Celticlady's Reviews

31 July 2018

Craven House Collection by Christina McKnight Release Day and Giveaway!

Mayfair just got a lot more wicked...and a lot more fun.

Available July 31st– Craven House Collection box set by Christina McKnight.

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Title: Craven House Collection
Author: Christina McKnight
Genre: Historical Romance, Regency
Release Date: July 31, 2018

Scandal is second nature to the children of London’s most notorious

madame. Growing up in the unconventional Craven House, these

four sisters become independent, determined women, perfect

matches for the roguish lords that love them. Mayfair just got a lot

more wicked...and a lot more fun.

The Thief Steals Her Earl, Book 1

To save her family from bankruptcy, Miss Judith Pengarden must be
very bad—but when she breaks into the stalwart Earl of Cartwright’s
home, it’s not
just his family heirlooms she steals, but his heart too.

The Mistress Enchants Her Marquis, Book 2

The Marquis of Ridgefield longs for tradition and routine, two things
which the rebellious hellion Miss Samantha Pengarden can’t provide.
Then why does he feel so drawn to her?

The Madame Catches Her Duke, Book 3

Longstanding secrets and deception have made Marce Davenport
and the Duke of Harwich enemies. But when their agreement ends
and they face a change to the lives they’ve known, they’ll discover
the line between hate and the love of a lifetime is finer than they
ever thought possible.

The Gambler Wagers Her Baron, Book 4

Miss Payton Samuels knows that the only person she can rely on is
herself, until she becomes governess to Lord Ashford’s rambunctious
children. A gambler knows not to wager it all, yet the longer Payton
stays with Lord Ashford and his family, the more willing she is to risk it all
for her happily ever after.

Available at: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks | GooglePlay

Author Bio:

USA TODAY Bestselling Author Christina McKnight writes emotional and
intricate Regency Romance with rebellious women and maverick heroes.

Her books combine romance and mystery, exploring themes of redemption
and forgiveness. When not writing she enjoys coffee, wine, traveling the
world, and watching television. You can visit her online at the following
places:
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

The Little Artisan by Dan O'Brien! @AuthorDanOBrien

Synopsis: Not all fairy tales involve young princesses waiting to be swept off their feet by a prince. Some heroines want to change the world. Camille has watched her village, and the surrounding area, slowly wilt from years of unrelenting sun and no rain. Mein was once a land filled with magic and dense forests filled with fantastical creatures. Now, it suffers in silence. Camille believes that she can change their fate by creating a machine to make it rain once more. However, the village is suspicious of her efforts, concerned that her deep love of science will anger the magicks that once protected them. She will have to learn to stand tall and believe in herself if the world is to ever change.

An excerpt from The Little Artisan:

She paused in front of the entrance; her heart fluttered and her stomach churned. So close. All of the trials and tinkering and prototypes would soon be put to the test.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed aside the curtain and stepped inside. It was bigger on the inside than it appeared from the outside. Mirrors covered all of the walls, which converged on a single hallway leading deeper into the tent.

Camille headed down the hallway. Its walls were also covered with mirrors, creating a maze of kaleidoscope images. She proceeded forward slowly, restraining her impulse to run.

A voice emerged from farther ahead.

“Maker. Artisan. Tinker. Why have you come?”

“For the final piece.”

“The final piece to what?”

“To my Rainmaker.”

Peeling laughter filled the hallway.

“You continue on this fool’s errand even though everyone doubts you,” called the Trickster.

Camille paused.

She didn’t give much thought to what others thought. Occasionally, she would consider how the townspeople might react if the Rainmaker worked; otherwise, she only felt sad when she thought about the people of Mein because they were too frightened to try anything, to take real chances.

“I can make a difference,” she responded.

“Why would you wish to make a difference when no one else will care?” boomed a voice that suggested a large being.

Camille couldn’t even comprehend such a position. She didn’t require others to validate who she was; she did what she thought was necessary. “I have no need of riddles, questions, or condemnations. I only need the final piece. I only need fuel.”

