BLOG TOUR: The Conservatory (The Aunt Lily Yorkshire Dales Mysteries Book 1) - Anthony Aberford

Some secrets are best left buried; others are better never planted!

In a restored Victorian conservatory, four grieving women from the local wellness centre discover that their friend's mysterious death, amongst her toxic plants, was not an accident.

When eccentric homoeopath Aunt Lily arrives on her tricycle, she seems just the person to help uncover answers. But who is she really, and why is she there?

A sixteenth-century journal hidden in the conservatory holds dark secrets that could change everything. And an enigmatic stranger will stop at nothing to find it – making false promises and real threats.

Can the friends resist his temptations and unlock the book's hidden secrets in time? Do they have the strength to make an impossible choice before it is too late?

A creepy tale of intrigue and suspense, full of witty and charming characters, this brand-new cosy mystery novel is perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Jill Johnson and Janice Hallett who like their tea with a twist of tension.

 

What did I think?

I have to start my review of The Conservatory by mentioning the amazing cover.  It is absolutely stunning and it entices the reader to discover the dark but enchanting story inside.

Aunt Lily is a wonderful character; she is so mysterious, quirky and vividly described that she virtually pops out from the page.  Aunt Lily reminded me of Mary Poppins the way she turns up in such an unusual and unforgettable way so I loved her the moment I met her.  She has arrived just in time to help a group of women investigate the death of their friend.  It looked like an accident but it was murder!

The story is interspersed with extracts from a mysterious 16th century book and I loved how Anthony Aberford weaves this into the story.  It does get quite dark with almost a good versus evil tussle to get hold of the book and I really enjoyed this imaginative and tense supernatural element.

Incredibly intriguing and completely captivating, The Conservatory is a fantastic introduction to a new series and I can't wait to meet up with Aunt Lily again.  This is pure escapism and I loved it.

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

My rating:

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Hobeck Books

Amazon

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BOOKSTAGRAM TOUR: Sabbatical Part One: A Book of Short Stories - LS Delorme

In these pages, you'll find...

• A tender love story between a ghoul and a human
• A cosmetic possession
• An immortal teen finding a love lost for lifetimes
• The redemption of a trafficker
• The dangers of getting everything we want
• Blemishes that heal others
• An incubus and an assassin in the breach between stories
• The making of a siren ..and more.

For readers of the Limerent Series, you will learn more about some characters you already know and love. For new readers, these short stories are an entry point into the Limerent world.

 

What did I think?

I'm a fan of the Limerent Series so I really enjoyed this book of short stories by LS Delorme.  Sabbatical is a great introduction to this highly original series for any new readers and it's also a fabulous companion to the series for those of us who just can't get enough.

There's a great range of stories inside featuring some familiar characters from the series.  It is written in such a way that new readers will not be disadvantaged by not having read the earlier books but I'm sure they will want to read more.

As someone who doesn't read a lot of short stories, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Sabbatical.  Each story is beautifully written, entertaining and satisfying and perfect to dip in and out of, if you can stop yourself from reading 'just one more chapter'.

Quirky, mesmerising and original, Sabbatical is a fabulous collection of unusual and enjoyable short stories.  It's a must-read for fans of the Limerent Series.

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

My rating:

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UK

Amazon

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BOOKSTAGRAM TOUR: The Retired Assassin's Guide to Orchid Hunting (Retired Assassin's Guide, book 2) - Naomi Kuttner

 

Assassin. Gardener. Reluctant cat adoptee.

All Dante wants is to be left alone in the small New Zealand town no one’s heard of. No drama. No bodies. No questions.

But then, of course, the orchid convention comes to town, and Dante is knee deep in suspects, intrigue, and red herrings.

On top of all this, Dante must navigate a mysterious woman from his past, cat issues, and the terrifying prospect of a first date.

And he has to do it while fighting his instinct to solve problems the old-fashioned way: permanently.

The ‘Retired Assassin’s Guide to Orchid Hunting’ is a cosy paranormal mystery with found family, ghosts, a grumpy assassin and a sunshine gardener.

Come for the murder, stay for the cat, the gardens, and the chaos.

What did I think?

