Sunday, 18 October 2020

Metamorphosis by Sara Madderson BLOG TOUR @saramadderson #Metamorphosis @RandomTTours #Win #Competition #Giveaway

 



Do you ever feel as though you’re sleepwalking through life? Awake, but not fully conscious? Surviving, but not thriving?
So many of us have built ourselves cocoons that, while comfortable, limit us from living fully. Cocoons can be either a form of confinement or, as nature shows us, an incubator for transformation. In 
Metamorphosis, Sara Madderson lays out a two-part framework for making changes in our lives that will bring us greater joy, consciousness and wonder, and that will elevate both our human relationships and our perceptions of the world around us.
Part I focuses on the metamorphosis process itself, providing six steps to shrug off our cocoon and awaken to our own limitlessness. Part II is devoted to navigating our external world, and helping us to understand exactly what we want in life. When we invest in our own transformation, and we transform our perceptions of the world around us, then we can emerge from our cocoon and truly embrace our own magnificence
.




Metamorphosis by Sara Madderson was published on 11 February 2020. As part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour, I am delighted to offer one copy to a lucky winner.

Entry is simple, just fill out the competition widget at the end of this post. UK Entries only

GOOD LUCK!

In this book, you will learn:


why we build cocoons for ourselves, and how to use our cocoons as incubators for growth and transformation
  • the 10 faces of unconsciousness and their nemeses: the 10 faces of consciousnesswhat taking responsibility really means, and why it is the single biggest step in any transformational process
  • why self-discipline is the key to metamorphosis, and how to turbo-charge your motivations to make it easy to make the changes that you want to make
  • how to upgrade the inputs that you feed into your brain to gain clarity, peace and wisdom
  • what steps to take to transform your health so you have the energy that you need for this journey
  • how to call out the unconscious limiting beliefs that we all accrue over time, and what it feels like to discover your real limitlessness
  • why our lives are far better than we think, and how to instantly transform our reality by upgrading our perception of it
  • why we need human connection, why we so often mess it up, and how to elevate our human relationships
  • how to identify what we really want, and don’t want, from our lives
  • the empowerment that comes when we reframe ‘luck’ and take control of our destiny
  • clarity around the law of attraction, and the most effective manifestation techniques


  • By the end of this book you will be transformed, viewing life from the liberated perspective of the butterfly while knowing that your cocoon is there for you whenever you need to recharge and regenerate on your lifelong journey.


One copy of Metamorphosis by Sara Madderson


Sara Madderson is an author, entrepreneur, wife and mother. She was born in Ireland and moved to

the UK with her family when she was ten years old. She lives in London with her husband Chris, their two children, Paddy and Tilly, and their cocker spaniel Charlie.

Before turning to writing, Sara worked in finance for a decade and then ran her own fashion brand, Madderson London, for eight years. She earned her MPhil in Early Modern History from the University of Birmingham.

Metamorphosis is Sara's first book. Given that she spent most of her childhood writing and designing clothes, she's now seen both of her childhood career dreams come true! She's enjoyed the adventure of publishing independently as much as she's enjoyed the writing process itself. She's now completely hooked on writing!










City of Ghosts by Ben Creed #BenCreed BLOG TOUR @welbeckpublish @ed_pr #TheChill #Extract

 


Some crimes will haunt you forever… Leningrad, 1951. 

Amid the endless darkness of a Russian winter, echoes of the devastating wartime siege and the menace of Stalin’s terrifying rule loom over the city. 

Revol Rossel – once a gifted young violinist destined for a brilliant career – is now a state militia cop. One night, five frozen corpses are found neatly arranged on railway lines cutting through the bright snow. The gruesome scene soon transports Rossel back to his former musical life – and to the brutal heart of the Soviet establishment – to the time when his dreams were shattered. 

Assailed by ghosts from his past and with the MGB breathing down his neck, Rossel must solve the mystery of the bodies on the tracks before he himself falls victim. But in Leningrad, some crimes will haunt you forever… 

An intelligent and atmospheric historical crime – perfect for readers of Phillip Kerr, Joseph Kanon and Tom Rob Smith (Child 44).




City of Ghosts by Ben Creed is out now, published by Welbeck, priced £8.99 as paperback original.

