Hera by Jennifer Saint ~Blog Tour

 Publisher: Wildfire

Publication Date: 23rd May 2024

Genre: Myths/Historical Fiction

Summary:

When Hera, immortal goddess and daughter of the ancient Titan Cronus, helps her brother Zeus to overthrow their tyrannical father, she dreams of ruling at his side.

As they establish their reign on Mount Olympus, Hera suspects that Zeus might be just as ruthless and cruel as the father they betrayed.

She was always born to rule, but must she lose herself in perpetuating this cycle of violence and cruelty? Or can she find a way to forge a better world?

Often portrayed as the jealous wife or the wicked stepmother, this retelling captures the many sides of Hera, vengeful when she needs to be but also compassionate and most importantly, an all-powerful queen to the gods.

Review:
Firstly thank you to Random Things Book Tours, Wildfire and Jennifer Saint for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book.
I knew I'd love this book before I'd even read it, there hasn't been a Jennifer Saint book that I haven't loved, she's one of my auto-buy authors!
Now that's out of the way let me tell you why Hera is just fantastic. For a start, the cover is just stunning! It's so beautifully eye-catching and if you take the sleeve off the hardback it's a gorgeous purple on the inside, and we have beautiful peacocks on the inside, I've loved all the covers of her books but I think this one is by far my favourite. Inside we have an amazingly written book, Jennifer Saint just has such a way of writing Greek Mythology retellings, everything flows so beautifully that you easily get absorbed in the book and happily lose hours reading it and I spent hours reading and finishing this book in a day. I couldn't bear to put it down, we get to know Hera in her own words rather than the typical narrative of through tales of heroes. It completely changed my opinion of her! I could never understand why in all the mythology she took her anger out on the women that Zeus cheated on her with when he tricked them into being with him, they were just as much victims as she was. But the way that Jennifer Saint has written Hera and shown us why she might have done that, it now makes sense to me why she chose that path. She's far more than the vengeful Queen of the gods that we've all come to know her as and I think now when I read the mythology I'm going to be seeing them in a very different light.
Every woman that Jennifer Saint has chosen to write about has been a brilliant, largely forgotten about or misrepresented woman of Greek Mythology and I can't wait to see who she's going to write about next because she has so many choices and I know whoever she picks is going to get a fabulous retelling.

Krystina xx

Conditions Are Different After Dark by Owen W Knight ~Blog Tour

 Publisher: Burton Mayers Books 

Publication Date: 26th April 2024

Genre: Contemporary Horror

Summary:

In 1660, a man is wrongly executed for signing the death warrant of Charles I. While awaiting execution, he asks to speak with a priest, to whom he declares a curse on the village that betrayed him. The priest responds with a counter-curse, leaving just one option to nullify it.

Over four centuries later, Faith and James move to the country to start a new life and a family. They learn that their village lives under the curse uttered by the hanged man. Could their arrival be connected?

Faith and James fear that their choice of a new home is no coincidence. Unexplained events hint at threats or warnings to leave, including the slaughter of their hens, an attic break-in and other menacing incidents. They become convinced the village continues to live under the curse despite denials from their new friends.

Who can they trust, and who are potential enemies?

