Second Chances at the Board Game Cafe by Jennifer Page ~Blog Tour

 Publisher: Aria

Publication Date: 6th June 2024

Genre:Romance

Summary:

In the cosy Yorkshire village of Hebbleswick, single mum Taylor dreams of a fashion design career, but she spends her days fixing zips, hemming skirts and worrying about her son, Max.

At the local board game cafe, railway enthusiast Harry, still recovering from a painful breakup, dreams of fatherhood. When Taylor and Harry cross paths, sparks fly, but Harry's confidence issues and Taylor's concerns for Max threaten their budding romance.

Can they find a second chance at love where they least expect it?

Review:

Firstly thank you to Rachels Random Resources, Aria and Jennifer Page for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book.
So I jumped into this series with Love Letters on Hazel Lane (and then backtracked to The Little Board Game Cafe) so as soon as I saw this I jumped about excitedly and got my butt on the tour for it! I've absolutely loved this series so far and this addition to it is no exception, we have all the characters we encountered in the last two books coming back to give us that feeling of coming back home, you know the comfortable warm feeling you get when you come home after a long break away that's what this setting gives you. And I instantly fell in love with Harry and Taylor as individual characters, They are so well-rounded that I feel like I could walk into my local gaming cafe and bump into them. Once they came together as a couple it just felt perfect they suited each other so well and they were like each other missing puzzle pieces (I know bad dad joke alert) it just felt right from the off and I was completely and utterly rooting for them the whole time.
I have to do a little bit of Max, he is such a sweet little boy and I love and completely understand as a mum Taylor wanting to make sure he's happy above her own happiness and sometimes at the expense of it and that makes her (and him) such realistically written characters for me. The whole community in Hebbleswick just makes me so happy to read about it, I'd love to live in a place like that where neighbours look out for each other and you really feel part of the community instead of being separate from it.
Jennifer Page's writing style is so warm and easy to read that I could happily sit and read her books any day of the week and I really can't wait for the next book in the series, especially as it's a Christmas book!

Krystina xx

Whispers In The Dark by Calum France ~Blog Tour

 Publisher: Independently published

Publication Date: 31st May 2024

Genre: Horror

Summary:

In the ominous corridors of 1950, Eleanor Mayfield flees from her tormented past into the chilling embrace of an eerie mental institution. Each night, reality blurs as whispers and ghostly visions relentlessly stalk her. Accompanied only by a devoted security guard and a cryptic caretaker, Eleanor plunges into the institution's sinister depths, unveiling terrifying secrets that should have stayed hidden.

Decades later, Alina MacLeod grapples with her own demons within those same crumbling walls. Hunted by a vindictive ex-lover, her discovery of ties to Eleanor's past draws her into a chilling moment of fear that defies time. Together, these women from different times untangle a haunting legacy of dread, confronting the horrors that link their destinies.

Review:
Firstly thank you to Hygge Book Tours and Calum France for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book.
So I was really glad that I finished this book in the daylight hours, I know that sounds daft but it's got a lot of psychological horror aspects to it that will stick in your head and make you check all the shadows with a little bit of trepidation. I was expecting your normal ghost-type horror, and whilst this has the ghosts in it, it is way more than that it borrows from various different classic horror techniques that I've seen in some brilliant horror films and I loved seeing them come to life on the page. I've really enjoyed reading it, occasionally I've disliked reading it when something has stuck around in my mind way past me putting the book down, but that just goes to show how brilliantly Calum France has written this. 
His writing style was brilliant from the off, it completely draws you into the story and you get invested in Eleanor's and then Alina's story and you are rooting for both of them in turn, you want them to survive being in this building and whatever haunts it. I think the only issue I had with the whole book was the numbering, i thought they were continuous chapters within the different time sections but we kept getting 1 etc for each of those I thought was a chapter. But aside from that I loved the book, it had almost two endings because when we get to the end of Eleanor's section it reads like the end of the book and we were about 50% through and the beginning of Alina's section almost feels like we're heading to a different book we don't get the connecting part of the storyline for a little while but when we do it all happens fairly quickly.
This is definitely one of my favourite horror reads of this year and I'm hoping we get another book from Calum France soon.

Krystina xx

Zero Ri$k by Simon Hayes ~ Blog Tour

 Publisher: The Rubriqs Press Limited

Publication Date: 25th May 2024

Genre: Thriller

Summary:

When customer complaints on Christmas Eve about tenfold inflated bank balances herald not early gifts, nor a botched system upgrade, but the most sophisticated cyber attack in history, National Bank Chief Operating Officer Rob Tanner finds himself in the eye of a ‘Black Swan’ storm no one predicted, but anyone could have anticipated

____________________________________

23 December 2024… Rob Tanner should have been enjoying a rare day off from his life-consuming work as Chief Operating Officer at one of the country’s largest banks. But a panicked phone call from a senior colleague forces him to put his Christmas plans on ice: more than a thousand of the bank’s accounts have seen their balances increased by a factor of ten. Exactly ten.

Tanner enlists the help of brilliant American cyber security expert Ashley Markham, but the attacks only worsen: bank balances rise remorselessly and spread to all the nation’s banks. The only clues to the hacker’s intentions are cryptic daily emails, centred on Hieronymus Bosch’s medieval representation of the seven deadly sins—and packed with colourful artistic and cultural references—taunting Tanner and the newly incumbent Prime Minister, James Allen.

With financial markets—and the very world as he knows it—on the brink of collapse, Tanner races against the clock to decode not just the bizarre emails but their deeper meaning, and the implications for who he can really trust. All the while, his former boss “The Toad” is seeking revenge... and answers of his own.

Review:
Firstly thank you to Literally PR, The Rubriqs Press Limited and Simon Hayes for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book.
Ok so this is a thriller so this is a no spoilers review, which isn't saying much because I do try and always do no spoiler reviews but this is all about the writing and nothing about the plot because I really do want you all to read it for yourselves!
I got the teaser of this at Christmas from Literally PR and practically flew through that first 80 pages, getting to the end of it really annoyed actually that I had to wait until May to read the rest! But it was definitely worth the wait but boy was I surprised by the length of it when it came 780 pages! But if I'm honest I barely noticed the length once I got into it and that didn't take long, much like the Teaser I felt like I flew through it in record time ( it was probably the best part of a week but it didn't feel that long) and the length is defiantly needed to get across all the different layers to this story. It has so many different issues woven through the story that made it an enjoyable read that kind of felt like it was still making your brain work in a way that it normally doesn't when reading a fiction book. Simon Hayes's writing style is so enjoyable and easy to read that I was drawn in so quickly, like I said I read the teaser so quickly because I was hooked from page one. And from reading the first 80 pages I had ideas of who I thought had done it which made waiting to find out who it was so frustrating, but when I got to find out I thought it was worth waiting for, but I won't tell you if my ideas were right.
I really enjoyed the pacing of the book, I thought it was spot on. The emails from the hacker were absolutely one of my favourite parts, i loved the riddles they threw in and I stopped at each one to see if I could puzzle out what they were trying to tell Rob/The Toad.
I've really enjoyed this and I definitely can't wait to see what Simon Hayes writes next.

Krystina xx

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.