“Fuel?” parroted the Trickster.

Camille noticed a small shadow at the corner of the hallway. Creeping close, she found a small knob attached to a long, thin mirror. She pushed it and the mirror creaked and receded, revealing yet another hallway.

The hallway was unlit except for a faint light at the end. She stumbled forward, feeling the walls to stay upright. Camille turned as the door she came through closed; she could no longer hear the sounds outside the tent. She pushed on through the darkness until the hallway terminated in an open room with a tall chair at its center. A small figure with sandy red hair and a thick beard sat atop it.

“You’re the Trickster?” asked Camille.

The Trickster hopped down, revealing that he was nearly a head shorter than the little artisan. A jagged scar ran from his nose to his chin, giving him a suspicious look despite his otherwise handsome features and green eyes. “I see that you’ve seen past my mirrors, little artisan.”

Camille didn’t like it when people other than her father called her little artisan. “Do you have fuel?”

He shoved his stubby hands into his pockets. “I do indeed. What do you plan on doing with it?”

Frustration itched at her. “I need it for the Rainmaker.”

“Ah, for your weather machine.”

She looked around the small room and saw a cot nestled next to shelves upon shelves of books. “You live here?”

“Our sleepy little village wouldn’t suffer an imp, so I hide behind my mirrors.”

She felt a stab of sympathy for the little man.

“I’m sorry that you must hide who you are.”

The Trickster shrugged. “We all hide a part of who we are. Some must be more cautious than others.”

Camille walked to the bookcase and touched the spines.

“I don’t hide who I am.”

“I suppose that is why we fear you.”

She turned around, surprised. “Fear me?”

He nodded and paced to a long desk with open books stacked on it. “Knowing oneself is a hardship. It forces us to face parts of ourselves we may not like, so we hide behind our fear. Someone who doesn’t hide like we do is certainly to be feared.”

The little artisan looked down sadly.

“That must be difficult.”

“Ignorance proves to be fantastic insulation,” replied the Trickster. Pushing aside some books, he procured a waxen cube and held it up to the light. “I believe I have what you’re looking for….”

Camille crossed the room and looked at the small cube.

“I don’t have much to give you.”

He closed his hand, obscuring the fuel cube from view.

“I ask that you don’t allow our fear to stop you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I sell hope, and possibility. I wish for the world to be different; yet, I do nothing.”

Camille found his strange self-awareness disarming.

What was he playing at?

The Trickster extended his hand and placed the fuel cube in Camille’s hands. He smirked. “I expect to hear rumbling very soon.”

Get it today on Kindle!

Dan O’Brien has over 50 publications to his name––including the bestselling Bitten, which was featured on Conversations Book Club’s Top 100 novels of 2012. Before starting Amalgam Consulting, he was the senior editor and marketing director for an international magazine. You can learn more about his literary and publishing consulting business by visiting his website at:
www.amalgamconsulting.com.
Follow him on Twitter at @AuthorDanOBrien.

30 July 2018

Dead if You Don't by Peter James Review!

A PARENT'S WORST NIGHTMARE IS GRACE'S DEADLIEST CASE . . .

Roy Grace, creation of the CWA Diamond Dagger award winning author Peter James, faces his most complex case yet in Dead If You Don't.

Kipp Brown, successful businessman and compulsive gambler, is having the worst run of luck of his life. He’s beginning to lose, big style. However, taking his teenage son, Mungo, to their club’s Saturday afternoon football match should have given him a welcome respite, if only for a few hours. But it’s at the stadium where his nightmare begins.

Within minutes of arriving at the game, Kipp bumps into a client. He takes his eye off Mungo for a few moments, and in that time, the boy disappears. Then he gets the terrifying message that someone has his child, and to get him back alive, Kipp will have to pay.

Defying instruction not to contact the police, Kipp reluctantly does just that, and Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is brought in to investigate. At first, it seems like a straightforward case of kidnap. But rapidly Grace finds himself entering a dark, criminal underbelly of the city, where the rules are different and nothing is what it seems . . .

