The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond - Louise Davidson

After a terrible tragedy, governess Julia Pearlie finds herself with no job, home, or references. When she’s offered a position as companion to Miss Olivia Richmond, her luck appears to be turning. But Mistcoate House is full of secrets.

Olivia has a sinister reputation. The locals call her the Mistcoate Witch, thanks to her tarot readings, and her insistence that she can speak to the dead. Her father, Dr Richmond, believes this to be girlish fantasy and is looking to Julia to put a stop to it. 

Determined to prove herself and shake off her own murky history, Julia sets to work trying to help Olivia become a proper young lady. However, as she becomes a fixture at Mistcoate, it is soon clear that there may be more to Olivia’s stories than Dr Richmond would have Julia believe – not least because somehow, Olivia seems to know something of the darkness that Julia desperately hoped she had left behind.

As the danger grows, and the winter chill wraps around the dark woods surrounding Mistcoate, Julia will have to fight to uncover the truth, escape her past – and save herself.

Original and engrossing, this chilling Victorian Gothic ghost story is an outstanding piece of storytelling, perfect for fans of Sarah Perry, Erin Morgenstern and Jessie Burton.

 

What did I think?

The haunting cover of The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond gives the reader some idea as to how dark it is inside and this spinetingling historical gothic novel is a great book to read over the spooky season.

Julia Pearlie comes from a wealthy family but as a woman she is left penniless when her brother inherits the family's wealth.  Forced to take a job as a governess, Julia now works for people who should have been her peers.  Of course the reader can't help but wonder how good Julia is at her job with a transcript from a drowning inquest at the start of the book and this is a sad story that literally haunts her.

Mistcoate House has its very own witch in the form of Olivia Richmond and Julia has been offered the position as Olivia's companion.  I felt so sorry for Olivia, living with a father who cares naught for her, a grandfather with dementia and a housekeeper who seems far too close to her employer for my liking.  It's like a bubbling cauldron of intrigue and it had me completely riveted.

Set in the late 19th century, it explores the Victorian obsession with the occult and how the body works.  Dr Richmond isn't beyond using his own daughter for experimentation to secure funding, after all she's only a girl.  Olivia is a talented tarot card reader and she seems to know more about Julia's past than she ought to, including the identity of the ghostly boy who lingers around Julia.

Spooky, creepy and mesmerising, The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond is a wonderful piece of historical fiction with a dark, gothic edge.  Perfect reading for Halloween.

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

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My Brother's Keeper (DCI Rohan Roy Crime Thriller Book 1) - M.L. Rose

A missing child.

A killer on the loose.

A Detective with a deadly secret.

Detective Chief Inspector Rohan Roy is close to burning out. He works night and day in London to bring a human trafficking gang to justice, but when he unleashes his own particular brand of the law, his superiors take notice. He is ordered to take a sabbatical. To his horror, he is dispatched to Sheffield, a place he knows only vaguely. But this isn't any ordinary sabbatical. A child has gone missing in Sheffield, and the kidnapper has left a ransom note with a white Lily attached...

It seems the dreaded Lily Man is back, the brutal killer who took children, and sent white lilies to the parents. The Lily Man was never caught, and his victims were discovered dead.

But one victim, a seven year old boy called Robin Roy was never found. He was DCI Rohan Roy's brother. No one knows what happened to Robin. The guilt sticks to Roy like a second skin.

After twenty seven years, has the Lily Man returned?

Over the years, Roy has made a name for himself, tracking down child abductors. It's the only way he knows to atone for his guilt. Now, he must seize the chance for a final retribution. But nothing turns out to plan. Despite Roy and his new team's best efforts, there is no sign of the missing boy. Frictions spark up in the local community, and nothing is what it seems behind closed doors.

As the days slip by, Roy begins to fear the worst. Then another little boys disappears. Once again, a note and a white lily is left for the parents. The Lily Man strikes again, taunting Roy and his team.

Roy's sense of reality begins to unravel as the stress worsens. Will he catch the Lily Man before the town loses another child?

My Brother's Keeper is the riveting first book in the Rohan Roy Series. Written by the author of the Arla Baker Series, this gripping tale will keep you turning the pages late into the night. If you like deep secrets of the past, white knuckle plot twists with a sprinkling of humour and romance, you've come to the right place.

 

What did I think?

My Brother's Keeper is a very intriguing start to an exciting crime thriller series and it's a great contender for the Kindle Storyteller Award 2023.  I have to get one small niggle out of the way first though.  Whilst I really enjoyed the storyline and the tantalising thread that runs throughout that makes you want to read more of the series, it could do with a proofread as the errors were rather distracting.