Review:
Firstly thank you to Love Books Tours, Burton Mayers Books and Owen W. Knight for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book.
Ok so I really loved the sound of this book, it had the horror mixed with history vibe on the blurb and those are two of my favourite things so I was really excited to get stuck into this and the cover gave just the right amount of spooky vibes so I was looking forward to getting that from the book.
Unfortunately, the promise that the cover and blurb gave me didn't quite translate into the book for me. I found the writing style rather clunky and that combined with it being written as if someone is watching and commenting on the goings-on made it really difficult for me to get drawn into the story so I found myself putting it down with regularity and having to make myself come back to reading it. And I really struggled with our MC's Faith and James, I didn't find them very engaging characters and that combined with the fact that their conversations felt very business-like, they really feel like business partners rather than a couple in love the interactions between them held no affection in my opinion, meant I found them quite boring people to follow.
Most of the conversations throughout the book didnt have much in the way of emotion, it did feel like they were only included a lot of the time to get information to the reader in a very obvious way and that meant they came across as rather stilted and sometimes interview like rather than a realistic conversation between neighbours or new friends. I kept waiting to hear more about the curse after the prologue, I really wish that it had been longer because we then don't get any more about the curse until page 122 and I really wanted more about it then but its sort of half mentioned and then we get the full details very close to the end of the book and it felt a little rushed to me, I wanted more from it.
It's very clear that the author has done a good deal of research before starting this book, and that does come through and I really appreciate that I do enjoy reading a historical-based book that has been researched.
I did finish this book, partly because I was on the tour for it and partly to see if the ending lived up to the promise from the blurb, and I kind of felt it was quite predictable i really had hoped for more from it.
To me, this didn't feel like a horror book but I have seen people saying it's a folk horror so maybe if that is something you enjoy give it a go. 

Krystina xx

Love Beyond Lindisfarne by Kimberley Adams ~Blog Tour

 

Publisher: Shy Bairns Publishing

Publication Date: 22nd May 2024

Genre: Romance

Summary:

Take a spring to summer trip to magical Northumberland and find love and laughter in this feel-good romantic comedy, which will transport you to the iconic island of Lindisfarne and beyond…

Ellie, and Zen with the coffee-bean eyes, met at Christmas when she came to Northumberland to look after rescue animals. They are taking their first tentative steps into a love-at-first-sight relationship and all in their spring garden should be wonderful.

Notification of a death of one of the island’s stalwarts comes as a shock and the island is plunged into mourning, and when Lady Grace takes ill, life at the castle changes overnight, and not for the better. The new custodian and his fiancée have plans, and the islanders are far from happy, especially as it affects their own.

The news that the filming of a reality show is to take place and that the animals must move out of their yard due to the Queen of the Castle production company taking over, really is the final straw.

Can Zen and Ellie navigate their new life together? Will the residents be able to return to cosy Courtyard Cottage? Can the castle and estate survive the new regime?

Review:
Firstly thank you to Rachels Random Resources, Shy Bairns Publishing and Kimberley Adams for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book.

I was so happy to see a sequel to  Love Lindisfarne because I absolutely adored that book when I read it last Christmas and I really hoped we'd see more of Zen,Ellie and the islanders.
We had a really unexpected start to the book and I have to say that I really loved that opening, it took me by surprise but I ended up laughing out loud at parts because I could just see these characters coming to life and watch the scene unfold in front of me. We step straight back into Island life and it's like having a warm hug or being settled in that cosy chair by the fire, it just feels good to be there amongst all these familiar faces. Once again Ethel is a star character for me, she is just the life and soul of island life and every party on it, she has been the cause of pretty much every single laugh-out-loud moment I've had in this book, she just brings such joy onto the page. But every character steps out off the page for me, even the ones we all love to hate (step forward Isla!) because Kimberly Adams has created such well-rounded characters that you can picture them vividly almost as if they're standing in front of you telling you this over coffee instead of you reading it.
There are so many characters that I really hope we might get a book about in the future, I'm at least hoping we may get more to this series because I've fallen in love with them all and both books in this series have made me want to take a drive back to Holy Island and stay for a while.
If you're looking for a nice summer read to take away with you definitely add this to your list!

Krystina xx

On The Horns of Death by Eleanor Kuhns ~Blog Tour

 

Publisher: Severn House

Publication Date: 2nd April 2024

Genre: Mystery

Summary:

Ancient Crete, 1450 BC. Young bull leaper Martis finds Duzi, the newest member of the bull leaping team, dead in the bull pen early one morning. Made to look like he met his end on the horns of the bull, it's clear to Martis that this was no accident . . .

Martis once again finds herself thrown into a dangerous game of hunting down a murderer as the deaths start to mount. An old friend of Martis' sister, and possible lover to Duzi, is the next person to be found dead, and Martis' investigations lead her to believe love and jealousy are at the heart of these crimes against the Goddess.