Well this was a fun read.  I didn't realise it was book two in the series when I picked it up but it can definitely be read as a standalone as I really enjoyed it.

Dante is the retired assassin and although he's moved to Te Kohe in New Zealand to get away from his past, he remains very alert to threats and isn't ready to hang up his weapons just yet.  I loved Dante and his lack of social skills - he's not good dealing with people as he has usually been sent to kill them.  It certainly makes dating very challenging (for Dante) and very amusing (for the reader).

I didn't feel lost at all, having not read the first book, as I quickly got to know Dante and his very small circle of friends.  They're a bit like the Scooby Gang as they investigate a murder with their own unique set of skills.  The plot thickens when the orchid convention comes to town and it is clear that collectors will do anything to get their hands on the rarest orchids.  

It's such an enjoyable read with an intriguing murder and a fantastic cast of characters that I want to read more about.  With a host of shady suspects, it's impossible to predict and I couldn't read fast enough to find out whodunnit.  I didn't guess right of course but I don't mind being wrong when there's such a breathtaking conclusion to experience.

Unusual, unpredictable and impossible to put down, The Retired Assassin's Guide to Orchid Hunting is an incredibly charming cosy mystery that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.  

I received a gifted paperback 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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The Many Seas to Guernsey - Catherine Taylor

 

In the last golden years before Europe erupts into WWII a young English writer and a German Roman Catholic priest-in-training meet by chance on the small British island of Guernsey – and are drawn into a forbidden, all-consuming love. Then history and duty intrude, forcing them to choose between complicity and courage in a fight for truth, freedom – and each other. A sweeping, morally complex love story that will stay with you long after the last page, from Catherine Taylor, author of no. 1 best seller Beyond The Moon, shortlisted for the Orion/eHarmony Love Story Prize and longlisted for the Exeter Novel Prize.

In 1936 Kitty Garland-Fry moves to Guernsey with her bohemian, artist parents and unruly siblings. Marooned amid her family’s chaotic lifestyle, Kitty, a passionate writer of fairy tales, fears she’ll die of boredom and frustration if she cannot find a life of her own. In Nazi Berlin, meanwhile, Lukas von Harnitz, an idealistic and devout Roman Catholic seminarian, is reluctantly leaving for Guernsey, too, forced to interrupt his priestly studies for a year to take his newly widowed English-born mother back home to safety. Fiercely anti-Nazi, he can’t help feeling he’s abandoning both his country and his calling at a moment of gathering darkness.

Two fish out of water together, Kitty and Lukas are drawn together in their shared loneliness. Bonding over poetry and books, their days unfold like a quiet, sunlit dream on white sand beaches beneath endless blue skies, sheltered from both the pull of responsibility and the gathering storm of war. But then friendship begins to deepen into something more, and Lukas is forced into a devastating choice between God and the woman he loves, while fate also compels Kitty onto a path that will take her into the very heart of Nazi Germany.

Charting the road to war from both the British and German perspectives, The Many Seas to Guernsey is an emotional, character-driven epic grappling with themes of faith, conscience and the power of love in an age of extremes. Moving from the secluded turquoise coves of Guernsey to the towering Bavarian Alps, then the Gestapo cells of pre-war Berlin and finally the hellish beaches of the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation, The Many Seas to Guernsey is the first in a planned duology and will appeal to fans of novels like All the Light We Cannot See, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Crooked Cross, The Nightingale, The Bronze Horseman and Atonement.

Catherine Taylor is a former journalist, starting off her career at the Guernsey Evening Press, and ending up at Dow Jones News, where she wrote for the newswire and The Wall Street Journal Europe. She was born and brought up on Guernsey, where her own family experienced the German occupation and evacuation, then went on to study German history and language, giving rise to a lifelong passion for the history of the two world wars. She lives in West London with her husband, two children and five cats.

**NB This story unfolds against the backdrop of Nazi Germany and the Second World War. It contains depictions of violence, imprisonment, war crimes, sexual abuse and themes of loss and grief that some readers may find distressing.

What did I think?

It's never easy to read books set in this period but I think it's important to be reminded of events in Nazi Germany leading up to the start of World War II.  The Many Seas to Guernsey leads us in gently starting with a idyllic island setting that is a stark contrast to the brutality and violence of pre-war Germany.

