BLOG TOUR ~ The Escape by C.L. Taylor

Hi Everyone,

Today is my stop on the Blog Tour for The Escape by C.L. Taylor. I was thrilled to be asked by Helena Sheffield from Avon Books to take part along with some other fab book bloggers.  You can find out who else is taking part in this fabulous Blog Tour at the end of my review.

Thanks to Avon Books, Helena Sheffield & Cally Taylor, I received an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review........

"Look after your daughter's things. And your daughter…"

When a stranger asks Jo Blackmore for a lift she says yes, then swiftly wishes she hadn't.  The stranger knows everything about her, she knows Jo's name, her husband Max and she's got a glove belonging to Jo's two year old daughter Elise. What begins with a subtle threat swiftly turns into a nightmare as the police, social services and even Jo's own husband turn against her.  No one believes that Elise is in danger and as Jo suffers from depression and anxiety issues, when things start happening to Jo and in her home when she's not there everyone from the social workers to her husband Max, they are trying to convince her that she is the one responsible for all that's been done and that she's taking things far too serious and that it's all in her head until everything starts closing in on her and she begins to panic and this is where Jo knows there's only one way to keep her child safe – RUN.

I  loved, loved, LOVED it and it definitely didn't disappoint.  I would even say that The Escape is the BEST book that Cally Taylor has written and I CAN'T recommend it enough. It is a psychological thriller that is set in 2 parts, part 1 is set in Bristol and part 2 is set in Clogherhead in Ireland which is coincendentially only about 15 minutes from where I live so it was great to be able to visualise the scenes that were written into the book.  I had it read in just a few days as I couldn't put it down.  There were some great twists and turns too which I loved and I didn't know who to trust at times. It's a very face paced story and I even had to slow down reading it as I didn't want it to end, talk about a white knucle ride 😱😱😱 There were parts in the book I could feel my heart thumping so it's definitely not for the fainthearted.  I actually found myself thinking about the ending upto a few days after I'd turned the last page, it wasn't what I'd expected at all and the last sentence spoken was just perfect.

This is C.L. Taylor's fourth novel, her first been The Accident which I haven't read just yet  but I will definitely be picking it up really soon, her second book was the Lie, the third was The Missing which I really enjoyed too and I'm really looking forward to C.L. Taylor's next book already (no pressure) 🙊🙊

The Accident, The Lie, The Missing and The Escape are all available on Kindle and from all good bookstores.  At the time of this review been published The Accident is £3.24 and The Lie is £2.49 and The Missing and The Escape are only £3.49 on kindle so grab it while you can, you won't be disappointed so don't say I never told you so!!!

BLOG TOUR ~ The Bluebell Bunting Society by Poppy Dolan

Hi Everyone, 

Today I'm on the Blog Tour for The Bluebell Bunting Society and I'd like to welcome Poppy to my blog today where Poppy has very kindly taken the time to give me an extract from The Bluebell Bunting Society as part of the Blog Tour. I was thrilled to be asked by Bethan James from Canelo Books to take part along with some other fab book bloggers too. You can find out who else is taking part in this fabulous Blog Tour below. So without further ado, here is the extract:

It’s Friday night and with the newly expanded Bluebell Society filling the newly painted Hall, there’s an energy here I haven’t felt since it was my tenth birthday party and Mum and Gran filled the place with purple balloons (my favourite colour), hired a mini bouncy castle and put smiley faces on all my fairy cakes.

Everyone is just about ready and assembled but we’re missing two vital members: Dom and Polly. I send a quick text to Dom.

Hey! You guys OK?

Sorry. Ten mins late. Polly missing

My heart leaps into my chest. She’s missing? Oh my god. What should we do?

But another text pings in straight after it.

Missing bus home didn’t help. will be there just as soon as she’s changed.

With a long exhale, I put my phone in my back pocket and go and ready some big jugs of squash and the tea urn Flip has borrowed from the WI. Tea means bunting, this much we know.

‘Room for a little one?’ Steve’s voice makes me leap out of my skin, as I’d been daydreaming about bunting flapping in the breeze, decorating the fete and charming everyone nearby, and them all whispering, ‘Yes, it was made at the Hall. By hand! I’m going to have my grandson’s christening party there, you know.’

‘Jeez, Stevie, practise your ninja creeping skills much? Anyway, what are you doing here? Did Luce forget something?’

‘Just her secret, ripped missile.’ He kisses a bicep and pulls an Arnie pose.

‘Huh?’

He knocks me on the forehead with his knuckles, just a touch too hard. ‘I’m here to help, numpty. Abel’s tucked up with granny, for the whole weekend might I smugly add, and seeing as my lovely lady wife can’t stop talking about how great the Hall is looking and about these plans of village domination and legal battles, I thought I should get a piece of the action.’

