#Review By Lou of The Secret Beach By Veronica Henry @veronica_henry @OrionBooks @RandomTTours #BlogTour #TheSecretBeach

The Secret Beach
By Veronica Henry

I’ve enjoyed Veronica Henry’s books for ages, but even more so in recent years, so it was great pleasure to read this book, now it’s time to enter The Secret Beach to discover the blurb and my review below on this Random T. Tours blog tour.
There’s more in this book than you’d think… The very title is cleverer than you’d think… All based in Cornwall, which I’m truly loving as a setting at the moment and always feeds in my decade or so, long desire to go there one day.

Blurb

Twenty years.
One secret.
A promise never to tell…

Nikki finally owns the little coastguard cottage of her dreams – and it’s a few steps away from the hidden beach that means so much to her.

But when a handwritten note lands on her doorstep, she realises it’s only a matter of time before the heartbreaking truth of her past is uncovered.

Twenty years ago, her whole world was turned upside-down when a terrible storm rolled into the small seaside town of Speedwell.

Ever since that night, Nikki has been keeping a secret. One she knows has the potential to destroy the lives of those she loves most.

Because as sure as the tide turns, there are no secrets in a small town…

Review

A Secret Beach, the mere idea of it sounds idyllic and special. The Secret Beach is one that contains secrets in Speedwell, Cornwall.

You can really get a feel for Cornish life, especially with Helen being very wrapped up in community life, including volunteering for the life boat service. A character, who is interesting as the RNLI is a big deal in Cornwall and also that she is heavily involved in volunteering, since, I myself have volunteered for over 2 decades in many organisations. There’s a reason for Helen volunteering for the life boat service and there’s a special memorial service, that’s also tinged with sadness.
Graham runs the family building maintenance firm and his wife is an interior decorator. Jess is a nurse, who causes chaos and there’s Nikki who runs a wedding business. They all make up a family, with Helen, the matriarch of it all, in what is a town that’s very much alive with the hustle and bustle of life.

Nikki is the main character, who is fascinating and just moved into the property of her dreams, where she discovers a secret beach.
Suddenly, the confidence of running her own business and being popular is followed by anxiety as a strange notes land on her doorstep. They contain something big that harks back to her past. This, she knows, could have a devastating impact on a wider sphere of people than just herself.

This is a delightful book, with some mystery and intrigue amongst meeting great characters going about their daily lives.
It’s terrific for pure uplifting, escapism that is so lovely to savour.
From cakes to beach to style and massive secrets this is a book is one I highly recommend.

#Review By Lou of The Kitchen Sanctuary Cookbook @KitchenSanc2ary @Octopus_Books @RandomTTours #NickyCorbishly #TheKitchenSanctuary #CookBook

The Kitchen Sanctuary – Quick And Easy Cookbook

5 stars

Dinner need not be a chore with The Kitchen Sanctuary. This particular one is as quick and easy as it says. It’s by popular You Tuber, Nicky Corbishly. She has 387k subscribers and over 43 million views. On Instagram she has 120k followers. But what can you expect to find in the book and are the recipes actually easy and delicious?

Blurb

Making dinner from scratch can feel like a chore – often half the battle is trying to find something that’s quick, nutritious and, most importantly, delicious. But delicious doesn’t have to mean demanding.
After their debut book, Sunday Times bestseller It’s All About Dinner, Kitchen Sanctuary is back – this time focusing on quick and easy meals, all made in 30 minutes or less!
With chapters such as Champion Chicken; Moreish Meat; Fantastic Fish; Vitally Veggie; Perfect Pasta; Rice, Noodles, Grains and Bread; Snack Suppers; Super Sauces – as well as a section dedicated to Smart Shortcuts containing Nicky’s top tips for speeding up dinner – you’ll be able to whip up a range of fabulous meals for the whole family, every day of the week, no matter how little time you have.

Review

I like the sheer array of options to create. There are recipes from Street Food to Asian food to Fish to Meat to Chicken. They are practical recipes for dinner as in you could actually pick this book up and make something for dinner, whether it is during the week or the weekend.

The book is great. Scan QR codes on each recipe page and you can see a clip of how to make the dishes as well as have it all in the written word. For me, this works really well and adds to the simplicity of creating really tasty food, without wondering how to do something, since you can watch and follow too.

Give me something with oodles of flavour.
Sticky Pineapple Chicken
I am a decent cook, but even I had my doubts about this being quick and easy. I was proved wrong. It really was and provided a great dinner.

I tried out the Teriaky Salmon. It was easy to create and tasted delicious.

This is a cookery book where you can learn how to make chilli con carne, fillings for tacos and so much more. It shows everything you need to know and you don’t have to break the bank. There are recipes for everyone, making it really accessible. It shows by £ signs like restaurants sometimes do, grading £, ££, £££. It doesn’t look like any skimp on flavour.

I’d make more from this cookbook for sure.

#Review By Lou of Miss Cat By Jean-Luc Fromental and Joelle Jolivet @thamesandhudson #GraphicNovel #MissCat #MiddleGrade #ReadingForPleasure #BlogTour @RandomTTours

Miss Cat (Graphic Novel)
By Jean-Luc Fromental and Joelle Jolivet

Graphic Novels have been on a rise and rise for years, with certain series now being firm favourites of children and teens alike. They, especially encourage reading for those who don’t think that’s for them and are termed “reluctant readers” and show a different type of book to add to the pile of the more exuberant, proficient readers.
Miss Cat is a great mystery for the young middle-grade readers.
Discover the blurb and my review of the first in a brand new series in this genre below.
Thanks to the publisher and authors, I also have a couple of pages and the cover to show you. You’ll see them as you go down this blog post.

