REVIEW TOUR: Into the Great - Elliot Blake

Sparks fly when Lilah, a thief from a struggling freespacer colony outside the borders of the Federated Solar Republic, meets Bax, an FSR security officer stationed at an official colony within those borders, during a time of heightened tensions for humanity as the silent, staring, seemingly invulnerable aliens. A story about choosing the life you want to live. 

The fourth book from indie publisher Li'l Factory, 500 numbered copies, limited edition.

 

What did I think?

Into the Great by Elliot Blake is well named because it is great!  In fact, 'great' isn't really a good enough word for it because it is simply outstanding.  I'm so glad I changed my stance on sci-fi as it would have been a travesty to miss out on this magnificent book.

It's a short story at 133 pages long and Elliot Blake makes every word count as he takes the reader on a vivid and immersive journey through space.  With the Federated Solar Republic and the freespacers from Safe Harbor being at loggerheads, it has the feel of Star Wars' rebels and the Empire so I found it easy to imagine the world in which the story is set.  The story is told in three parts with the first two parts being from each main character's point of view and the third part brings it all together,

The chemistry between the two main characters crackles to life the first moment they meet, much like Han and Leia.  Lilah is a lovable rogue who travels through space with her friends to steal a valuable resource called stratium, but the FSR need to keep as much as possible to defend themselves against the Aureum aliens.  Bax is the FSR security officer who would have caught her if he hadn't felt such a  strong connection earlier that day.  Letting Lilah get away could cost Bax his job but she has already captured his heart.

Oh my goodness, I couldn't put this book down but I also didn't want it to end.  It is just perfect from start to finish and I loved every second of it.  As entertaining as it is, it's also quite thought-provoking, especially as it made me think about how we might react if aliens visited our planet and the assumptions we would make if they did so.

Into the Great is completely unforgettable and totally unmissable.  Readers of any genre will enjoy it so please don't be put off if you have ever said the words: "I don't read sci-fi".  It's an absolutely cracking debut and I really can't recommend it highly enough.  Five stars are not enough; all the stars in the universe for this outstanding book.

I received a gifted hardback to read and review for the Literally PR Online Book Review Tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from:

Li'l Factory

Amazon

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BOOKSTAGRAM TOUR: The Deadly Mooring (DCI Jack Mason Crime Thriller Series Book 8) - Michael K Foster

The deeper you dig, the deadlier the game ...

Deciding to put his past behind him, DCI Jack Mason is finding it difficult to conceal a secret from his partner. Sent to investigate a Tyne River cruiser fire, emergency services have unearthed charred remains. While authorities suspect arson, Mason holds a different view.

Caught in a web of deceit and brutal homicide, the one person who can help this seasoned detective lies gravely ill in hospital. Going it alone won’t be easy. This cunning predator, a master of disguise, has a long history of targeting law enforcement.

Will Mason trust his own instincts? And what secrets do people take to the grave?

Lives are at stake, and time is fast running out.

The Deadly Mooring is the eighth book in the DCI Jack Mason crime thriller series. If you like complex female protagonists, fast-paced action, and dark mysteries, then you will love Michael K. Foster’s latest novel. Fans of Peter James, Ian Rankin, J.R. Ellis, Frieda McFadden, and Alex Smith will not want to miss this book.

 

What did I think?

I've read the first five books in the DCI Jack Mason series so I've missed a couple as The Deadly Mooring is book eight.  You can definitely read it as a standalone though as it contains its own crime storyline but it's just the characters' personal lives that have moved on.

It's so sharply plotted and meticulously researched that i felt as if I was part of Mason's team as they simultaneously investigate a murder, a missing person and an art theft.  It sounds like there's a lot going on but the reader knows they are all linked together and I loved being privy to both the perpetrator's and the investigator's thoughts.

You may think from the cover that it is set in South Shields, but the characters don't set foot in the coastal town and it's mostly set upriver in Newcastle and Gateshead.  I do love books set in my local area as I feel like I'm walking in the characters' footsteps or sitting in the passenger seat of their vehicle.  

Whilst the crime part of the plot kept me riveted, I loved the developments in Mason's personal life and it was good to see profiler David Carlisle once again.  This really is a brilliant crime series and I am eager to not only read more but to catch up on the instalments that I have missed.

Incredibly fast-paced and completely compelling, The Deadly Mooring is a fantastic crime novel that I couldn't put down.  Very highly recommended. 

I received a digital ARC to read and review for the LBT Bookstagram Tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

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Amazon

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BOOKSTAGRAM TOUR: The Sacred Virgin and the Spurned Bride - Dolan Cummings

What secrets survive when history forgets the truth?

