot to the suspense.

I was happy to see again the characters that I first met in She Lies In Wait. DCI Jonah Sheens and his team of hardworking detectives, Domnall O’Malley, Ben Lightman and Juliette Hanson are very likable and well-developed characters. Their personal lives combine well with the murder mystery at the center of the story and I am really looking forward to reading more about them.

Watching From The Dark is a story of jealousies, secrets, and obsession and I devoured in two days. It is addictive, dark, and impossible to put down and now I have the certainty that Gytha Lodge is one of those authors whose book I will buy as soon as it comes out, no matter what.

A huge thank you to Michael Joseph and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this brilliant novel.

Publication: 28th January 2020 – Headline

Can guys and girls ever be just friends? According to Audrey Tate and Clarke West, absolutely. After all, they’ve been best friends since childhood without a single romantic entanglement. Clarke is the charming playboy Audrey can always count on and, knowing that the ever-loyal Audrey will never not play along with his strategy for dodging his matchmaking mother, announces he’s already engaged…to Audrey.

But what starts out as a playful game between two best friends turns into something infinitely more complicated, as just-for-show kisses begin to stir up forbidden feelings. As the faux wedding date looms closer, Audrey and Clarke realize that they can never go back to the way things were, but deep down, do they really want to?

Filled with charm and heart and plenty of heart and wit, this entertaining series will hook you from the very first page. Look out for the other two titles, Passion on Park Avenue and Love on Lexington Avenue

Amazon.co.uk: https://amzn.to/2OAeeb9

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Over the last year, I often saw people rave about the novels in the Central Park Pact series, so, when more recently, I kept seeing the latest novel in the series, Marriage on Madison Avenue, popping up on my Instagram feed, I decided to give it a try, because I love romantic comedies and, as featured in this novel, “fake” relationships. Me being me, I started the series from the latest book, Marriage on Madison Avenue, that it can easily be read as a stand-alone, and I became addicted to it.

The Central Park Pact series revolves around three best friends who met under quite unusual circumstances. Each novel focus on one of them and in Marriage on Madison Avenue the protagonist is Audrey. She and her best friend from childhood, Clarke, fake an engagement to get back to his controlling mother and an annoying internet troll, but how much of it is really fake? We all know how it’s to going to end, but what I loved about this story is the humour, the witty and entertaining characters, and the friendships.

The story is refreshing and hilarious. Misunderstandings, jealousies, and some drama make for a very enjoyable and funny read. I loved the characters (even Clarke’s controlling mother) and the close friendships between them.

The story is set in New York, which for me it’s always a plus, even more so if the characters are organizing a wedding that takes them to the Plaza and the more exclusive places in Manhattan.

If you are looking for a brilliant and captivating romantic comedy that will keep you entertained for a few hours and make you forget everything else then don’t look any further, because this is it.

A huge thank you to Headline Eternal and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the novel.

Publication: 23rd January 2020 – Orbit

For his entire life, Charley Sutherland has concealed a magical ability he can’t quite control: he can bring characters from books into the real world. His older brother, Rob – a young lawyer with an utterly normal life – hopes that this strange family secret will disappear with disuse, and he will be discharged from his duty of protecting Charley and the real world from each other.

But then, literary characters start causing trouble in their city, making threats about destroying the world, and for once, it isn’t Charley’s doing. There’s someone else out there who shares his powers and it’s up to Charley and a reluctant Rob to stop them – before anyone gets to The End.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/37EvLpr

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Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, the fantastic new novel by H. G. Parry where the characters of the books come to life.

Imagine if the characters of the book you’re reading could come out? At first, I think I would freak out, but then I would find that having tea with Sherlock Holmes would be an unforgettable experience. Charley Sutherland does that. He has the gift to bring out characters from the books he is reading, often involuntarily and unwillingly. And since Charley spends his days among books, it happens quite often. For his brother Rob, Charley’s gift is more of a curse because he always has to get his younger brother out of trouble and so he finds himself chasing Dickensian characters around the university campus in the middle of the night. Until now, things have been quite under control, but as the characters starts to behave strangely and new worlds appear out of nowhere, Rob and Charley need to stop them before it’s too late.

This is the story of two brothers who are completely different: one is a close-minded lawyer trying to have a normal and undisrupted life, the other lives in a world of books from which he can summon the characters. They couldn’t be more different. And yet, they are both unique and relatable characters. I adored Charley, quiet and always trying to do the right thing. I just wanted to hug him and protect him.

