#Reviews of #CrimeFiction , #ContemporaryFiction and #Adventure #Fantasy #ChildrensBooks #PictureBooks where proceeds go to #charities. @HobeckBooks #D20Authors @TinyTreeBooks @FledglingPress #Christmas #ReadingCommunity

I have reviewed a number of books where publishers/authors have donated proceeds to various charities. Some, a percentage, others the entire lot. I’ve decided to compile a list with links to the original reviews, extracts, which also have blurbs within them, where you can find out more info.

There are both adult and a children’s book.

Discover twisty crime fiction, recipes, communities, adventures, mythical creatures, sensory experiences through reading.

Charities highlighted are The Trussell Trust, Streetreads (homelessness), Marine Conservation Society. Feel free to take a look at these very different books… some may surprise you.

Cooking The Books is published by Hobeck Books who specialise in crime books. This book is part story, part cookbook. It comprises of excellent, twisty short stories of every genre of crime and a favourite recipe from most authors published by this Indy publisher.

All proceeds go to The Trussell Trust.

Link to my review – Cooking The Books

UnLocked is by a group of authors who call themselves D20. You can find out who they are in my link to the full blog post, which this time includes an extract of 2 stories from the collection. They are atmospheric stories about ordinary people doing ordinary, but very necessary jobs.

All profits go to The Trussell Trust

Link to more info and extracts UnLocked

The Dark Side of Christmas is by various authors published by Hobeck Books.
Expect the unexpected in these tightly twisted stories. Expect the unexpected and open if you dare!

Blurb (no link this time)
From ghostly skatings on thin ice, echoes of peppermint creams and the joys of being a secret Santa, to rebellious turkeys, deserted offices, spiteful colleagues and yuletide loneliness – these stories touch on strength of spirit, with the odd splash of blood and gore.

All royalties from the sale of this book go to Streetreads, a charitable initiative that encourages reading and creativity amongst the homeless in Scotland.

Leo And The Lightning Dragons By Gill White is a sensory story full of bravery, friendship and dragons. It is perfect for children in SEN and any child universally aged between 4-6 year olds.
It is based on a real child – Leo, whom at the time of publishing was battling a rare form of epilepsy. It s a hopeful, optimistic story for children.
Proceeds go to CHAS – Children’s Hospices Across Scotland.
I originally reviewed in 2019, see link below. I have an update on Leo
The publisher – Fledgling Press has now informed me and would like me to inform you all that ‘Sadly, Leo has lost his fight in the Spring of 2022 but we continue to support the fantastic work that CHAS does with families’.

My review link: Leo And The Lightning Dragons

Setsuko and the Song of the Sea By Fiona Barker about marine life and the jewels of the sea. She befriends a whale. Will Setsuko become a real life mermaid?
A book for 5 plus to enjoy.

10% of the net profits from each book will be donated to the Marine Conservation Society

My review link: Setsuko and the Song of the Sea

#Reviews of #CrimeFiction , #ContemporaryFiction and #Adventure #Fantasy #ChildrensBooks #PictureBooks where proceeds go to #charities. @HobeckBooks #D20Authors @TinyTreeBooks #Christmas #ReadingCommunity

There are both adult and children’s books.

Discover twisty crime fiction, recipes, communities, adventures, mythical creatures, sensory experiences through reading.

Charities highlighted are The Trussell Trust, Streetreads (homelessness), Marine Conservation Society. Feel free to take a look at these very different books… some may surprise you.

All proceeds go to The Trussell Trust.

Link to my review – Cooking The Books

All royalties from the sale of this book go to Streetreads, a charitable initiative that encourages reading and creativity amongst the homeless in Scotland.

Setsuko and the Song of the Sea By Fiona Barker about marine life and the jewels of the sea. She befriends a whale. Will Setsuko become a real life mermaid?
A book for 5 plus to enjoy.

10% of the net profits from each book will be donated to the Marine Conservation Society

My review link: Setsuko and the Song of the Sea

Leo And The Lightning Dragons By Gill White is a sensory story full of bravery, friendship and dragons. It is perfect for children in SEN and any child universally aged between 4-6 year olds.
It is based on a real child – Leo, whom at the time of publishing was battling a rare form of epilepsy. It s a hopeful, optimistic story for children.
Proceeds go to CHAS – Children’s Hospices Across Scotland.

I originally reviewed in 2019, see link below. I have an update on Leo.

The publisher – Fledgling Press has now informed me and would like me to inform you all that ‘Sadly, Leo has lost his fight in the Spring of 2022 but we continue to support the fantastic work that CHAS does with families’.