Is someone targeting the bull leaping community? Or is there something else at play? With only the Shade of her sister Arge to confide in, Martis struggles to untangle the growing web of secrets which stretches around her.

Review:
Firstly thank you to Partners in Crime Book Tours, Severn House Publishing and Eleanor Kuhns for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book.
I was drawn to this book to being with because it is set in ancient Crete, now I'm a nerd of history we all know this by now so that should be no surprise, and Ancient Crete is somewhere where my knowledge is contained to the minotaur myth and the fact that we have drawings depicting them jumping over bulls. So I was really looking forward to hopefully finding out more about this section of history.
It is a brilliantly written book, I really felt like we stepped back into the period from the opening pages. The descriptions of the caves and bull leaping training were so evocative, Eleanor Kuhns use of all the senses when writing really helps you visualise the scene.
I really loved Martis as our MC she was so brilliant for driving the story forward and generally she was such an interesting character. I loved seeing her different relationships with the other characters, and how she had to navigate the different social and occasionally political situations that those other characters brought with them. It was a really interesting way to explain Cretian society and how it worked without having to have a section at the beginning giving us a history lesson. Having said that I love love loved the author's note at the back explaining various things mentioned within the book, such as the bull leaping which fascinates me.
I loved this book, I read it in a day which was really lovely to do and when I got to the end I didn't want it to end. I am definitely going to get the first book in the series and I'm hoping that we get to book three soon because I can't wait to see what Martis gets caught up in next. Now you don't have to take my word on how brilliant it is, I'm going to pop a little excerpt below so you can get as caught up in it as I did.

Krystina xx

                                                                On the Horns of Death

By Eleanor Kuhns

One

Late again, I hurried down the stony slope into the caves under Knossos. Even from the top of the twisty path, I could hear the grunting and the nervous kicking of cage walls by agitated bulls. I increased my pace despite the slippery footing. I could smell the thick coppery scent of blood, far more intense than the usual odor of damp rock. Why was there blood? Something terrible was happening.

The oil lamps in the center of the cave cast a dim smoky light, but there were several, enough to see by. Although all the bulls were restless, most of the bull leapers were crowded around the foremost pen. ‘What’s going on?’ I asked Arphaia and Obelix as I reached the stone floor. Arphaia and Obelix had helped fill the hole left by the loss of my sisters.

Arphaia rolled her eyes at me and shrugged. ‘Don’t know.’ A short, sturdy girl, her skin was the color of ripe figs. Obelix was taller and paler and so slim she looked like a boy from the back. Like me, they’d tied their hair back into braids. ‘I’m busy here,’ Arphaia continued. She was helping Obelix pull her skirt over her loincloth, and I guessed the older girl had unexpectedly gotten her monthly. It was always an inconvenience for us women on the team.

‘Can I help?’

Arphaia shook her head. Glad to be excused – I was burning with curiosity – I hurried across the stone floor toward the cluster of older bull dancers by the cage. Ready for the upcoming ceremony, they wore only loincloths and boots.

‘Something upset the bulls,’ Geos said with a frown, running a hand over his bald head. He had trained all of us.

‘Especially the bull chosen for sacrifice . . .’ Elemon glanced anxiously at the pen. He was the most experienced of us but a recent injury had left him skittish.

I dropped my metal belt on the floor with a clatter and went to join the team. The bull in the pen was white – a pure white like the foam that came ashore from the sea. The largest and strongest of them all, he’d been chosen for our performance at the Harvest Festival today. After the six days of the celebration, he would be sacrificed to the Goddess. Other sacrifices would be made through out to the Dying God to thank him for the grape harvest, and the wine he’d taught us how to make. But this bull, the greatest of all, would be sacrificed last.

I approached the pen. The strikes against the wooden planks had loosened several. I tried to squeeze into the throng at the front, but no one would move away to let me through. I went around to the side and peered through a crack.