I loved how the author represented the characters that Charlie pulls out of classic novels. Heathcliff, Mr Darcy, Dorian Gray, Sherlock Holmes, Victor Frankenstein, Fagin, Artful Dodger, Charles Dickens, they all make an appearance (and many more) and H. G. Parry made a great job making them as close to the original as possible.

The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep is a fun read with suspense, brilliant characters, and an original and beautiful plot that kept me completely glued to the pages.

A huge thank you to Tracy Fenton and Orbit for providing me with a copy of the novel.

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H. G. Parry lives in a book-infested flat in Wellington, New Zealand, which she shares with her sister and two overactive rabbits. She holds a PhD in English literature from Victoria University of Wellington, and teaches English, film and media studies. Her short fiction has appeared in InterGalactic Medicine Show, Daily Science Fiction and small press anthologies. The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep is her debut novel.

Publication: 23rd January 2020 – Orion

Welcome to the café that never sleeps.

Day and night, Stella’s Café opens its doors to the lonely and the lost, the morning people and the night owls. It’s a place where everyone is always welcome, where life can wait at the door.

Meet Hannah and Mona: best friends, waitresses, dreamers. They love working at Stella’s – the different people they meet, the small kindnesses exchanged. But is it time to step outside and make their own way in life?

Come inside and spend twenty-four hours at Stella’s Café, where one day might just be enough to change your life…

Amazon.co.uk: https://amzn.to/2uNoZ2v

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I am delighted today to take part in the blog tour for The 24-Hour Café, the enjoyable new novel by Libby Page.

Many things can happen in 24 hours, especially in a café in the heart of London where we meet a cast of various characters all going through an important moment in their lives. There is the young man wondering if he will find a place where to sleep; the couple in love who are saying goodbye to each other; the newlyweds about to go on their honeymoon; the new mother who doesn’t want to go home to her family, and many more. And then there are Hannah and Mona. They are waitresses at Stella’s, the café open all day and all night. Hannah and Mona are best friends: they live together and they share the dream to make it as performers.

With each chapter, an hour goes by and we meet new characters and we learn more about Hannah and Mona’s friendship, from meeting to a party five years earlier to the secrets and resentment that causes a strain in their relationship. During those 24 hours, we really get to know these characters. I liked them, I disagreed with them, I cheered them on, and I really wanted to know how their story would end. Some of the stories were heartbreaking, some had a beautiful happy ending, and they were all thought-provoking and captivating.

The author beautiful and clear writing style made the story more real and it felt like I was watching the events unfold on TV rather than reading it on my kindle. I loved how everything was detailed and authentic and the characters are all relatable.

The 24-Hour Café is an heartwarming and refreshing story full of food that will make your mouth water and with characters that will make you both laugh and cry. Highly recommended!

A huge thank you to Tracy and Orion for inviting me to take part in the blog tour and providing me with a copy of the novel.

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Follow the rest of the blog tour:

Publication: 6th February 2020 – HQ

JOANNE HAYNES HAS A SECRET.
THAT IS NOT HER REAL NAME.

And there’s more. Her flat isn’t hers. Her cats aren’t hers. Even her hair isn’t really hers.
 
Nor is she any of the other women she pretends to be. Not the bestselling romance novelist who gets her morning snack from the doughnut van on the seafront. Nor the pregnant woman in the dental surgery. Nor the chemo patient in the supermarket for whom the cashier feels ever so sorry. They’re all just alibis.
 
In fact, the only thing that’s real about Joanne is that nobody can know who she really is.
 
But someone has got too close. It looks like her alibis have begun to run out….

Amazon.co.uk: https://amzn.to/30SIsuT

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Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for the brand new captivating novel by CJ Skuse, The Alibi Girl.

The story opens with a woman, Mary, who is at the hairdresser with her five-week-old daughter Emily. She tells her hairdresser about her job as a GP, her four other children, and her handsome husband. Only, her name is not Mary, but Joanne, she isn’t married, she doesn’t have four other children, and she isn’t a doctor. She has many identities and she is hiding. Who is really Joanne? And what or who is she hiding from? Is she really in danger or is she simply paranoid?

I love CJ Skuse humour and darkness and, after reading Sweetpea and In Bloom, I was looking forward to reading more from this author. Once again, the protagonist of her novel is a young woman who is not easy to like, at least at the beginning of the story. Joanne, or whoever she is, is scared, paranoid, and childish. She lies non-stop, and her obsessions border to psychopathic. However, the more I read, the more I learned about her life and her childhood, the more I started to feel sympathy for her.