My review link: Leo And The Lightning Dragons

The Legend of Black Jack By A.R. Witham #Blogtour @arwitham @The_WriteReads #TheWriteReadsOnTour #Fantasy #YoungAdult

Today I have a spotlight for The Legend of Black Jack. Thanks to The Write Reads for inviting me to spotlight this fantasy for 13 to 18 year olds. Find out more below…

#1 New Release in Teen & Young Adult Norse Myths & Legends
Prepare to be whisked away to another realm in this epic fantasy adventure, perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust characters or Patrick Rothfuss’s prose in The Name of the Wind.

Jack Swift can remember anything—even the horrible things he’d like to forget. To keep his guilt-ridden memories from haunting him, and to dodge his abusive foster mom, he buries himself in any book he can find, dreaming of his ultimate escape: becoming a doctor.

But fate has another escape in mind.

At 3:33am on his fourteenth birthday, Jack is kidnapped by a monstrous rhinoceros and whisked away to another sphere of existence: the land of Keymark. Though this world is filled with pixies, monsters, pirates, elves, warriors, and all sorts of mythical wonders, it is without healing magic—that magic was stolen by an evil, immortal prince hell-bent on domination. With no understanding of medical science to heal their wounds or illnesses, Jack’s kidnappers ask the impossible of him: use his knowledge to save a life…or be trapped in this bizarre world with no chance of rescue.

Jack doesn’t have secret magic, a great destiny, or any medical experience.

Why do they all expect him to become a legend?

They say he was an outsider. A man with no home, no family, and no friend to call his own. The man with nothing left to love. The empty man.

They say he talked to animals. They say he traveled between worlds. They say he killed a god, and they may be right. He prowled the border between light and dark. He beat the devil himself with a walking stick. He healed a thousand people in a single day and killed a dragon the same midnight.

They say there was a woman. They say he died for her. No one knows the truth.

Those are the legends about him.

If you want to know the truth I will tell you.

About the Author

A.R. Witham is an Emmy-winning writer who has written for film, television, and books. He lives in Indianapolis with his wife and son, who is the reason Black Jack is being published (he’s just old enough to read it). He has hiked the Appalachian Trail, canoed to the Arctic Circle, and been inside his house while it burned down. This is his first fantasy novel.

#Review By Lou – With This Kiss By Carrie Hope Fletcher @CarrieHFletcher @HQstories #WithThisKiss

With This Kiss
By Carrie Hope Fletcher

I am delighted to share with you my review of With This Kiss By Carrie Hope Fletcher. She is currently starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella, but has also written a few very successful books, this being her latest. Thanks to HQ Stories/Harper Collins, I have been gifted a proof in exchange of an honest review. Find out more about this enchanting story with a difference in the blurb and my thoughts in my review below…

Blurb

If you knew how your love story ends, would you dare to begin?

From the outside, Lorelai is an ordinary young woman with a normal life. She loves reading, she works at the local cinema and she adores living with her best friend. But she carries a painful burden, something she’s kept hidden for years; whenever she kisses someone on the lips, she sees how they are going to die.

Lorelai has never known if she’s seeing what was always meant to be, or if her kiss is the thing that decides their destiny. And so, she hasn’t kissed anyone since she was eighteen.

Then she meets Grayson. Sweet, clever, funny Grayson. And for the first time in years she yearns for a man’s kiss. But she can’t…or can she? And if she does, should she try to intervene and change what she sees?

Review

With This Kiss is an enchanting romance, but one that is somewhere between that fairytale whimsicalness and some grounded reactions and emotions.

Lorelai is the main protagonist and happy with life and being friends and can sometimes be a bit defensive when it comes to men because of what romantic entanglements lead to. Lorelai has best friend Joanie, there, pushing her along and trying to see things in a more positive light.

The fact that everytime Lorelai discovers that she has the power to know how someone is going to die after kissing them is what really grabbed my attention to this book. It is a highly intriguing and different concept. The opening pages are fantastic and really drew me in. They have an glow of mystique and and air of intrigue. I felt that the aftermath of finding out how someone was going to die, could have had a bit more depth to it. There is some decent humour, when it presents itself, just perhaps not quite enough. There’s a bit too much procrastination, which is a pity as loses a bit of pace, which becomes a bit frustrating at times, although of course given the situation Lorelai finds herself in, it is absolutely understandable that there would be. Anyone in this situation surely would have this affliction, with such power as she wonders what to do about Grayson, who she is properly falling in love with, whom she meets at a bookclub. The bookclub meet is a lovely place to meet, it is also nice that the club isn’t the crux of the whole story as that doesn’t seem to be what the story is about. It seems more about romance and how to deal with the hand you’ve been given and what to do with magical powers. It has a theatrical sense to it all in a way. There is a love and respect for cinema, books and theatre and everyone involved in these art forms cascades throughout the story very well.

It’s more a darker take on a fairytale for adults than rom-com as such and it is the fairytale like quality that has parts that almost sweeps you along, some parts more than others.