As part of the Blog Tour, I am delighted to share an extract from the book with you here today.




Extract from City of Ghosts

Rossel’s men drifted off to look closer at the crime scene, peering at the corpses one by one but not touching them. 
‘What happened?’ Rossel asked the driver. They were only a few hundred metres away from the vast shoreline of the already partially frozen Lake Ladoga. Rossel wondered if the bodies were ice fishermen; sometimes they’d sit and drink for hour after hour. Then they had wandered onto the tracks, clinging to each other to stay upright, before freezing to death . . . 
‘They were on the line, already like that,’ said the driver. ‘The snowplough went through yesterday but just in case I was going at a crawl. I saw them right enough.’ 
‘The penalty for lying to officers of . . .’ 
The driver spat and shook his head. ‘Go and have a proper look, gundog. You’ll see.’ 
The locomotive’s engine hiccupped and shuddered. ‘What are you carrying?’ asked Rossel.
‘Coal. Scrap metal. Twenty wagons.’

A good thing the train had stopped, then. There wouldn’t have been much left of the bodies if that lot had thundered over them. 
‘Is this a main line? Why didn’t anyone find the bodies earlier?’ 
‘The last passenger trains stop at eleven, if they haven’t iced up – the new diesels can’t handle this cold,’ the driver replied, rubbing his eyes. ‘I was the first of the freights tonight. Some idiot overloaded a wagon at the depot and it tipped. Held me up for more than two hours.’ 
He muttered something about boilers and valves and made as if to go without wishing to demean himself by asking permission. Rossel shrugged and the driver vanished behind the engine’s headlight. 
The other one, the youngster from the local cop shop, looked up at him, awaiting orders. He was only a private. 
‘Where is everyone?’ Rossel asked him.
‘Arrested.’
‘I mean your colleagues. Why are you here alone?’
The lad looked down at the snow.
You’re joking.
‘All of them?’
A nod.
Well, f**k your mother. The MGB were sweeping through the ranks of the militia like a scythe through a wheat field. 
The military, the police, the Chekists’ own ranks . . . Where terror reigned, it often reigned most cruelly among men and women unwise enough to have put on a uniform. An entire station, though, even if it was just a provincial outpost? The militia existed to keep some measure of public order but social discipline was mostly enforced elsewhere. The unions, the factory floor, the people’s courts, even the criminal underworld – all were in competition for the loyalty of the Soviet citizen. Being a policeman was a simple job that recruited people with a simple attitude to justice, and therefore had a high number of thugs in its ranks. Counter- revolutionary sedition was hardly their forte. 
Rossel looked back at the bodies and tried to bring his thoughts into line. 
The driver of a standard night-time freight train stops because there is something on the track. He jumps down to have a look. He suspects fallen trees, or cargo spilled from some other train. But it isn’t. 
He radios to the next station; the station calls the local police. Except there aren’t any apart from this pathetic specimen, who – although he’s been denying it – calls the first Leningrad militia headquarters whose number he can see on the wall. And Sergeants Grachev and Taneyev, doing their turn on the night shift, call me. And because Sergeant Grachev is a bastard who only plays it by the book when he can cause maximum disruption, he gets Captain Lipukhin out of bed, too, knowing he will have a head like industrial glue. 
More than fifty kilometres outside our jurisdiction, in the middle of nowhere. The local militia purged by the MGB. 
Rossel knew better than to ask why. Stick to the crime. 


City of Ghosts by Ben Creed is out now, published by Welbeck, priced £8.99 as paperback original.


Ben Creed is the pseudonym for Chris Rickaby and Barney Thompson. 
City of Ghosts is the first book in a gripping trilogy and has sold in multiple international deals. 

Chris Rickaby spent twenty years working in advertising and copywriting. 
He started his own marketing agency, Everything Different, which he left a few years ago to focus on writing. 
He has written and produced various TV programmes for ITV and FIVE and created an award-winning crossplatform novel called Shuffle. 
Chris is from and still lives in Newcastle upon Tyne. 