In a land that has not yet become Scotland, old loyalties, buried histories, and dangerous ambitions are beginning to stir.

Euphemia has returned to her Pictish homeland after an absence of twenty years, no longer the mysterious young woman who vanished, but a mother carrying a complicated past of her own.

Freia, meanwhile, faces an uncertain future after leaving Bamburgh in scandal. Now a young mother, she guards the truth of her son Frey’s paternity from a world eager to speculate.

Connecting their stories is Bishop Boniface, a formidable churchman whose pursuit of family, influence, and Pictish history reaches far beyond the walls of the church.

When an obscure manuscript begins to illuminate a past nearly lost to history, questions of identity and inheritance draw these women into a web stretching across monasteries, royal courts, and the emerging kingdoms of an untamed medieval land.

The Sacred Virgin and the Spurned Bride is historical fiction rich in character, wit, intrigue, and the texture of early medieval life, a story of motherhood and memory, faith and ambition, and women determined to find their own place in a world busy deciding it for them.

Uncover the secrets history was never meant to forget.

 

What did I think?

The Sacred Virgin and the Spurned Bride completely exceeded my expectations; I'm so glad that I decided to read it when the Northumberland setting caught my eye.

It's very atmospheric with the rugged Northumberland coast being almost a character in its own right.  I don't read a lot of books set in medieval times but I really enjoyed learning about medieval life when there were different religions in Britain and the Picts inhabited Scotland.

There are two women in the story who are single mothers but they are treated very differently.  Euphemia is the niece of Bishop Boniface so her reputation is protected by the church whereas Freia should have been celebrating her marriage but finds herself pregnant and alone.  The contrast is sobering and it feels very unfair that women can lose so much whilst men get to walk away from the consequences of their actions.   

The characters are very well developed and I was really rooting for Freia; not that she needed it as she is a very strong woman who is determined to give her son the best life she possibly can.  As serious as the subject is, there are some very amusing scenes that made me smile and chuckle; I will never forget the moment when Freia goes to meet her suitor and it's making me laugh just thinking of it now.  No spoilers here though, you will have to read it for yourself.

The Sacred Virgin and the Spurned Bride is a surprisingly entertaining and evocative historical fiction novel that fully immersed me in the medieval period.  It's a must-read for anyone who loves historical fiction and I would highly recommend it.

I received a digital ARC to read and review for the Love Books Tours Bookstagram Tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from:

Waterstones

Amazon

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READALONG: The Last Letter - Rebecca Yarros

Beckett,

If you're reading this, well, you know the last-letter drill. You made it. I didn't. I need one thing from you: get out of the army and get to Telluride. My little sister Ella's there, raising the twins alone. If I'm gone, that means I can't be there for her. I can't help them through this. But you can. So I'm begging you, as my best friend, go take care of my sister, my family. Please don't make her go through it alone.

Ryan

When Beckett follows his best friend’s dying wish and arrives in the small mountain town of Telluride, he expects grief, guilt, and the weight of a promise he’s not sure he can keep.

What he doesn’t expect is Ella. Fiercely independent and determined to hold her family together, Ella is still reeling from loss after loss. But as Beckett slowly becomes part of her life, their shared grief begins to turn into something neither of them saw coming.

But Ella knows that loving Beckett means risking heartbreak all over again…and this time she's not sure she'll survive.

 

What did I think?

If Rebecca Yarros had cut my heart out with a spoon it wouldn't have hurt as much as reading The Last Letter. My heart wasn't just broken, it was put through an emotional blender and shredded into tiny little bits.  I was certainly in bits at the end of it and at several times during it too, so have your tissues handy when you read it.

The whole 'last letter' theme gave me a lump in my throat and that was before I had even been introduced to any of the characters.  Once I got to know them, I fell in love with every single one of them and experienced their pain, joy, hopes and fears as they rode the rollercoaster of life.  Talk about 'stop the ride I want to get off' - this ride is not a fun one!

Told via a dual point of view, we follow single mother Ella and soldier Becket as they start writing to each other before they even met.  I loved reading their letters and felt it really showed depth to the characters.  They of course do eventually meet, but in such tragic circumstances, and one of them is not being completely honest. Uh-oh!

As heart shattering as the story was, I just couldn't stop reading it.  I'm glad I read it as part of a readalong as it gave me a chance to pause and take stock of my emotions.  I could have easily read it in one or two sittings but I would have felt like my heart had been pelted at a brick wall.  There's some romance with a bit of spice to lighten the distressing darker parts of the story so it is very well balanced.