I do love a flawed main character with secrets and DCI Rohan Roy certainly fits the bill.  Rohan blames himself for his brother Robin's disappearance 27 years ago when he was just a teenager.  It inspired him to join the force but the guilt and not knowing what happened to Robin have given him anger issues and he is sent to Sheffield to investigate a young boy's disappearance that bears a striking resemblance to his brother's cold case.  

I thought that I had worked out what was going on quite early on, but I am delighted to say that I was completely wrong.  I really like Rohan Roy, although I certainly wouldn't like to cross him, and I am keen to continue the series, especially the way that the book ends.  The ending is nicely done; it's not a massive cliffhanger that leaves you feeling unsatisfied as M.L. Rose finishes the main story nicely but leaves you wanting to know what happens next.   

Incredibly gripping, disturbing and fast paced, My Brother's Keeper is a riveting read and a tantalising start to an intriguing new series.

I received a copy to read and review for the Tandem Collective readalong and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

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BLOG TOUR: The Perfect Christmas Village - Bella Osborne

When Christmas-hating Sam moves to Holly Cross, he thinks he's found the perfect home, until he discovers that, each year, Holly Cross transforms into the most Christmassy village in the whole country...

Blythe is just one sale away from being Real Estate Agent of the Month, so she twists the truth to sell a home to city boy Sam, who is looking for the perfect house in the perfect location. Little does he know he's just bought a cottage in the middle of the most Christmassy village in the country. And if there's one thing Sam loathes, it's Christmas.

Sam's arrival puts Holly Cross's chance to win the title of Britain's Most Perfect Christmas Village now in jeopardy, and the villagers are soon up in arms. Meanwhile, Sam is in his own personal hell surrounded by fairy lights and everyone is looking to Blythe to fix things.

But as the festive season looms, maybe there's more than just Christmas in Holly Cross for Sam to fall in love with...

 

What did I think?

I didn't think it was possible to feel festive in October but The Perfect Christmas Village is so full of Christmas spirit that it was impossible to resist (virtually) joining in and I absolutely adored this wonderful book.

Blythe doesn't make the best first impression on me, although she has her reasons for being so competitive at work, and everyone knows that you take what an estate agent says with a pinch of salt.  So Sam only has himself to blame when he finds himself living in the most Christmassy village in Britain, as he really should have done his due diligence before signing on the dotted line.

I know some people can't understand other people who don't like Christmas but it's usually for a very good, and very personal, reason.  Blythe really annoyed me when she kept pushing Sam and making fun of him although she does redeem herself in the most heartwarming way that had me reaching for my tissues to dry my tears.

The community spirit of Holly Cross leaps out of the page and envelops the reader in a huge hug.  I felt as if I was part of this wonderful community and I really cared about what happened to them.  I also loved Turpin the cat and his ability to find new hiding positions - I think he is quite like Sam and just wants to hide away from the community Christmas spirit.

Fabulously festive and wonderfully uplifting, The Perfect Christmas Village is a delightful feelgood novel that completely warmed my heart.  I simply can't recommend it highly enough and I am already planning to visit Holly Cross again next year.

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

My rating:

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About the author:

Bella has been jotting down stories as far back as she can remember but decided that 2013 would be the year that she finished a full length novel. Since then she’s written nine best-selling romantic comedies, two best-selling bookclub reads and won the RNA Romantic Comedy Novel of the Year Award. 

Bella's stories are about friendship, love and coping with what life throws at you. She lives in Warwickshire, UK with her husband, daughter and a cat who thinks she’s a dog. When not writing Bella is usually eating custard creams and planning holidays.

For more about Bella, visit her website at www.bellaosborne.com or follow her on social media.

Social Media Links – 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/osborne_bella  

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/BellaOsborneAuthor/ 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bellaosborneauthor/

TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@bellaosborneauthor 

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The Rabbit Factor (Rabbit Factor Trilogy Book 1) - Antti Tuomainen (Author), David Hackston (Translator)

Just one spreadsheet away from chaos…

What makes life perfect? Insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen knows the answer because he calculates everything down to the very last decimal.

And then, for the first time, Henri is faced with the incalculable. After suddenly losing his job, Henri inherits an adventure park from his brother – its peculiar employees and troubling financial problems included. The worst of the financial issues appear to originate from big loans taken from criminal quarters … and some dangerous men are very keen to get their money back.