My Review
Dead if You Don't is the 14th in the Roy Grace series. I have read a few of the books in the series, I actually have all of them and need to get on reading the ones that I have missed. That said, I really had no problem reading this one even though I did not read them in order.

When Kipp Brown and his son Mungo arrive at a football match Mungo disappears, Kipp thinks that he is just soothing his ego after they had had an argument about a cell phone. Mungo had broken his cell phone and Kipp got upset and bought him a cheapie of which Mungo took offense to.

When he receives the message that someone has his son and they are demanding a ransom. At the same time, someone has planted a bomb in the stadium. Roy Grace is brought in and does his heroic thing in getting rid of the bomb. I turned out to be a dud. But Roy still investigates the two cases which take him deeper into the workings of the Albanian mob located in Brighton.

Kipp has a gambling problem and keeps on gambling even though he has no money to gamble with. This causes some problems as how is going to pay the ransom for the kidnapping of his son and does something illegal to get the money. The kidnapping itself is sketchy and as the story gets deeper we find that this is a complex story of murder and kidnapping, two as a matter of fact, that I was not expecting. But of course that is how Peter James writes, always leave the reader wanting and expecting more. It took me a while to get into the story but that was because Mr.James was setting up the plot and characterization. Once I was into the story I did not want to put the book down.

I have been a fan of the Roy Grace series from the start and will continue to do so! I actually ordered one of his older books, The House on Cold Hill, not a Roy Grace novel but one I am sure to love.

I received this book for review purposes.

Peter James is the international bestselling author of many award-winning novels. His Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series, set in Brighton, has been translated into thirty-seven languages with worldwide sales of over eighteen million copies, and has given him eleven consecutive Sunday Times number ones. In 2015 WHSmith customers publicly voted him the Greatest Crime Author of All Time and in 2016 he became the recipient of the coveted CWA Diamond Dagger lifetime achievement award for sustained excellence. Peter has also written a short story collection, A Twist of the Knife, and his standalone titles include Perfect People and The House on Cold Hill. He has also co-written a non-fiction account of Brighton’s toughest cases with former detective Graham Bartlett entitled Death Comes Knocking. The Perfect Murder, Dead Simple and Not Dead Enough have all been turned into smash-hit stage plays. All his novels reflect his deep interest in the world of the police. Three of his novels have been filmed and before becoming a full-time author he produced numerous films, including The Merchant of Venice, starring Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons. He divides his time between his homes in Notting Hill, London and near Brighton in Sussex.

Unparalleled by D. S. Smith Book Tour!

Unparalleled by D. S. Smith

Summary:

Waking up in a strange house, with no memory of how or why he is there, Stuart Milton finds his life has changed beyond recognition. His pregnant wife is missing, but his only living relative, his brother, is incapable of substantiating his claim. Lost in a world of confusion that is spiralling out of his control, Stuart finds temporary salvation in a psychiatrist assigned to his case. Meanwhile, peculiar events across the world lead a team of Oxford scientists to develop top secret technology that will change the future of humanity. Betrayed by double agents, the race to control this technology endangers the lives of all involved, which unwittingly includes Stuart and his psychiatrist. This enthralling journey takes Stuart to the edge of sanity, culminating in an unparalleled climax of kidnapping, betrayal and murder.

Title Information

Title: Unparalleled

Author: D S Smith

Release Date: 24th July 2018

Genre: Science Fiction

Publisher: Clink Street Publishing

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40916742-unparalleled

Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unparalleled-D-S-Smith-ebook/dp/B07DLGWN87

Read an Extract!