It’s probably not until I take in his words and see his big dorky smile that I realise I’ve been carrying my shoulders up to my hairline so far tonight. Something eases off inside enough for me to laugh. ‘Well, I can’t wait to see how you handle a sewing machine.’

‘I was thinking of more of a support role – mopping brows, fitting thimbles, pouring tea through a funnel. Luce tells me that the way I put ties and shirts together means I should never get close to any fabric design choices. Here, let me,’ he takes over the filling of the kettle and the assembling of mugs, ‘you go off, do some leader-like thing. Everyone is here because of you, you know.’

I look into the busy, bustling hall full of keen local faces. There’s a burble of happy chatter in the background as the tables are being set up and supplies laid out. We could do it tonight. It could really happen. And in trying to save the Hall, it’s getting a much longed-for taste of its original purpose – to bring Hazlehurst together, to let villagers share memories and pastimes. Even if we come out of this session with half a metre of wonky bunting and pin-puncture fingers, in a way I’ll still be happy.

Two new faces appear at the door: Dom and Polly, at last. So now it’s really time to begin.

When the going gets tough, the tough get sewing...

Welcome to Bluebell Hall. Pull up a wonky chair, grab a cream bun and settle into a story about a little village, a determined caretaker – and bunting…

At twenty-nine, Connie isn’t quite where she thought she’d be. When her beloved gran died Connie returned to Hazelhurst, the village she grew up in, and took over her gran’s old job as caretaker at the village hall. It might not be the stuff of dreams, but Connie loves working at Bluebell Hall – the heart of the community.

So when Bluebell Hall is threatened with closure, Connie is determined not to let greedy property developers get their hands on it. She hatches a plan bonkers enough that it just might work. All it takes is a needle and thread, scraps of old material and willing hands. Can Connie convince the people of Hazelhurst that their village hall is worth saving? And will she save herself in the process…?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Poppy Dolan lives in Berkshire with her husband. She's a near-obsessive baker and a keen crafter, so on a typical weekend can be found moving between the haberdashery and kitchenware floors of a department store, adding to her birthday wish list. She has written three novels: The Bad Boyfriends Bootcamp, There's More to Life than Cupcakes and most recently The Bluebell Bunting Society. The Bad Boyfriends Bootcamp made it into the Amazon top 100 bestseller chart, so clearly someone other than her mum must have read it. She's currently working on her fourth novel – it's about friends, siblings and crafty things – and drinking far too much tea.

PUBLICATION DETAILS

The Bluebell Bunting Society by Poppy Dolan is published on 27th March by Canelo,

price £1.99 as an ebook

Website and buy links: http://www.canelo.co/books/bluebell-bunting-society/

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES

Author Twitter @poppydwriter (and on Facebook at /PoppyDolanBooks)

Publisher Twitter @Canelo_co

The Darkness Within by Lisa Stone ~ COVER REVEAL

A gripping new crime novel from the global bestseller Cathy Glass writing as Lisa Stone

You know your son better than anyone. Don’t you?

When critically ill Jacob Wilson is given a life-saving heart transplant, his parents are relieved that their loving son has been saved.

However, before long, his family are forced to accept that something has changed in Jacob. Their once loving son is slowly being replaced by a violent man whose mood swings leave them terrified – but is it their fault?

Jacob’s girlfriend, Rosie, is convinced the man she loves is suffering from stress. But when his moods turn on her, she begins to doubt herself – and she can only hide the bruises for so long.

When a terrible crime is committed, Jacob’s family are forced to confront their darkest fears. Has the boy they raised become a monster? Or is someone else to blame?

PUBLISHING IN EBOOK & PAPERBACK: 13TH JULY 2017

BLOG TOUR ~ Born Bad by Marnie Riches

Hi Everyone,


Today I'm on the Blog Tour for Born Badand I'd like to welcome Marnie to my blog today where Marnie has very kindly taken the time to give me an extract from Born Bad as part of the Blog Tour. I was thrilled to be asked once again by Helena Sheffield from Avon Books to take part along with some other fab book bloggers too. You can find out who else is taking part in this fabulous Blog Tour below. So without further ado, here is the extract:

Jonny peered out of the window to the car park immediately below, avoiding looking at Strangeways, now, for fear that he might somehow jinx his precarious freedom. There were two cars he didn’t recognise parked out front, next to his own Maserati. A silver Toyota and a black Mondeo. Tax man’s cars. He willed his hand to stop shaking. Gripped the phone harder.

‘No, you’re alright. I’ve got it covered. If they’ve got eyes on the street and spot you coming out of there, we’re totally buggered. Stay put. I’ll call when they’re gone.’