The Last Letter is a completely devastating novel that is filled with so much emotion it really should come with waterproof pages.  I'm not sure I can forgive Rebecca Yarros for making my heart hurt so much but forgiveness is a theme of the novel so I am sure I will forgive her...eventually.

I received a gifted paperback for the Insta Book Tours readalong and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from:

UK.Bookshop.org

Amazon

BOOKSTAGRAM TOUR: The Gap (The Schelldhardt Series Book 2) - S. Frogley

For fans of blurred-reality stories like Inception, The Matrix, and The Truman Show.

It’s all in your mind…

The gap is the place where our intentions meet our actions.

The gap is the place where our failings are exposed.

All humanity exists in the gap.

The gap is the next global battlefield, and the war has already begun.

Two organisations are locked in battle to control the mysterious gap.

Schelldhardt, the largest company in the world, is using its powerful online reach to divide the global population.

The Friary is a secretive institution aiming to stop them.

Lana Carter is a young woman searching for her sister, Grace. Grace was working for Schelldhardt before her sudden disappearance. Enlisting the help of another former Schelldhardt employee, Joe Massey, Lana must unravel Grace’s fate and shape the ultimate destiny of the gap.

A new speculative thriller and sequel to The Path of Good Response.

 

What did I think?

The Gap is the sequel to The Path of Good Response and I would recommend reading the books in order otherwise it might feel like falling down the rabbit hole on acid.  It's a real mind-bender of a book and I was completely mesmerised from start to finish.

The Schelldhardt company is still going strong and Lana Carter plans to infiltrate the headquarters based on a ship to find out what happened to her sister Grace who used to work for Schelldhardt.  She needs the help of Joe Massey, who we met in book one, but Joe is more of a secondary character in this book.

It is so incredibly thought-provoking and quite scary to see how people's minds can be accessed and manipulated.  Yes, it's fiction but honestly I could totally see it happening in real life in the future.  We already rely on AI for many things but it did make me wonder how much we can trust AI and I would be both horrified and not surprised if our smart devices were hypnotising us in our sleep to access our memories.  YIKES!!!  I'll probably not sleep again now that I've thought of that.

The Gap is a very imaginative and highly original speculative thriller.  If you're looking for something different to read then look no further; this is a scarily realistic and action-packed thriller that I would highly recommend.

I received a gifted paperback to read and review for the Love Books Tours bookstagram tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from:

UK.Bookshop.org

Amazon

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BLOG TOUR: Paper Over It - Ruth Gresty

Jennifer Jones is in control.

Jen is confident she has complete control over the things that are trying to control her. Until she isn’t. Until she hasn’t. Until she realises she has never been in control at all. She’s been papering over it for years.

It's the start of the year 2000. A new millennium has arrived. For Jen and her three friends, university life in Manchester is full of possibility and endless fun. Sassiness, spontaneity, marvellous mayhem and youthful optimism reign in the Manchester rain.

But beneath the sometimes brash bravado sometimes even the most resilient, carefree, fun-loving characters who, on the surface look like they are living their best lives, are perilously close to falling apart. Over the course of one unforgettable year, the young women confront their own realities and truths. Some make foolish mistakes and others life changing choices.

Sometimes heartwarming and other times heartbreaking, but always brutally honest. This is a story of friendship, mistakes, self-discovery and acceptance; identity, love and the messy reality of becoming an adult. It's about the masks we wear, the mistakes and choices we make, and the courage it takes to stop papering over it and face ourselves when everything feels like it's falling apart.

It’s real, raw, raunchy, sometimes random and frankly rude at times. Just like Jen and her friends.

 

What did I think?

Paper Over It is a year in the life of four friends at the start of the new millennium.  Jen met Em, Lou and Kate at university in Manchester and although they are from different parts of the country and different walks of life, they have remained firm friends.

The book almost has its own playlist as each chapter lists a song that is relevant to what we have just read.  I loved seeing the theme song of each chapter and I found myself singing along (in my head) to some cracking tunes.  There are also some lovely excerpts from Winnie the Pooh that really demonstrates the ethos of friendship.

Although I'm a little older than Jen and her friends, it really took me back to my own experiences of the millennium year and stepping foot into working life for the first time.  It was both fun and scary and I think Ruth Gresty perfectly portrays this with the things that happen to Jen over the year.  Yes she makes mistakes, but some things that happened weren't her fault and I was so angry (with the other party) when her naivety allowed her to be taken advantage of.  It was just one more thing to paper over and forget it ever happened...but I hope things would be different nowadays.