Barney Thompson harboured ambitions of becoming a conductor and studied under the legendary conducting professor Ilya Musin at the St Petersburg Conservatory, before diverting to a career in journalism. 
He has worked at The Times and the Financial Times, and is now an editor and writer at the UN Refugee Agency










Thursday, 15 October 2020

Gravity Well by Marc Rahe BLOG TOUR #GravityWell @rescuepress Guest Review @josephsyard @RandomTTours

 



Poetry. In GRAVITY WELL, Marc Rahe's incisive third collection, the poems beckon readers through an ever-shifting series of landscapes, drawing our gaze across a dynamic tableau-an octopus wearing a sweater, a white sky over the bridge we're standing on, flowers pressed into a forgotten book-as a means of revealing the most particular thrills and anxieties of the human condition. Unafraid and unwavering, careful and concerned, GRAVITY WELL propels its reader through the imagined apertures of the universe one striking image at a time, leaving us ocularly magnified in a world now seen anew. A singular voice in American poetry, Rahe deftly centers the body in relation to ailments such as love, decay, aging, friendship, and grief. His powerful, meditative plea is resounding: Earth, turn me.

Marc Rahe's luminous poems find grace in acts of intentional remembrance, in turning back to sing 'what can be seen / looking behind.' The speaker's world resembles our own fraught moment-fallen, divided-but never numb. These poems hum with moments of transcendence, between body and weather, air and breath, between today's pain and the deep wounds of the past. In precise, lucid lyrics, this voice insists that our capacity to feel is what binds us, ecstatically, to our planet and to one another.-Kiki Petrosino

Ever since his first book, THE SMALLER HALF, was published, I've kept my eyes open for new work by Marc Rahe, and whenever new work has come, I've celebrated, actually celebrated. No poet writing in English today is better at making poems stuffed full of being and of things seen, things heard, things touched, things tasted, and things thought hard about nonetheless quiet. And yet, though they approach silence, these poems resonate, and, like Rahe's previous work, they will resonate for years.-Shane McCrae






Gravity Well by Marc Rahe is published on 20 October 2020 by Rescue Press. As part of the #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour today, I am delighted to welcome guest reviewer Angi Holden to my blog to share her thoughts about the book.


You can find Angi on Twitter at @josephsyard







Angi's Review of Gravity Well

At a recent poetry awards ceremony the judge remarked that it was difficult to read individual poems without an awareness of the ‘strange times’ we live in. The mention of physical touch, or meetings with friends or lovers, has acquired an added poignancy over the last few months. So it is with this collection of poems from Marc Rahe, where at an Alumni Weekend, he watches students cross the campus, recalling “the tree where we leaned and kissed” and the shared cigarette “your lipstick made another faint kiss around”. Reading these descriptions now seems not only like glancing back into the author’s past, but also into a time we collectively think of as ‘before’.

The passage of time is emphasised by the arrangement of the poems into sections named after the cycles of the moon – waxing crescent, waxing gibbous, waning gibbous, waning crescent. Rahe turns a descriptive eye on this night sky, with images of “inexhaustible darkness” and “stars that didn’t move correctly”, the wanderers that we now call planets. His observation feels strongest when he explores his encounters with creatures and plants: how the “melting snow reveals the tunnel made by a field mouse”, how a “centipede crawls over the tissue in my wastebasket”, how a bee flies into the flower of a zucchini plant prickled with dew.

This is a varied collection. It ranges from references to ill health (an incision for orthopaedic surgery, a visit to a phlebotomist, an excursion in a wheelchair) and its subsequent mental and physical ‘scar tissue’, through personal loss, to a celebration of the natural world. The forms too are varied, with prose poems sitting alongside more formal stanzas of couplets and tercets. It is a collection I found myself dipping into, with a phrase becoming lodged in my mind only to surface later. Like the pressed flower Rahe describes finding between the pages of a directory, or the lost earring discovered in a jacket pocket.

Angi Holden - October 2020 






Marc Rahe received an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His poems have appeared in Gutcult, iO: A Journal of New American Poetry, jubilat, notnostrums, Painted Bride Quarterly, Petri Press, Sixth Finch, and other literary journals. Marc lives in Iowa City and works for a human service agency. His first collection of poems, The Smaller Half, was published by Rescue Press in 2010.