The white bull was trotting around the pen, lashing his tail, kicking up his front feet and grunting angrily. But he did not come near this side. Hmm. Why not? I crouched down to peer through a larger gap at the bottom.

And there, right in front of me, was the body of a man. I gasped and fell back. ‘Geos,’ I said in a trembling voice. When he did not hear me, I raised my voice. ‘Geos.’

‘What, Martis?’ He sounded harried.

‘Come here. There is a body inside the pen.’

‘What? Who is it?’

‘I don’t know.’ I shook my head. I hadn’t wanted to look. The body appeared to have been both gored and trampled by the bull. ‘I think this is why the bull is so nervous . . .’

Geos came around the corner. Although, at sixteen, I stood taller than him by several inches, now he stared down at me sitting on the rock floor.

‘Are you sure?’ He sounded disbelieving. ‘Why would anyone join a bull in the pen? These are not tame animals.’

‘I don’t know.’ I scooted backwards so he could crouch down beside me. Groaning, he lowered himself first to one knee and then to the other. Cautiously, using both hands, he collapsed to a sitting position. From there, he looked through the breach between the weathered wooden boards.

‘By the Goddess,’ he muttered, ‘you’re right. How could this happen!’ He struggled to rise. ‘We’ve got to get that body out of there. None of the bulls will settle . . .’

Turning, Geos shouted at the other bull dancers. ‘One of you, go find Tinos.’

As the High Priestess’s consort and the wanax who served as the chief administrator of Knossos and its environs, Tinos would be responsible for investigating this tragedy.

I rose shakily to my feet and peered into the pen next to the one occupied by the white auroch. This one was empty. Glad to have a problem to focus on, I said, ‘Maybe we can put the bull in here. And this wall’ – I gestured to the partition we’d been looking through – ‘is already damaged.’

Geos glanced into the empty pen and then turned his gaze on the battered fence. ‘Perhaps. But first we need to pull the body out. Once that is gone, maybe the bull will settle down.’

By now, the other bull dancers had joined us. Elemon shouldered me out of the way. ‘The boards are already damaged,’ he said. ‘Maybe we can pull them away and slide the body through.’

Geos nodded and his eyes shifted to the pen behind me. ‘We can take some of those pieces and use them to barricade the hole afterwards.’ As Elemon wrenched the boards away from the cage bottom, Tryphone grabbed the victim’s arm to pull him through. After a few seconds of futile struggle, Thaos, one of the other men, knelt down to help him. The body awkwardly inched forward.

Mary I Queen of Sorrows by Alison Weir ~Blog Tour

Publisher: Headline Review

Publication Date: 9th May 2024

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary:

A DESTINY REWRITTEN. A ROYAL HEART DIVIDED.

Adored only child of Henry VIII and his Queen, Katherine of Aragon, Princess Mary is raised in the golden splendour of her father's court. But the King wants a son and heir.

With her parents' marriage, and England, in crisis, Mary's perfect world begins to fall apart. Exiled from the court and her beloved mother, she seeks solace in her faith, praying for her father to bring her home. But when the King does promise to restore her to favour, his love comes with a condition.

The choice Mary faces will haunt her for years to come - in her allegiances, her marriage and her own fight for the crown. Can she become the queen she was born to be?

MARY I. HER STORY.