It's a fantastic debut novel that is incredibly well written and the characters are so well developed I felt as if they were my own friends.  There are some serious subjects covered but they are handled sensitively and lightened somewhat by Ruth Gresty's sparkling wit.  I could totally see Paper Over It being made into a sitcom or mini series and I would certainly be adding it to my watchlist.

Incredibly nostalgic, entertaining and amusing, Paper Over It is a sharp and witty novel that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to readers of all genres.  It's a fabulous read and a stunning debut novel; Ruth Gresty is certainly one to watch and I'm looking forward to seeing what she writes next.

I received a gifted paperback for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from:

Amazon - paperback

Amazon - ebook

About the author: 

Ruth has worked in Marketing for twenty-seven years and has always loved writing and storytelling. Understanding people and their behaviour, creating stories that resonate and developing engaging and enduring narratives have all been key to success in her professional background.

From a personal perspective, Ruth is a Manchester born, bred and based menopausal mum of three boys (twelve, fifteen and twenty seven). She spends most of her weekends trying to manage the family mayhem with her partner Simon and watching their younger boys on the sideline of various sports pitches hunting for a loo (occasionally having to resort to a wild wee), a sausage sandwich and a brew while trying to keep warm in doubled-up big socks (mainly stolen from the males in her house) and multiple layers (having had it drilled into her since childhood that it is the number of layers that count, not the thickness of each layer - the complete opposite of friendships).

A nasty accident on Good (Bad) Friday in 2024 meant she spent several months sat on her arse with one leg having to be perpetually higher than said arse. As an energetic, self-confessed curator of chaos, she needed something to focus on and keep her from going frankly crazy. And keep her family from going crazy too. She found that you can’t do much when you're in acute pain with one leg in the air (including the jigsaws and ‘paint by numbers’ well-wishers had kindly gifted her). But you can read, reflect, think and you can definitely reminisce and daydream. And you can write. Which is what she did.

Her debut novel, Paper Over It, combines her sometimes over-enthusiastic imagination with insights gained from growing up in the 80s and becoming a young mum in the late 90s, her silent struggle with eating disorders in her earlier years, the power of some relationships and the destructive nature of others, and the joy of family, friendship, loyalty, hope and laughter.

Social Media Links – 

https://www.facebook.com/ruth.gresty

www.linkedin.com/in/ruth-gresty-6a336b9

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The Cartography of What Remains (The Going Back Series Book 1) - Eva Schep

She can go back. Not in memory. In fact.

Since Tomas died, Lena has made her life small enough to survive. The chipped cup on the left side of the sink. The bread folded twice. The keys in the bowl by the door.

And one impossible thing her grief allows.

She can step into the kitchen they shared and stand in the fixed afternoon light — close enough to count the threads at his cuff — watching her younger self refuse the coffee, the bread, the man across the table.

She goes back to gather evidence. Of his care. Of her failures. Of the small, ordinary cruelties that filled the last rooms of a love before a phone call ended it.

But nothing there can be undone, and the past is not a photograph. Each return wears it thinner. The edges go first — the jars on the shelf, the calendar by the fridge, the street beyond the window — while the centre stays unbearably clear. She is spending the one thing she cannot bear to lose.

And the living are waiting: a stubborn downstairs neighbour, a colleague’s dry kindness, and Noor, who mends damaged things behind a blue door two streets away and asks Lena for nothing. They can be lost by neglect as easily as the dead are lost by too much remembering.

The Cartography of What Remains asks what it costs to stop going back — and stay in the room you are actually in.

The Going Back Series — Book One. Each book stands alone.

 

What did I think?

I don't read a lot of literary fiction but I do like to push my boundaries and Eva Schep's The Cartography of What Remains caught my eye at just the right time.

I didn't really know what was going on at first but what I did know was that Lena was grieving and she was lonely.  It really broke my heart to see her stepping back into the kitchen and reliving such painful memories.  It was a very powerful image as Lena physically steps back into her memories rather than remember moments in a more positive light as their sharp edges get rounded off over time.

It is very well written and gently paced so it's a book to savour rather than devour.  I didn't study English Literature at school but I think it would have been beneficial to do so in order to fully appreciate the nuances of the narrative.

I also found it quite thought-provoking and a sobering reminder that we only get one shot at life.  It's like that old saying that you should never go to bed on argument so I think what Eva Schep is trying to tell us is that we should treat each conversation as if it was our last or we will have guilt to cope with as well as grief.

The Cartography of What Remains is a poignant and profound novel that gave me with food for thought and reminded me that life is not a rehearsal.  

Many thanks to Eva Schep for sending me a digital ARC to read and review; this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from:

Amazon