Tuesday, 13 October 2020

Shades of Deception by Jacqueline Jacques BLOG TOUR @jacqjacq70 @honno @RandomTTours #Win #Giveaway #Competition

 


Walthamstow, 1902: Archie and his police sergeant pal Frank Tyrell investigate the disappearance of teenage Lilian and the discovery of a corpse in the River Lea - Eleanor 'Nell' Redfern. Did her father's ambitious plans to marry her to a rail magnate cause her to run away to her watery doom? And what about Lilian Steggles, a star swimmer with her eye on the 1908 Olympics - what prompted her to disappear from home and where is she now? Archie uses his artistic skills to identify Nell and thence to track down her story and that of the other victims of a dastardly scheme to exploit young girls for the benefit of lascivious older men.




Shades of Deception by Jacqueline Jacques was published in paperback on 1 October 2020 by Honno Welsh Women's Press.

As part of the #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour, I am delighted to offer one winner a copy of the book. Entry is simple, just fill out the competition widget at the end of the post. 

UK ENTRIES ONLY.     GOOD LUCK! 




One copy of Shades of Deception by Jacqueline Jacques



AUTHOR Jacqueline was born on Anglesey and brought up in Walthamstow, where many of her stories are set. 

She is a retired primary school teacher, now living in Buckhurst Hill, Essex. 

She has published three books with Piatkus - Someone to Watch Over Me, Wrong Way Up The Slide and A Lazy Eye. 

This is her fifth book for Honno, which combine her love of writing with her other interests: art and social history.

Twitter @jacqjacq70







Tuesday, 6 October 2020

Where The Edge Is by Gráinne Murphy @GraMurphy BLOG TOUR @Legend_Press #WhereTheEdgeIs #BookReview

 



As a sleepy town in rural Ireland starts to wake, a road subsides, trapping an early-morning bus and five passengers inside. Rescue teams struggle and as two are eventually saved, the bus falls deeper into the hole.

Under the watchful eyes of the media, the lives of three people are teetering on the edge. And for those on the outside, from Nina, the reporter covering the story, to rescue liaison, Tim, and Richie, the driver pulled from the wreckage, each are made to look at themselves under the glare of the spotlight.

When their world crumbles beneath their feet, they are forced to choose between what they cling to and what they must let go of.




Where The Edge Is by Gráinne Murphy was published in paperback on 15 September 2020 by Legend Press. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review and invited me to take part on this Blog Tour. 



I have totally and utterly enthralled by Where The Edge Is. It's a beautiful, lyrically written story that explores the individual characters who are caught up in a horrific accident.

A small rural town in Ireland is shattered when a road subsides and the early morning bus is trapped. Inside are an assortment of passengers and the driver. The driver and one other woman are rescued just before the bus slips even more, whilst the rest of the passengers are trapped inside.

Whilst the incident with the bus is certainly the central theme to this story, it is really about the characters who are brought together. Those inside the bus, and those on the outside, looking in.

Nina is a local reporter and is battling her own grief whilst determined to report on the human side of this family. Her ex-husband Tim is in charge of the fire service rescue mission. Nina and Tim's own personal tragedy split them up, but it is clear that the current incidents may bring them a little closer together. 

The author has carefully and sensitively created a cast of eclectic characters, exactly mirroring modern-day life. She doesn't shy away from the prejudices and suspicions that fly through small communities whenever something terrible occurs. The blame-game; making sure that everyone knows that this is not their fault, and surely it must be the Government / the Council / the immigrants who are to blame.

Character-led and extremely powerful, Where The Edge Is is a fine debut from a very talented author. I will certainly watch out for more from Murphy.

Highly recommended by me. 





Gráinne Murphy grew up in rural west Cork, Ireland. At university she studied Applied Psychology and forensic research, then worked for a number of years in Human Resources. In 2011 she moved with her family to Brussels, where she lived for 5 years. She has now returned to West Cork, working as a self-employed language editor specialising in human rights and environmental issues.  Gráinne has received a number of award shortlistings and longlistings for her writing including the Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair Award 2019, Blue Pencil Agency First Novel Award 2019, Caledonia Novel Award 2019, Virginia Prize for Fiction 2013 and the Bath Novel Award 2015.