But what Henri really can't compute is love. In the adventure park, Henri crosses paths with Laura, an artist with a chequered past, and a joie de vivre and erratic lifestyle that bewilders him. As the criminals go to extreme lengths to collect their debts and as Henri's relationship with Laura deepens, he finds himself faced with situations and emotions that simply cannot be pinned down on his spreadsheets…

Warmly funny, rich with quirky characters and absurd situations, The Rabbit Factor is a triumph of a dark thriller, its tension matched only by its ability to make us rejoice in the beauty and random nature of life.

 

What did I think?

I've had my eye on The Rabbit Factor for a while and now that it is being made into a movie, I wanted to make sure that I read the book first.  This is going to be one heck of a movie if it's even half as good as the book.

I loved Henri, he's Mr Logic and relies on mathematical calculations to solve all of his problems.  When he inherits a run down adventure park (not an amusement park as he's fond of telling people) he also inherits his brother's debts.  The criminals who want their money back with interest think Henri will be a pushover but they have seriously miscalculated.

The whole setting in the adventure park is fantastic and I could totally picture it in my head, thanks to the big rabbit on the front of the book of course.  There's a strange bunch of people employed there and Henri finds himself drawn to one of them as the find they have a shared interest in art.  Henri's relationship with Laura was so lovely to read as Henri is so naïve when it comes to the opposite sex.

The Rabbit Factor is a delightfully quirky comedy crime caper with the most unlikely and endearing protagonist.  I will definitely be picking up the other books in the series to continue Henri's adventure.

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

My rating:

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BLOG TOUR: The Puppet Maker (Detective Alana Mack Book 1) - Jenny O'Brien

The scrap of paper looked as if it had been torn from a diary. The words written in faint pencil. The letters rounded, almost childlike: Please look after her. Her life and mine depend on you not trying to find me. 

 

When Detective Alana Mack arrives at Clonabee police station, in a small Irish seaside town on the outskirts of Dublin, she doesn't expect to find a distressed two-year-old girl sobbing on the floor. Abandoned in a local supermarket, the child tells them her name is Casey. All Alana and her team have to go on is a crumpled note begging for someone to look after her little girl. This mother doesn't want to be found. 

 

Still recovering from a terrible accident that has left Alana navigating a new life as a wheelchair user, Alana finds herself suddenly responsible for Casey while trying to track down the missing mother and solve another missing person's case… a retired newsagent who has seemingly vanished from his home.

 

Forced to ask her ex-husband and child psychiatrist Colm for help, through Forensic Art Therapy, Alana discovers that whatever darkness lies behind the black windows in Casey's crayon drawing, the little girl was terrified of the house she lived in. 

 

Then a bag of human remains is found in a bin, and a chilling link is made – the DNA matches Casey's. 

 

Alana and her team must find the body and make the connection with the missing newsagent fast if she is to prevent another life from being taken. But with someone in her department leaking confidential details of the investigation to the media, can Alana set aside her emotional involvement in this case and find Casey’s mother and the killer before it's too late? 

 

Heart-pounding and totally addictive, The Puppet Maker is the first in the Detective Alana Mack series that will have fans of Ann Cleeves, Angela Marsons and LJ Ross racing through the pages late into the night. 

 

What did I think?

Oh this book chilled me to the bone and I absolutely loved it.  The Puppet Maker is the first book in an exciting new police procedural series starring Detective Alana Mack and I can't wait to read more so I hope Jenny O'Brien is a fast writer.

Alana knows all about prejudice in the workplace as her boss is a blatant misogynist and not only is Alana female, she's also disabled.  Alana may have steel wheels but she also has a rod of steel for a backbone and she is a strong and inspirational team leader.  So you don't want to be in the shoes of the mole in Alana's team when she finds out who is leaking information to the press.

There's a lot going on in the story to keep the reader hooked and the police busy.  There's the heartbreaking story of a little girl abandoned in a supermarket, a gruesome discovery in a bin and a missing person.  All seemingly unrelated...or are they?

Just thinking about the 'puppet maker' makes my skin crawl but I also felt really sad as it just shows how things that happen in your childhood can leave very deep scars.  I liked the way that Jenny O'Brien showed different sides of the perpetrator, almost humanising them without excusing their heinous crimes.

The Puppet Maker is a chilling, heartbreaking and very gripping police procedural novel with characters that I can't wait to meet again.  This may be my first Jenny O'Brien book but it certainly won't be my last.   Very highly recommended.