Review:
Firstly thank you to Random Things Book Tours, Headline Review and Alison Weir for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book.
Now anyone who knows me knows I love Alison Weirs' books, fiction and nonfiction alike i will happily devour her books. And I've loved the other books in this trilogy, as always Alison Weir delivers when it comes to historical fact with her ideas of what thoughts might have been going around their heads at the time. I'm really pleased that she chose Mary for this book rather than Elizabeth or Edward ( though a book from either point of view of course would be brilliant) because Mary often has a bad reputation, especially with her moniker of "Bloody" Mary when in reality I think both of her siblings cause more deaths during their reigns than she did. So I really wanted to get that whole period from "the king's great matter"  to her eventual death from her perspective because we mostly get it from the Mary was bad/evil point of view and I really don't believe she was, not wholly.
As always Alison Weir's writing style is beautiful, it is so easy to read and flows beautifully across the page, I can so easily get drawn into the time period and fully see the scene she creates in my mind's eye like I'm looking back in time.
The book makes you look at Mary I from a different angle, yes she was a religious zealot and firmly believed that she was doing God's work burning heretics but she was also a child who suffered a lot of trauma in her formative years and who had a lasting effect on her and choices from that point onwards.
If you love the Tudor period then I definitely recommend picking this book(and trilogy) up and on a side note, the covers for this series are stunning.

Krystina xx

 

Love,Julie by Jamie Anderson~Blog Tour

 Publisher: TRM Publishing

Publication Date: 29th April 2024

Genre: RomCom

Summary:

Once, Julie dreamed of a life filled with love and laughter. Now, in her mid-forties, she faces a starkly different reality. She's single, lonely, and reeling from breaking her hard-earned sobriety in front of her family and friends.

Opting for self-recovery over romance, Julie dives into planning her best friend Kate’s wedding. However, sharing this task with the irritatingly cheerful best man, single dad Luke, proves to be an unexpected challenge.

As Luke’s persistent kindness chips away at her icy exterior, a friendship forms, stirring a longing she’d sworn to suppress. But with self-forgiveness as her biggest hurdle, and her past ready to sabotage her future, can Julie confront the shame and trauma that have darkened so much of her life and find the courage to love again? Or will her demons shatter both her and Luke’s hearts in the process?

Review:
Firstly thank you to Rchels Random Resources, TRM Publishing and Jamie Anderson for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book.
Ok so I found this book a little slow to begin with but I think that's because when we first meet Julie she was not exactly being the most likeable of people and until I got to know her a bit that put me off her. Once we got to know Julie a little more I really loved her, She is such a relatable character because she isn't perfect, she has moments where the reader just won't like her because of her actions and I absolutely loved that about her. She never thinks she's perfect and she completely owns her flaws and I really enjoyed that Jamie Anderson has written her like that.
I really loved the emails that broke up the chapters, we kept getting hints about Julie and Luke's friendship having a bump in it from them but we don't get to find out why until much later but those emails just drove me to want to read quicker to find out what she did!
I found Julie and Luke's interactions together so cute, I thought they fit together so well despite seeming such opposites and the changing dynamic in their friendship/relationship felt really organic and I loved it. I really loved seeing how Julie's relationships with everyone in her life changed over the course of the book and she had a really fulfilling character arc, i saw so much growth from her from beginning to end. I definitely think I'm going to look for more books by Jamie Anderson because she writes very realistic and relatable characters and gives them some heady issues to resolve throughout the book. Whilst this is listed as a RomCom I'm not sure that's what it is, we do get the romance running throughout it but it feels so much more than that and I think it does it a disservice to list it as one.

Krystina xx

Finding Happiness When It Hurts by Lisa Brett~Blog Tour

 Publisher: Compass-Publishing UK

Publication Date: 17th November 2022

Genre: Self Help

Summary:

Discover the hidden blessings within these pages to unlock your inner joy

By the time Lisa realised she was in the grip of enormous, life-transforming emotional pain, she was in no position to help herself get out of it. That was until a chance meeting with someone in a field changed everything.

She now wants to help others who find themselves in the same situation and who fear they’ll never be happy again.

This book reveals that not only is happiness within reach but also you can change your life for the better immediately. It provides comfort, reassurance that you’re not alone, and practical ways to help you flip how you see and think about dark moments.

Storytelling, nuggets of wisdom and beautiful illustrations gently but profoundly lead you along the path where happiness is the final destination.

There are also real-life stories from people around the world who, in the darkest of places, found hidden blessings that led them to feel at peace and to be happy and fulfilled once again.

Lisa’s aim is that this becomes your go-to book in time of need.