 

Follow Gráinne on Twitter @GraMurphy







Thursday, 1 October 2020

The Unwrapping of Theodora Quirke by Caroline Smailes @Caroline_S @RedDoorBooks #TheodoraQuirke #BookReview

 


Theodora Quirke has no reason to be merry. It's bad enough that she has to work on Christmas Eve but now there's a drunk bloke dressed as Santa and claiming to be St Nick hanging around outside her flat. Given he's professing to be the giver of Christmas miracles and nearly 2000 years old, she's wary.

Things get even more weird when St Nick insists he's there to save Theo. And with the next St Nicholas Day somehow fast approaching, he's even got a plan that'll change her life forever.

It all seems pretty straightforward, apart for one awkward fact:

Theodora Quirke doesn't actually need saving.




The Unwrapping of Theodora Quirke by Caroline Smailes is published on 15 October 2020 by RedDoor Press. My thanks to the author who sent my copy for review.

It is no secret that I am a massive Caroline Smailes fan. I have read all of her novels, and also The Finding of Martha Lost which she wrote under the name of Caroline Wallace.  I was so thrilled to receive a copy of #TheodoraQuirke, it's been a long time ...

Caroline Smailes loves Christmas, there is no doubt of that. Personally, I'm more of a 'Bah Humbug' myself and it's not often that a Christmas-themed book will find its way onto my blog. However, I do know that this author writes unusual and unique stories, so I was certain that this was going to be festive book I'd enjoy.

What an extraordinary story this is! This is Christmas themed, but not the joyous holiday that you know of. The title is absolutely perfect, as this clever author slowly and surely unwraps Theodora Quirke, reveals to the reader, and to Theo herself, just how damaged and fragile she is. We and she also learn just what an incredible, brave and totally amazing person she is too. 

The story begins on the night of Christmas Eve as Theodora is about to leave for a night shift 'wiping shitty arses', nobody else wants the night before Christmas shift and Theo is perfectly happy to do it. After all, she's alone and unloved. What else is there to do?
However, Theo doesn't make it to work that night. She meets St Nicholas of Myra on the doorstep of her shared living accommodation, and this unkempt, smelly and pretty dirty version of Santa Claus is about to change her life. 

This is a sweary book. Theo has spent much of her life in foster-care, she's old before her time, she's suffered and she is still suffering. She swears, as would any of us in her position. Just wanted to point that out .. 

With hints of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, but in glorious technicolour instead of the muted greys and browns that we are used to, St Nick takes Theo and shows her scenes from her past. There are utterly heartbreaking moments, when Theo sees her mother; a sad, frightened girl, younger than Theo is herself. The first time we see Gabe; Theo's boyfriend; the guy whose death has shattered her already fragile heart into the tiniest pieces. It's wonderful, enlightening stuff. It's also packed with humour too, a welcome and sharp contrast to what could be so so bleak. 

There's another story interwined throughout the novel. That of Dottie; another grieving woman, another woman whose heart has been torn. Dottie's life changed so much when she made the decision to go for drinks with her work-mates. She will regret that decision until the day that she dies. However Dottie has faith. Her faith is in St Nick, and how he performs tiny miracles all over the world for the people who need them the most. 

Theo and St Nick face challenges along their journey, it's certainly not an easy ride. Not a case of 'here's what you were, what you are and what you could be' and go back to bed and all will be well in the morning. Oh no, there is so much more here. It is an absolutely wonderful story, written with warmth and passion. A story of loss, but such a story of hope. It's just exactly what Christmas is about.

Bravo Caroline Smailes, this really is magnificent.







Caroline Smailes' acclaimed debut novel, In Search of Adam, was published in 2007 (The Friday Project/HarperCollins). The Big Issue North declared the book 'an engrossing and touching read from a new talent'. Caroline’s subsequent novels include Black Boxes, international bestseller Like Bees to Honey, an experimental digital novel with eleven endings 99 Reasons Why and modern-day fairy tale The Drowning of Arthur Braxton (all HarperCollins). 

The film of The Drowning of Arthur Braxton is in post-production, with an expected 2020 release.
Caroline lives in the North West of England. She is also known as Caroline Wallace, author of The Finding of Martha Lost (Transworld).

www.carolinesmailes.co.uk
Twitter @Caroline_S
Instagram @carolinereadsbooks



Caroline Smailes will be in conversation with Luke Cutforth to celebrate the launch of her new book THE UNWRAPPING OF THEODORA QUIRKE

About this Event

Join us to celebrate the launch of Caroline Smailes' fantastic new novel. Caroline will be in conversation with YouTube sensation and director of 'The Drowning of Arthur Braxton', Luke Cutforth.