His secretary’s instantly recognisable rat-a-tat-tat on the door said it was time to put on the grand performance.

Clad in a frumpy blue suit with her banana legs and fat ankles stuffed into cheap shoes, Darley was already strutting through the warehouse, examining the stock. Jonny willed himself to smile before she had even turned around to face him, lest he make it too obvious that he’d like Asaf to bone her like a haddock with his sharpest knife. In his peripheral vision, he clocked her minions – two men: one who looked about ready to retire and the other who didn’t look more than twenty. They were speaking to the workers, who were bundling the cheap jewellery into even cheaper packaging.

‘Ms Darley,’ Jonny said, adopting his magnanimous and friendly voice that he used for PTA meetings. ‘What a pleasure to see you again.’

Darley turned on her heel, a grim expression on her face that implied the pleasure was not mutual. ‘Mr Margulies.’ She held out her right hand and treated him to the iron handshake of a woman who broke balls for a living. In her left hand, she clutched an oversized accountant’s briefcase. ‘I’m here to search your premises. Please make all your accounts and employee records available.’

Jonny felt like his bowels were somehow ingesting themselves. The tell-tale sensation of needing the toilet, fast. But he wouldn’t show this bitch any fear. The authorities were like dogs; the moment they caught a whiff of guilt, they knew they had you. Tariq was relying on him. Both of their families depended on his giving a convincing performance. He put one foot in front of another and showed her to an office that looked onto the main factory floor through a large plate-glass internal window.

‘You can work in here,’ he said politely, switching on the flick-flickering strip lighting and pulling out an uncomfortable-looking brown plastic chair. It was cold in there. The thin carpet tiles were peeling upwards, revealing perished rubber underneath. Let the tax bastards suffer.
‘Where is Mr Khan?’ she asked, touching her no-nonsense brown bob. It appeared rigid and moved only slightly.

‘Family emergency. He’s been called away.’

Darley looked over her purple plastic-framed glasses, fixing him with hard hazel eyes. ‘Convenient.’

Shrugging, he held his palms aloft in a gesture of honesty.

‘Am I my business partner’s keeper?’

Jonny wished he could run away. Give it all up. Hide on a beach in Israel or South America or even crappy Marbella would do right now. Silently, he cursed Tariq for having chosen that morning, of all mornings, to visit their other place, leaving him to sort out this gargantuan shit-storm on his own.

As the day wore on, Jonny felt his spirit ebbing away, answering intrusive questions and observing his book-keeper, old Mohammed, delivering box after box of files to the temporary hub of HMRC investigation.

Knocking timorously on the door, he popped his head in to see Ruth Darley busily going through a sheaf of invoices with a determined look on her face. Her underlings flanked her, like Padawans studying beneath some great Jedi. Jonny looked at his watch pointedly.

‘It’s getting late,’ he said. ‘Would you like my secretary to bring you and your colleagues a coffee?’

Darley looked at him and slid her glasses further up her nose. Glanced at Jonny’s wrist. ‘I don’t need a Breitling watch to tell me what time it is, Mr Margulies.’ She offered him a grimace that was an approximation of a smile. ‘We’ll be leaving in ten minutes, but we’ll be back tomorrow.’

Jonny folded his arms. Imagined for a second that he could hear the inmates inside Strangeways jeering at him from behind their barred windows.

‘Back? Oh. You haven’t seen everything you need today? I thought Janice had given you access to the full monty. We’ve got nothing to hide here, you know.’

Ruth Darley stood and held a separate sheaf of invoices aloft. Invoices written in Chinese, by the looks of it. At that moment, a sweat broke out on Jonny’s top lip and he wished, however improbably, that he knew the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese. Had the invoices somehow got mixed up? Maureen would surely never allow that to happen.

‘I have found anomalies, Mr Margulies.’ Her smile was genuine that time.

Shit. Those were the last words he had wanted to hear.

Obsession by Amanda Robson ~ COVER REVEAL

One evening, a wife asks her husband a question: who else would you go for, if you could?

It is a simple question – a little game – that will destroy her life.

Carly and Rob are a perfect couple. They share happy lives with their children and their close friends Craig and Jenny. They’re lucky. But beneath the surface, no relationship is simple: can another woman’s husband and another man’s wife ever just be good friends?

Little by little, Carly’s question sends her life spiralling out of control, as she begins to doubt everything she thought was true. Who can she trust? The man she has promised to stick by forever, or the best friend she has known for years? And is Carly being entirely honest with either of them?

Obsession is a dark, twisting thriller about how quickly our lives can fall apart when we act on our desires.

Perfect for fans of B A Paris and Paula Hawkins.

Publishing in eBook: 4th May 2017

Paperback: 1st June2017