Review:
Firstly thank you to Random Things Book Tours, Compass Publishing UK and Lisa Brett for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book.
I was really looking forward to this book, it sounded like it would be really good for helping during moments when you needed to see a silver lining in situations.
I'm not sure it's a book that was meant to be read from cover to cover unfortunately, but that is how I read it. Reading it in one go makes for a very disjointed read, it was very jarring at times and that made me want to skip through passages and move along to the next story. I definitely got the point of the book, that even in the worst of situations there can be something good to come from it and that's what you need to focus on instead of the bad thing that's occurred, which is a pretty good way to look at life and far more positive way than dwelling on the bad. But maybe it's a case of reading the relevant story/section and taking the message from it.
I do love that she gathered people's stories together for the book and kind of put them into sections but I'm not sure they all fit together in one book, it didn't feel like a cohesive book.
The sections written by Lisa were well written, I liked how she did the conversations between characters which was really interesting. 
But overall I'm not sure this is the book for me, though I do think that maybe it's because I read it in one go.

Krystina xx

Murder at Ravens Edge by Louise Marley ~ Blog Tour

 Publisher: Storm Publishing 

Publication Date: 15th April 2024

Genre: Cosy Mystery

Summary:

When Milla Graham returns to her childhood home of Raven's Edge after eighteen long years away, she finds the perfect English village looks much the same – all rose-covered cottages, nosy neighbours, and chintzy teashops full of scones and gossip.

But her nostalgic visit takes a dark turn when the body of a local woman is discovered in an abandoned manor house on the edge of the forest. The murder scene is chillingly close to that of Milla’s own mother, whose death was never solved. As she begins to investigate the connection, Milla realizes this adorable village is guarding some dark secrets.

Handsome, grumpy local policeman Ben Taylor doesn't believe in coincidences, and he doesn’t think mysterious newcomer Milla Graham is as innocent as she seems. Why is she really here in Raven’s Edge, and how come she keeps turning up at his crime scenes, causing trouble? Can he solve this murder case without losing himself – or his heart – to the rather distracting Miss Graham?

When another body is found, everyone becomes a suspect – from the barmaid at the local pub to Milla Graham herself. It seems that in Raven's Edge, not everybody is as friendly, or as innocent, as they first seem...

Review:
Firstly thank you to Rachels Random Resources, Storm Publishing and Louise Marley for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book.
I do love a cosy mystery so I was really glad to get not just this one in the series but book 2 (that review is coming later this week) I've not read anything by Louise Marley before but very quickly into reading this I know ill be coming back for more.
I seriously love Ben Taylor, he's such a grumpy man and I always find they make the best characters in books i don't know what it is about a grump but they always make my day! And I found myself laughing and smiling at him on a regular basis, I love his relationship with Harriet and how they bounce off each other and have some banter, it definitely makes their scenes fun even when they're on the serious side. I enjoyed the fact that he had secrets that he worked hard to keep hidden, i think it makes him compliment Milla in a way, neither one being overly truthful in their encounters. On the Milla front, she was another interesting character, I was never quite sure if she was who she said she was, I kept flip-flopping between believing her and not.
It's been one of those books that I've just wanted to keep reading, just curl up and ignore this world in favour of theirs with all the murder that comes along with it. Louise Marley has a brilliant writing style that flows so well and just keeps you engaged with the story. 
Definitely not off to go read book 2 now....

Krystina xx

One Of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole ~Blog Tour

 Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

Publication Date: 25th April 2024

Genre: Thriller

Summary:

Years after a breakdown and a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder derailed her historical preservationist career, Kenetria Nash and her alters have been given a second chance they can’t refuse: a position as resident caretaker of a historic home. Having been dormant for years, Ken has no idea what led them to this isolated Hudson River island, but she’s determined not to ruin their opportunity.

Then a surprise visit from the home’s conservation trust just as a Nor’easter bears down on the island disrupts her newfound life, leaving Ken trapped with a group of possibly dangerous strangers—including the man who brought her life tumbling down years earlier. When he turns up dead, Ken is the prime suspect.