It is all in all, fairly fun. Don’t go into this thinking there is some greater meaning or a massive amount of depth in the power that Lorelea has, or you may find yourself feeling disappointed. If you go into it with a view of that fairytale magic that has a bit of darkness and an open mind, then it is a pleasant read that has a different take on romance.
This was so close to being 4 stars.

#Review By Lou of The Disappearance of Emily By Elizabeth Pantley @elizabethpantley @DestinyFallsMysteryandMagic #LoveBooksTours #Fantasy #CosyCrime

The Disappearance of Emily
By Elizabeth Pantley

Today I am on the blog tour to present my review of The Disappearance of Emily. The book has elements of fantasy and cosy mystery within it. Find out more in the blurb and my thoughts in the review below of what is book 2 in this series. Thanks to Love Books Group for inviting me to review and for the book. Discover more in the blurb and review below.

Blurb

A magic mirror. An enchanted world. A mysterious missing mother. A suspicious package. An unexplained death. A community of strange, quirky people. A sassy cat and a hilarious, perpetually annoyed witch. Come visit Destiny Falls and escape to a great time.

…Hayden’s life was normal until she fell through a mirror and was thrust into an alternate, magical place. Destiny Falls is not on any map and is home to a family she never knew she had. The town is enchanted and charming, and the amazing mansion she lives in changes to meet the needs of the people who live there, including her! Every day she discovers a new enchantment.

But something is amiss. Hayden gets an ominous warning from a strange woman, who promises to tell her the town secrets and give her a package – if she’ll meet her at the mysterious ferry that lacks a published destination. The ferry visit is cancelled, but the package is delivered. Once it arrives, someone turns up dead. Then the suspicious episodes start, too many to call them coincidences. She and her family are targeted and in danger.

Who or what is causing the chaos? All signs point to the mysterious disappearance of her mother – way back when Hayden was just two days old. Can she identify and eliminate the threat before another person in her life is stolen away? Can she learn more about the secrets kept for her lifetime? With the help of her sassy sidekick cat, and a host of new family and friends, Hayden finds herself surrounded with support as she solves the mystery of the death and learns secrets about herself.

Review

Firstly, that cover definitely is eye-catching for cat-lovers. The cat is within the story in a sassy way.
Onto the story. It is mysterious and quirky. There’s a scene with Alice in Wonderland themed food, that sort of gives a bit of flavour to the mystique that is to follow as readers head onwards with Hayden…
It is in a way, Narnia and Alice in Wonderland like in the places readers will go to, so would suit fans of these books, although this has elements of crime genres too.

There is Edna, a local historian in a library, even she is mysterious and seems to perhaps be hiding a secret as is the library itself…

Hayden is the most interesting of all the characters and is central to the story, and the witch is intriguing as the story moves along.
The book has cosy mystery and fantasy elements to it with the mysterious disappearance of Emily and other mysterious goings on and she also gets caught up in a murder to solve. What captivated and intrigued most, was the quirkiness build up of the world she found herself in, the behaviours of the characters and the ferries with no destination on them. This is what kept me reading, than the mystery itself in some parts.

Destiny Falls is the place to be and it is full of adventure, crime and magic and a world that is captivating that totally captures imagination. I realised I was enjoying it more than I thought I would by the end and its so easy to just get swept along in the atmosphere and scenery of Destiny Falls. I suspect there will be a third in the series to come.

Octavia Bloom and the Missing Key By Estelle Grace Tudor #Spotlight on #OctaviaBloomAndTheMissingKey@E_G_Tudor @BBNYA_Official @The_WriteReads @WriteReadsTours #BBNYA2021 #BlogTour

Octavia Bloom and the Missing Key
By Estelle Grace Tudor

I received this information about Octavia Bloom and the Missing Key, which is a BBNYA Finalist, to write a spotlight on it, to highlight it as part of the 2021 BBNYA competition and the BBNYA tours organised by the TWR Tour team. All opinions are my own, unbiased and honest. Firstly, a little bit about BBNYA and then onto discover a bit more about book itself and how to purchase it, as I shine a spotlight onto Octavia Bloom and the Missing Key.

BBNYA is a yearly competition where Book Bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors. If you are an author and wish to learn more about the BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website http://www.bbnya.com or twitter @bbnya_official.

The sign-ups will soon be open for the 2022 BBNYA competition, be it for authors to enter their books, or for bloggers wanting to be part of the new panel, so keep your eyes peeled!!

Now onto the book – Octavia Bloom and The Missing Key. The cover itself is enticing with the giant key for the fairy door, to turn and see what happened to it and what adventures that ensue. The book has mysterious intrigue and secrets to discover, a couple that are life-changing. There’s a quest to reunite a family in this book that will take readers to deeper and deeper into the pages that are just as you go “Through The Fairy Door”. Check out the cover and the blurb below…