The plot is dark and suspenseful, but it is also heart-breaking and compelling. The author knows how to hold the interest of the reader, with multi-layered characters, different narratives and timelines, twists and turns that make you hold your breath, and a unique plot that made it hard to put the book down.

Thank you so much to Joe, Jess, and HQ for providing me with a copy of this fantastic novel.

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Publication: 6th February 2020 – Quercus

Everything has changed for Dr Ruth Galloway.

She has a new job, home and partner, and is no longer North Norfolk police’s resident forensic archaeologist. That is, until convicted murderer Ivor March offers to make DCI Nelson a deal. Nelson was always sure that March killed more women than he was charged with. Now March confirms this, and offers to show Nelson where the other bodies are buried – but only if Ruth will do the digging.

Curious, but wary, Ruth agrees. March tells Ruth that he killed four more women and that their bodies are buried near a village bordering the fens, said to be haunted by the Lantern Men, mysterious figures holding lights that lure travellers to their deaths.

Is Ivor March himself a lantern man, luring Ruth back to Norfolk? What is his plan, and why is she so crucial to it? And are the killings really over?

Amazon.co.uk: https://amzn.to/2vgr8Eb

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A few years ago, I randomly picked up a copy of A Room Full of Bones, the fourth book in the Dr. Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths and I started reading it. I hadn’t heard of this series before, but I find archaeology fascinating and I enjoy watching Indiana Jones movies and the TV series Bones, so I thought I would like it. I was wrong. I became addicted to it and every year I wait for a new story. I love the suspense, the complicated relationship between Ruth and her on-and-off lover DCI Harry Nelson, and the great variety of characters that come back each book.

In The Lantern Men, Ruth has left Norfolk behind and has found a new man and a new job in Cambridge with her daughter Kate. However, she is drawn back to Norfolk (and Nelson) when a convicted fellow wants to reveal the location of the bodies of two murdered women, but he’ll reveal it only to her. As Ruth and Nelson team up again, new bodies turn up and new mysteries and folklore fill the pages.

I enjoyed the plot. For this novel, there is a big cast of possible suspects and, of course, I didn’t figure out the truth until it was revealed. As in the previous novels, legends and folklore are still essential to the story and this time we learn about the Lantern Men, dark figures that wander in the night with a torch in search of travellers to kill.

The regular characters are all back. I was sorry to see less of detective Clough who, like Ruth, moved to Cambridge after a promotion. He is one of my favourite characters and his constant eating and his devotion to Nelson keep me entertained. Of course, my all-time favourite is Cathbad, the druid full of fantastic stories and spiritual beliefs (and also I enjoy how he exasperate Nelson).

The Lantern Men is a brilliant and engrossing new addiction to this series and it’s a fantastic read for all crime readers out there and it’s out today so go and pick up a copy!!!

A huge huge thank you to Ella and Quercus for providing me with a copy of the novel.

Publication: 6th Februart 2020 – Orion

She was the most brutal killer of our time. And she may have been my mother…

When website columnist Robin Diamond is contacted by true crime podcast producer Quentin Garrison, she assumes it’s a business matter. It’s not. Quentin’s podcast, Closure, focuses on a series of murders in the 1970s, committed by teen couple April Cooper and Gabriel LeRoy. It seems that Quentin has reason to believe Robin’s own mother may be intimately connected with the killings.

Robin thinks Quentin’s claim is absurd. But is it? The more she researches the Cooper/LeRoy murders herself, the more disturbed she becomes by what she finds. Living just a few blocks from her, Robin’s beloved parents are the one absolute she’s always been able to rely upon, especially now amid rising doubts about her husband and frequent threats from internet trolls. Robin knows her mother better than anyone.

But then her parents are brutally attacked, and Robin realises she doesn’t know the truth at all…

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Delighted to kick off the blog tour for Never Look Back, the brand new novel by A. L. Gaylin.

It’s ironic how I’ve never listened to a podcast in my entire life, but I am drawn to thrillers where podcasts are at the center of the story. It’s probably because I don’t have the patience to listen to them. I don’t even use audiobooks, I prefer to read it. However, I find fascinating how in books the starting of a podcast triggers a series of events that make for a thrilling read.