Caught in a web of secrets and in a race against time, Ken and her alters must band together to prove their innocence and discover the truth of Kavanaugh Island—and their own past—or they risk losing not only their future, but their life.

Review:
Firstly thank you to Random Things Book Tours, William Morrow Paperbacks and Alyssa Cole for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book.
This had me hooked, I seriously didn't want to put it down! I'll admit it took me a chapter to get used to all the changing of the different Headmates, and I used the Bad Day System list at the front of the book a lot to keep track of who was who but after a while it was automatic. And I loved how Alyssa Close signified the different conversations occurring, she made it so clear and easy to follow so I always knew when Ken was talking internally to a Headmate without having to think about it.
Much like with the getting used to the headmates bit it took me a chapter or two to get into this book, we start off with Ken waking up and not knowing what's going on so we have the same issues and find out what situation she's in with her rather than having any prior knowledge which made it a slow start for me. I really loved all the journal entries from the different Headmates, it really helped solidify them as individuals and to some extent Ken as well because they are all parts of her whilst still being completely different characters.
If I'm honest I think what I enjoyed most about this was getting to know Ken, the headmates and more about  Dissociative Identity Disorder through the book than the thriller aspect, though the journal entries from Grace I adored and I really wished we had more of them.
I have not read anything by Alyssa Cole before this and based on this I think I need to dive into her back catalogue because her writing style is fantastic and I'm pretty sure I'm going to love the rest of her books too.

Krystina xx

The Love Algorithm by Camilla Isley~Blog Tour

 

Publisher: Boldwood Books 

Publication Date: 26th April 2024

Genre: Romance

Summary:

At 28, with a Ph.D under her belt and a meteoric rise to head of Research and Development at Mercer Robotics, Reese feels her decision to put her career first has worked out pretty well for her. Sure, she doesn’t have many personal relationships to speak of, but she does love her team and they like her too.

So when she’s called to the Big Boss’s office and told she will be looking after his son while he does a rotation in her lab, she’s not thrilled that her hard work and achievements have boiled down to being a glorified babysitter – especially to a billionaire playboy with zero experience of mechanical engineering.

But then tall, blond Thomas walks into her office, and Reese realizes this assignment is going to be even harder than she thought. Because the CEO’s son is not only extraordinarily gorgeous, chiseled, and charming… he’s also on course to become her new boss one day, and so extraordinarily out of bounds. As the pair get to know each other, can Reese hold her nerve and her beliefs, or will she fall victim to the billionaire charm?

Review:
Firstly thank you to Rachels Random Resources, Boldwood Books and Camilla Isley for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book.
So this is the first book by Camilla Isley I've read, but again I've had a friend recommending her books to me for ages and I so wish I'd listened sooner! This is a fantastically written book, I haven't smiled so much at a book in ages! I think I was going between smiling and giggling for the most part with an occasional laugh-out-loud moment ( mostly provided by K-2P) from the start of this book right through to the last page. The writing style flows so brilliantly and easily that I found myself finishing the book in a day, I got so caught up in the flirting and slow-burn romance of Reese and Thomas that I pretty much speed-read the whole thing only stopping to refresh my cup of tea!
Obviously, I loved the romance between Rese and Thomas, the little post-it notes back and forth were so damn cute! And I loved how Reese sort of gradually started joining in with the flirting, I genuinely loved the slow burn aspect to this book, when normally slow burn is not my favourite in romance but this is really well done.
The other relationship that has to be discussed is K-2P and Thomas, their bromance was fabulous! I loved how he became Thomas' wingman essentially and they had boys' weekends, it was just beautiful.  And the sass that K-2P has was just the best, I had so many laugh-out-loud moments because of him and I seriously want one of my own.
This may have been my first Camilla Isley book but it's definitely not going to be my last, I've got the rest of the True Love trilogy already downloaded on my Kindle.

Krystina xx