This is the story of Kitty and Lukas but it's not a traditional love story as Lukas is training to be priest.  It is clear that they are drawn to one another though and Lukas has to make a difficult choice between Kitty and God.  Kitty is part of a very unconventional family, which perhaps explains her willingness to take risks and travel so far from home and fate sees her crossing paths with Lukas once again.

The story is told in three parts covering 1936-1937, 1938-1939 and 1939-1940.  There is such a lot going on in such a short period of time and it's only the start of the war so there is worse to come.  It's good to have such relatable main characters to add some light and hope to the darkness of the storyline.

It's a very emotional story with shocking and devastating moments that really hit me where it hurts.  Catherine Taylor vividly recreates some of the horrific events leading up to the outbreak of war and it gave me chills when I was reading.  I was invested in the characters from the start so I felt every emotion with them and I admit to shedding a tear or two over the course of the book.

Haunting, poignant and powerful, The Many Seas to Guernsey is a vivid and emotional historical fiction novel that pulled at my heartstrings and kept me captivated.  I'm delighted that it's part of a duology and can't wait to read what happens next. 

I received a gifted paperback for the Tandem Collective readalong and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from:

Waterstones

Amazon

BLOG TOUR: Jan the Dutchman (Mike Kingdom Thrillers Book 6) - David Jarvis

When a deadly enemy from her past appears alive and well, can Michaela ‘Mike’ Kingdom finally face up to her demons?

On holiday in The Gambia, Terry Bailey is enjoying his retirement from MI6 when he receives a shock. He spots a man in a car. It’s a fleeting glimpse. But it’s enough. He swears it is Jan the Dutchman, a drug overlord linked to a Colombian cartel. It can’t be Jan, as Jan is dead. Terry should know, he killed him.

Only one other person knows that Terry killed Jan – Michaela ‘Mike’ Kingdom, a CIA analyst based in London. Seven years ago, Jan had orchestrated the ambush in Holland that had killed Mike’s husband Dylan leaving her severely injured.

Was Terry tilting at windmills, Dutch windmills, or was Jan really alive seeking revenge? Terry tells Mike about the sighting and it re-opens wounds they both thought were long-healed.

It is now the beginning of a race to find Mike’s nemesis. But where to start? All Mike knew for certain is that he was not called Jan and he wasn’t a Dutchman. Apart from that, the search should be straightforward, shouldn’t it?

Jan the Dutchman is a thought-provoking and gripping sixth geo-political thriller that will delight fans of Frederick Forsyth and Mick Herron.

 

What did I think?

I was late to the party where the Mike Kingdom thrillers are concerned as I jumped in at book five but it's definitely a case of better late than never as they are fantastic. Jan the Dutchman is book six in the series and it's an absolute belter.  I think you could read it as a standalone and you will be hooked on Mike's story, like I was with the previous book.

Mike (Michaela) thought Jan the Dutchman was dead after causing the death of her husband and leaving her injured.  Now Jan is back and wants to finish the job, which puts Mike in terrible danger.  With her wedding day just around the corner, will Mike and Wazz get to the registry office on time?

Wow!  I could not put this book down!  The pacing is blisteringly fast and the plot is sharper than a razor blade.  There is so much going on, but it never gets confusing, and I think I was gripping the book tighter and tighter when Mike started to get closer to identifying Jan and the danger levels ramped up.  That ending, though!  Chef's kiss, Mr Jarvis!

Exciting, suspenseful and highly original, Jan the Dutchman is an outstanding thriller that kept me riveted from first page to last.  A very highly recommended read that is sure to result in new fans of this magnificent series.

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

My rating:

Buy it from:

Hobeck Books

Amazon

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BLOG TOUR: Dangerous - Essie Fox

Fiction can be fatal… 

Living in exile in Venice, the disgraced Lord Byron revels in the freedoms of the city. But when he is associated with the deaths of local women, found with wounds to their throats, and then a novel called The Vampyre is published under his name, rumours begin to spread that Byron may be the murderer… 

As events escalate and tensions rise – and his own life is endangered, as well as those he holds most dear – Byron is forced to play detective, to discover who is really behind these heinous crimes. Meanwhile, the scandals of his own infamous past come back to haunt him… 

Rich in gothic atmosphere and drawing on real events and characters from Byron’s life, Dangerous is a riveting, dazzling historical thriller, as decadent, dark and seductive as the poet himself… 

 

What did I think?