In Never Look Back, the story begins in 1976 when a fifteen-year-old girl is writing a letter to her future child. Throughout the novel, we read more of these letters and they are both moving and suspenseful. We jump forward to forty years later. In California, Quentin, a young man in his twenties, has started a podcast, Closure, to help families find, as its name say, closure after a tragedy. Quentin has his own personal reasons to start this podcast because he hopes to find out the truth on a murder case that ruined his family. In New York, journalist Robin his facing backlash following an article she published, she thinks her husband is cheating on her, and she is now receiving calls from Quentin revealing her that her mother, the person she trusts most in the word, may be one half of a teenage couple who went on a killing spree back in the 1970s.

I was on the edge of my seat from the first page. The author knows how to take the reader by surprise. When you think you have figure it out… BAAM, you find out you don’t. The twists and the revelations just keep coming and the more I neared the end, the more I couldn’t put it down.

The characters are multi-layered and well-constructed and their stories are heart-breaking: broken families, traumatizing childhoods… And the tension? It’s always high, never a moment of calm.

Never Look Back is a dark and addictive novel about murder, families, and secrets that will make you hold your breath from the first to the last page. Brilliant!!!

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Follow the rest of the blog tour:

Alison Gaylin is the award-winning author of Hide Your Eyes and its sequel, You Kill Me; the standalones Trashed, Heartless, What Remains Of Me and If I Die Tonight; and the Brenna Spector series: And She Was, Into the Dark, and Stay with Me. A graduate of Northwestern University and of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, she lives with her husband and daughter in Woodstock, New York.

What’s better than a beautiful cover for a fantastic story? I am really excited today to take part in the cover reveal for the new novel by Louise Emma Clarke, MUM’S BIG BREAK, which will be published in eBook by Aria on 23rd April 2020.

 

SO, ARE YOU READY???

Jess’s life was turned upside down when her blog went viral. Now, with hundreds of thousands of followers, Jess is now navigating the trials and tribulations of a world online.

Being a mummy blogger was original an escape, but now it seems to be turning into a career. And after one wrong post on her social media channels, Jess discovers that life in the spotlight isn’t always peachy.

With a new baby on the way, the possibility of starring in a reality TV show and a husband who’s struggling with his wife’s new-found fame, Jess has a lot going on.

Jess needs to decide whether this is everything she wanted it to be or whether this is all a bit too much for her? Can Jess persevere against the haters, rise up above the pettiness and find the perfect balance of life in the real world and life online?

Perfect for fans of Suzy K Quinn, Fiona Gibson and Gill Simms.

 

Louise’s blog, Mum of Boys and Mabel has over 100k followers. Having moved to Dubai with her family she’s now back in the UK and is enjoying writing. From Mum with Love is her debut novel.

 Follow Louise:  

Facebook: @mumboysandmabel

Twitter: @mumofboysmabel

Buy links:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/36l9L1L

Kobo: https://bit.ly/30Ly4Vr

Google Play: https://bit.ly/36jmG4i

Follow Aria

Website: www.ariafiction.com

Twitter: @aria_fiction

Facebook: @ariafiction

Instagram: @ariafiction

Publication: 9th January 2020 – Head of Zeus

Kate used to be good at recognising people. So good, she worked for the police, identifying criminals in crowds of thousands. But six months ago, a devastating car accident led to a brain injury. Now the woman who never forgot a face can barely recognise herself in the mirror.

At least she has Rob. Young, rich, handsome and successful, Rob runs a tech company on the idyllic Cornish coast. Kate met him just after her accident, and he nursed her back to health. When she’s with him, in his luxury modernist house, the nightmares of the accident fade, and she feels safe and loved.

Until, one day, she looks at Rob anew. And knows, with absolute certainty, that the man before her has been replaced by an impostor.

Is Rob who he says he is? Or is it all in Kate’s damaged mind?

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Today, I am delighted to welcome you on my stop for the blog tour of The Other You, the twisty new novel by J. S. Monroe. I’d like to thank Vicky and Head of Zeus for inviting me to join the blog tour and providing me with a copy of a novel that kept me completely gripped from start to end.

Kate has a skill or, better, a gift. She never forgets a face. Only one percent of the population is able to do that and that makes her very special, but it also puts her in danger. Following a car accident that left her with brain damage, Kate has left her job as “super recognizer” in the police and she is recovering in the beautiful and super-protected house of her millionaire man in Cornwall. Spending her days painting and with only of the company of her dog, Kate looks forward to the weekend when Rob comes to visit from London. However, is Rob the man she fell in love six months earlier or has someone taken his place? And is someone after her?