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

My rating:

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About the author:

Born in Dublin, Jenny O'Brien moved to Wales and then Guernsey, where she tries to find time to write in between working as a nurse and ferrying around 3 teenagers. 

In her spare time she can be found frowning at her wonky cakes and even wonkier breads. You'll be pleased to note she won't be entering Bake-Off. She's also an all-year-round sea swimmer.

Jenny is represented by Nicola Barr of The Bent Agency and published by Storm Publishing and HQ Digital (Harper Collins).

Social Media Links:

Twitter: @ScribblerJB

Instagram: @scribblerjb 

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BLOG TOUR: Fatal Blow (DC Mel Cotton Crime Series 4) - Brian Price

A shattering revenge attack

Mexton’s Major Crimes team is targeted by an Albanian crime gang as an explosion rips through the unit’s base.

For DC Mel Cotton – the attack is all too personal

DC Tom Ferris is seriously injured in the blast. His fiancée, Mel, maybe physically unharmed but she’s dealing with wounds you can’t see. She’s determined to return to work, but is she ready?

Death on her doorstep

Mel’s latest case is close to home – investigating a body found in her and Tom’s garden, the body of someone last heard of in Australia. Can she catch the murderer? And can anyone stop the Albanian crime gang on their ruthless campaign of revenge?

 

What did I think?

I didn't think Brian Price could get better after reading Fatal Dose, the fantastic third book in the DC Mel Cotton Crime series, but he's only gone and outdone himself again!  Fatal Blow is the fourth book in this outstanding series and it can be read as a standalone as it has its own contained storyline, but it's even better when read as part of the series.

It has such an explosive start that it did actually take my breath away and I physically gasped out loud.  These wonderful characters feel like my friends and I really care what happens to them.  The danger level is ramped up to maximum with an Albanian gang targeting the police, especially when some members of the force have targets on their back.

DC Mel Cotton wants to finally rid Mexton of this dangerous gang but she has a case that is a little closer to home when a body is found in her own garden.  I absolutely loved this part of the storyline as the Fearon siblings are all interviewed and they clearly have something to hide but they are sticking together like glue.

Brian Price brings the police investigation to life with his meticulous attention to detail and I felt as if I was part of the various police investigations.  The character development over the series is wonderful to behold and they're so realistic and true to life that I almost have to remind myself that I'm reading fiction.

Fatal Blow is another outstanding instalment in this fantastic series.  It's a gripping, fast-paced and tense police procedural that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.

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

My rating:

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BLOG TOUR: Can I Trust You? - Rob Gittins

Twenty years ago, his daughter vanished.

He was the last person to see her.

Twenty years to the day, a second girl vanishes.

He’s the last person to see her too.

Axel Petersen’s life implodes as his teenage daughter disappears. For twenty years, there’s no clue as to where she is, or what’s happened to her.

Exactly twenty years later, Axel meets a girl of around the same age his daughter was on the day she disappeared on a train. On jointly alighting at the final stop on the small rural line, he offers her a lift to her holiday cottage. Then that girl disappears too.

Axel plunges into the search for this second missing girl. Along the way he becomes increasingly convinced there’s a strong connection between the present-day disappearance and the twenty-year-old mystery – and he’s right, although in ways he can hardly begin to imagine.

 

What did I think?

Oh this book is SO good; there are so many tangled threads to untangle that you simply can't trust anyone.  With two missing girls, 20 years apart, the pacing is electric as they're clearly linked but I had no idea how.

It's 20 years since Axel's daughter Cara went missing and not a day goes by where he doesn't think about her, so imagine his surprise when he sees Cara on his train.  Only it's not Cara, but a young girl around the age Cara was when she disappeared.  The girl is stranded at the station and Axel offers her a lift to ensure that she gets to her destination safely, but after he drops her off, she disappears...leaving Axel as the prime suspect.

The two-fold mystery had me on the edge of my seat and my eyes were zipping down the page as fast as lightning.  It's so tense, dramatic and completely riveting and I had no idea what had happened to either girl but I pretty much suspected everyone in the book at one point or another.  I loved how it all came together at the end when everything is revealed.

Axel owns a bookshop so there are some lovely passages about books, particularly one where Axel explains to Cara about books having a soul, but not just one soul as it has the soul of the author as well as the souls every person who has read it.  This is a stunningly beautiful thought and one I completely agree with.

With more WTF moments than Gordon Ramsay's kitchen, Can I Trust You? is a superb psychological thriller that really got under my skin and inside my mind.  I absolutely devoured it and loved every second of it.  A highly recommended read.

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

My rating:

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