I don't know a lot about Lord Byron, other than his links to County Durham town of Seaham, so I was very eager to read Dangerous by Essie Fox and I was not disappointed.  Based on real events, Essie Fox conjures a realistic and vivid Lord Byron with her mesmerising and evocative words and it was a pleasure to virtually meet him, albeit in Venice not Seaham.

The life of a 19th century poet is never dull and whilst he may spend a lot of his time with his head in the clouds, Byron leaves a trail of destruction, scandal and heartbreak in his wake.  It does seem like Byron doesn't live in the real world but he has to keep his wits about him when he accused of murder.

I really enjoyed all of the strands of the story from seeing Byron as a father with a menagerie of wild animals in his villa to the writer who is incensed when a story he considers mediocre is published under his name.  There are so many real details in the book that it is easy to forget that it is fiction and I found myself drawn to look further into the life of this fascinating and scandalous man.

Authentic, atmospheric and alluring, Dangerous is a deliciously dark reimagining of Lord Byron's life in Venice that led to him being described as 'mad, bad and dangerous to know' by one of his paramours.  It's beautifully written and well worth a read. 

I received a digital ARC to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from:

Orenda Books

UK.Bookshop.org

Amazon

About the author:

Essie Fox was born and raised in rural Herefordshire. After studying English Literature at Sheffield University, she moved to London where she worked for the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, and then George Allen & Unwin, before becoming self-employed in the world of art and design. Essie now spends her time writing historical gothic novels. Her debut, The Somnambulist, was shortlisted for the National Book Awards, and featured on Channel 4’s TV Book Club. The Last Days of Leda Grey, was selected as The Times Historical Book of the Month. Essie’s Victorian gothic novel, The Fascination, debuted at No 10 on the Sunday Times bestseller list. Her authorised retelling of Wuthering Heights also became an instant bestseller and sold 4000 copies in hardback in the first two weeks. Essie is also the creator of the popular blog: The Virtual Victorian and a podcast: Talking the Gothic. She has lectured at the V&A, and the National Gallery in London. She lives in Windsor. 

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Erased - Miha Mazzini

She Doesn't Exist.

Neither Does Her Baby.

Now What?

When a “software error” erases Zala from the system, she discovers that officially, she and her newborn don’t exist.

As Zala fights desperately to prove her existence, and save her child from adoption, she uncovers the Kafkaesque reality of Slovenia’s system — one that erased 25,671 citizens on February 26, 1992.

A chilling thriller about bureaucracy as violence, and one mother’s battle against the state. 

What did I think?

Oh my word, Erased by Miha Mazzini is an emotional and heartrending book that is astonishingly based on real events.  It just blew my mind that this could happen but also reminded me how easy it is to press the delete button on a keyboard.  I thought identity theft was scary but deletion of identity is even worse!  This isn't an imaginative dystopian novel; this deletion actually happened in Slovenia in 1992. Wow!

Zala is about to give birth to her first child so she attends her local hospital, only to be told that she doesn't exist on the computer system.  She is accused of being an illegal immigrant and presented with a bill for her hospital stay, oh and the hospital is keeping her baby.  I can only imagine what Zala felt like and I had feelings of shock, outrage and devastation as I followed every step of her journey as she fights for her baby and her identity.

It's an incredibly emotional read as I really felt for Zala as she is on her own.  She is a very strong character though and there's nothing more powerful than a mother fighting for her child.  Miha Mazzini's evocative writing brings Zala to life so the reader can't help but take her to their heart.  I actually forgot that it was a translated novel when I was reading it so I have to give a shout out to the impeccable translation by Gregor Timothy Čeh.

Shocking, disturbing and harrowing, Erased is a poignant and thought-provoking novel that really makes you think about your own electronic identity and how easily it could be erased.  I would highly recommend this outstanding book to readers of all genres.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from:

Fly on the Wall Press (use code BOOKMAGNET10 for 10% off)

UK.Bookshop.org

Amazon