First of all, I liked the idea of doppelgänger in a thriller. I found it original and very intriguing. Is there really out there someone who likes exactly like me? And can they take my place without anyone noticing? These theme, together with an high-tech house that can be controlled from afar, made for a very chilling thriller.

Kate is a perfect protagonist: the brain injury make her an unreliable narrator: is she paranoid or has Rob been replaced by someone who looks like him? The other narrators are Silas, Kate’s former boss, and Jake, her ex-boyfriend, for whom I felt both sorry, appreciation for his determination, and at times even suspicious.

The plot is intricate and dark and so twisty that I never saw the truth coming. Part psychological thriller, part procedural, The Other You is an exciting thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat!

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Follow the rest of the blog tour:

 

J.S. Monroe read English at Cambridge, worked as a foreign correspondent in Delhi, and was Weekend editor of the Daily Telegraph in London before becoming a full-time writer. Monroe is the author of six novels, including the international bestseller, Find Me.

 

Buy links:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2B5lxA9

iBooks: https://apple.co/3286CkM

Kobo: https://bit.ly/35nDd8h

GooglePlay: https://bit.ly/2OAI0x7

Follow J.S. Monroe:

Twitter: @JSThrillers

Facebook: @JSMonroeFindMe

Follow Head of Zeus:

Twitter: @HoZ_Books

Facebook: @headofzeus

Instagram: @headofzeus

Website: www.headofzeus.com

Publication: 18th December 2019 (eBook); 23rd January 2020 (paperback) – Viking Books

History doesn’t repeat itself. Does it?

A distressed teenage girl is found on the outskirts of Oxford. The story she tells is terrifying: grabbed off the street, a plastic bag forced over her head, then driven somewhere remote and subjected to an assault.

DI Adam Fawley is doing the best he can to investigate, but the teenager refuses to press charges. All he can do is try to ignore the sickening feeling he’s seen something like this before…

But when another girl goes missing, Fawley knows his time is running out.

Because if he ignores the past any longer, this girl may not be coming back.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2S5pK0u

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I am delighted to welcome you on my stop on the blog tour for All The Rage, the thrilling brand new novel by Cara Hunter. A huge thank you to Ellie and Penguin Books for inviting me to join the blog tour and providing me with a copy of the novel.

I LOVE the DI Adam Fawley series!!! I ADORE it!!! I love the characters, the stories are suspenseful with unexpected twists, and I am captivated by the author clear writing. All The Rage is the fourth book in the series and it sees DI Fawley and his team trying to solve a disturbing and intricate case.

Faith is a teenage girl found on the streets of Oxford. She’s been kidnapped and assaulted but she can’t identify her assailant. While the police investigates another girl disappears. Will they find her before it’s too late? And how is it connected to a case of 20 years ago?

I will probably say the same thing after reading Cara Hunter’s next novel, but I think that All The Rage is her best so far. Fast-paced, complex, and entertaining, the story captured me from the very first page. I love that the story is told from multiple points of views, from the detective to the victims, from the witnesses to possible suspects, in a way that it’s clear and informative. The narrative is often interrupted and enriched by police interviews, reports, newspaper articles, and, my favourite, social media comments (where everyone gives their unrequested opinion).

I love reading about Adam and his team and see how well they work together and hard to get to the truth. In this book, we learn more about DI Adam Fawley’s past, we read about DS Erica Somer’s new romance, and we get to know better the new member of the team, DC Anthony Asante. And let’s not forget DS Gislingham, Verity Everett, Baxter, and the irritating but still enjoyable Quinn.

I have started reading Cara Hunter’s novels only recently, just a few months ago, but I quickly caught up and I am a huge fan. All The Rage is an intense and outstanding procedural novel perfect for all crime fans out there. It left me wanting for more and I am already counting down the days to the publication of book number five!

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Cara Hunter is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling crime novels Close to Home, In the Dark and No Way Out, all featuring DI Adam Fawley and his Oxford-based police team. Close to Home was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick, was shortlisted for Crime Book of the Year in the British Book Awards 2019 and No Way Out was selected by the Sunday Times as one of the 100 best crime novels since 1945. Cara’s novels have sold more than three quarters of a million copies worldwide. Cara Hunter lives in Oxford, on a street not unlike those featured in her books.

Sign up for Cara Hunter newsletter: https://www.penguin.co.uk/newsletters/carahunter/