“Dr Carson switched on her laptop and opened up a file containing Stuart’s Initial Psychiatric Evaluation Form. She concentrated on one field in particular which was headed ‘Mental Status Examination’, under this she entered the following:

The patient does not reveal any of the typical indicators that relate to a mental dysfunction. His answers to the evaluation questions are articulate, intelligent and complete. He displays strong, controlled emotions at appropriate moments and often uses humour to hide or relieve embarrassment. Despite the amount of conflicting evidence concerning his perception of the life he has been leading up until now, he does not accept that he is delusional. His acceptance of the conflicting information presented to him is for the most part rational, however he has demonstrated frustration at certain points. A diagnosis based on medical or psychological observations cannot be made at this time. However, the overwhelming amount of documented evidence and witness testimony conflicting with the patient’s claims do fully support a complete dissociative breakdown. Despite this, I consider the patient to be of no danger to himself or others and therefore recommend he be discharged from hospital under the care of his brother. Further hypnosis sessions will be carried out in addition to conventional evaluation therapy. No medication is required at this time.

She read over the entry one last time before attaching it to an email addressed to Dr Benton, the neurosurgeon who had admitted Stuart to the hospital. There was still a long way to go to get to the root of Stuart’s problems but there was no need for him to be hospitalised. The cursor arrow on the screen was pointed at the send icon and her finger hovered over the return key but she held off as something at the back of her mind was niggling at her. The clarity with which he described his first meeting Lauren at a party combined with the fact he was hypnotised meant there was a very good chance it was true. The way he described their second meeting however sounded fanciful and he was fully conscious when relaying this. When Stuart had talked about the events that led to this, he mentioned Lauren had worked for the eminent paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey. This was very specific information that should be easy to check out. She moved the cursor from the send key and clicked on the Google icon at the top her screen. When the search bar came up, she typed in “Richard Leakey, Lion research”. The screen displayed 450,000 results, most of which appeared to refer to Lion Research or Richard Leakey but not both. She refined the search to read “Richard Leakey + Lauren Bell + Lion Research. This reduced the number of hits to 9000. The first couple of sites she visited confirmed Lauren Bell did actually exist and was involved in the research of large cats. She scanned through them learning along the way that Lauren was one of the leading authorities on the behavioural traits of African lions. There was a picture showing her as part of a team lifting a fully grown lion onto the back of a pickup truck. Dressed in khaki shorts and matching shirt she looked every bit the part of field naturalist. Lauren was very attractive and Dr Carson wondered whether Stuart may have become obsessed with her after their initial meeting at the party. She continued to read through a few more articles before finding one that made her gasp out loud and put her hand to her mouth in shock.”

Author Information

D.S Smith was born in Bolton, England and, at the age of 20, despite never having previously left the UK, he found himself in Belize beginning a nine-year career in the RAF. Eyes opened to the world, Don took a degree in Biologocal Sciences and spent 7 years at The Natural History Museum in London where he worked as a Scientific Officer.

Smith currently manages a Subsea Engineering company in Ghana, travelling on a regular basis between there and his home in Manchester. The amazing people he has met and the places he has visited throughout his life are a major inspiration for his writing.

Unparalelled is his first novel.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/authordssmith

Instagram: http://instagram.com/authordssmith

Tour Schedule

Monday 23rd July

Welsh Mummy Blogs

Tuesday 24th July

Bound 2 Escape

Friday 27th July

Lauren’s Bookshelf

Sunday 29th July

Celticlady’s Reviews

Tuesday 31st July

Rainy Day Reviews

Wednesday 1st August

Donna’s Book Blog

Thursday 2nd August

Infinite Pages

Friday 3rd August

The Bibliophagist

Sunday 5th August

Abooktasia

Storm by Gurpreet Kaur Sidhu Book Tour and Giveaway! #stormbooktour #stormiscoming #itsacursetoremember

The first in a series, Storm is a twists-and-turns thriller driven by compelling characters challenged by dangerous forces, both external, internal, and eternal. Evan Storm had been confronted by his past (an unpleasant one at that) in his dreams, and now in his waking life. He is struggling to reconcile the evil that lurks in his soul. Shadow Hex is his new neighbor, who also fears a dangerous past – her former fiancé who works for the Secret Eye Agency (which is as shadowy and sinister as it sounds). Does Shadow hold the key to Evan’s redemption? Is redemption even possible?