Pour yourself a drink, grab your Christmas jumper and settle down for an evening of stellar entertainment! Festive dress optional!

You can purchase a copy of The Unwrapping of Theodora Quirke with your ticket to this event by selecting 'signed copy ticket' when you RSVP. Signed copy tickets include a signed copy of the novel plus a limited edition launch badge!

Get your ticket at this link 





The Italian Girls by Debbie Rix BLOG TOUR @debbierix #BooksOnTour @bookouture #TheItalianGirls #BookReview

 


The sun hung low in the sky, casting pink light all over the city. A faint breeze blew over the rooftops, as flocks of starlings swirled above her, swooping and diving in unison. It seemed unimaginable that, even now, German soldiers were marching along the streets below. It was time, she decided, for direct action. It was time to fight back.

Each morning Livia Moretti makes her way from an apartment overlooking Florence’s famous Duomo to a nearby café, where she drinks espresso and reads the newspaper. To the crowds of tourists who pass by, snapping selfies, nothing about Livia will be memorable. She is simply an old lady. They walk on without knowing the part she played in ensuring the future of this beautiful city. And to Livia now, those dark days feel very far away too.

But today, when she opens the paper, she sees a name she has not heard for a long time. A name that will bring memories flooding back of Nazi troops marching through the city and the dangers she faced as a young woman, carrying out secret missions for the resistance.

Isabella Bellucci.

A siren of the silver screen, Isabella cultivated all the right connections to ensure her rise to stardom. But when Rome falls to the Nazis, Isabella is suddenly faced with the choice between protecting herself, and all she has worked for, or sacrificing everything to save the man she loves.

As the war rages across Europe, a terrible misunderstanding causes the fates of Isabella and Livia to become forever intertwined. And each woman must decide what they’re willing to risk, to protect the ones they hold dear from a brutal enemy.

Inspired by the incredible true stories of two women in wartime Italy, this is a heart-wrenching and unforgettable tale of love, resistance, betrayal and hope. Fans of Kate Furnivall, Fiona Valpy and My Name is Eva will be absolutely gripped by this sweeping Second World War novel.




The Italian Girls by Debbie Rix was published by Bookoutre on 28 September 2020. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review and who invited me to take part on this Blog Tour. 


The Italian Girls is the first book that I've read by this author, and I'm really happy to have discovered her writing. The story kept me quite intrigued throughout. The start of the novel is fairly slow but enables the author to introduce her characters and the beautiful setting to the reader. 

I'm a huge fan of a prologue. I really enjoy the way the the reader's interest is snared with a short look at one of the characters. In this case, the reader is introduced to Livia Moretti in modern-day Florence before being thrust back into the World War II era. 

This is the story of Livia and Isabella. Two very different women, from contrasting backgrounds whose lives become woven together because of the War and the roles that they play in it, despite never actaully meeting face-to-face. The author has based her story upon real-life events and the amount of research involved must have been vast. Every scene, every setting, every conversation, is so well put together, there's a sense of danger running through the story that makes the heart beat a little faster as the pages are turned.

The Italian Girls is a rich and evocative novel that captures the absolute power held by Mussolini and his facist party during the war years. The suffering of the people who lived there, the ever increasing danger and most importantly, the bravery of those who stood up for what they believed in. 

An ambitious, but extremely well written story of courage and hope. I loved the characters, I enjoyed how the author didn't create a bias toward one woman, and I really enjoyed the drama.

Historical fiction fans will lap this up! 



Debbie spends a lot of time in Italy and the setting of the novels reflects her knowledge and passion for the country. She lives in the Kent countryside with her journalist husband, children, sheep, chickens and cats. When not writing, she is usually to be found in the vegetable garden. She began her career with the BBC- initially as the news reader on Breakfast Time, thereafter appearing as a presenter and reporter on a variety of factual and light entertainment television series. She had a spell as an Agony Aunt, and has also written about gardens and gardening - one of her private passions.

Twitter @debbierix

www.debbierix.com