Synopsis

The first book in an irresistible new graphic novel series for young readers, featuring a cool detective dressed in her cat-ear hoodie.
Meet Miss Cat, a private eye with ears on her hat and a nose for mystery!
Mr Titula, a sad old man, comes to see Miss Cat at the old dairy shop she uses as an
office. Someone has kidnapped his canary, Harry, his pride and joy! He begs the young detective to find him.
So, Miss Cat sets on the trail of Harry and a strange couple, the sultry Doris and the aggressive Jean-Pøl, a talking dog.
What could they be trying to hide? And could the senile Titula and the dashing Titus the Magnificent, a magician with extraordinary powers, be the same person?
Miss Cat, who thinks she’s a cat and hides underneath a large hoodie with cat ears, is a perfect new heroine to encourage children to read. With a Scandi-noir mood, Joëlle Jolivet’s dynamic illustrations and Jean-Luc Fromental’s thrilling plot and irresistible dialogues whisk young readers through Miss Cat’s crime-solving adventures!

Review

Miss Cat is quite the private eye, all clad in her cat-like hoodie. It’s a story that entertains and is quite the magical page-turner, with short chapters for 7-10 year olds, with its intriguing characters. There’s Miss Cat, a human who has set-up a detective agency and wears a cat-like outfit. She has dealings with Olaf the talking octopus, a member of the Octopus 6, Wolfgang who’s a talking dog and Maximus and Doris who are humans.

The book is entertaining with its mystery of a talking canary being bird-napped, magic and humour. You get a really good feel for the captivating characters in what’s great story-telling. What do the digits mean? Why are they so important to some of the characters? There’s goodies and baddies and a whole lot of fun for readers.

All is well-illustrated in a fun way, original way, that builds a good amount of atmosphere in what becomes a good page-turner.
It will leave children wanting more…

It would sit well with anyone’s collection of graphic novels, from schools to libraries to personal collections.
This is certainly one for children to look out for.
I’d certainly review more, given the opportunity.
The second will be ‘The Gnome’s Nightmare’.

#CoverReveal Post By Lou of the final #Tennison book – #WholeLifeSentence By @LaPlanteLynda @ZaffreBooks #CrimeFiction #Tennison #TeamTennison

I am so excited to reveal the cover of the finale in the Tennison series –
Whole Life Sentence, thanks to the publisher, Zaffre Books.
It’s an absolutely terrific prequel series to Prime Suspect.

“It all ends where it began”.

Today, you are lucky to get a sneak peek of the cover and blurb to what sounds like a fantastic last in the series book to come…

Blurb

Newly promoted Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison has elbowed her way into the Area Major Incident Pool, or AMIP, an elite team investigating non-domestic murders.

With her new position, she hopes things will change: the rampant sexism, the snide remarks, the undermining. Then she gets her first assignment: a five-year-old cold case of a missing teenager no one else has any interest in investigating, and an assumed suicide Tennison suspects is, in fact, murder.

But as Tennison gathers the crucial evidence to secure arrests, her new colleagues watch like vultures circling prey. And one by one the cases that she has built from the ground up are taken from her – and the glory along with them.

Tennison has seen it all before – but this time feels different. Get the job done here and she will rise to a level never before reached by a woman. It’s hers for the taking. She just has to do what she’s been doing brilliantly for years: find her prime suspect . . .

#CoverReveal Post by Lou of Leaving Fatherland @graydonwrites @CranthorpeBooks @Lovebookstours #HistoricalFiction #LeavingFatherland

Today I am delighted to be able to reveal the cover of new book to come:
Leaving Fatherland, thanks to Cranthorpe Milner Publishers and LoveBooksTours. It tells of a rather interesting and different Second World War 2 story. Check out the evocative cover and then the blurb below.

Blurb

Oskar Bachmann always imagined that giving his first lecture would be the defining moment of his life. It was, but not in the way he expected… Growing up a misfit in Nazi Germany, a victim of his father’s beatings, Oskar’s love of books is a constant comfort in a world turned upside-down by violence. As a student, as a pilot in the brutal Luftwaffe during the Second World War, in an unhappy marriage to an English bride, he finds himself returning over and over to the circumstances of his childhood. What was the source and cause of his father’s abuse? Could there have been more to it than he had once believed? Little did Oskar know that his first lecture at the University of Tübingen would ultimately lead to the end of a lifetime of searching… and finally reveal the figure who had been controlling his life from a distance.

#Review By Lou of Unholy Murder By Lynda La Plante @LaPlanteLynda #UnholyMurder part of the #Tennison series #TeamTennison @CompulsiveReaders @ZaffreBooks #BlogTour

Unholy Murder
By Lynda La Plante

A chill in the air and one down the spine, until it envelops you. Discover the blurb and the rest of my review below. This is part of a series of reviews as part of the Tennison project.

Blurb

A coffin is dug up by builders in the grounds of an historic convent – inside is the body of a young nun.

In a city as old as London, the discovery is hardly surprising. But when scratch marks are found on the inside of the coffin lid, Detective Jane Tennison believes she has unearthed a mystery far darker than any she’s investigated before.

However, not everyone agrees. Tennison’s superiors dismiss it as an historic cold case, and the Church seems desperate to conceal the facts from the investigation.

It’s clear that someone is hiding the truth, and perhaps even the killer. Tennison must pray she can find both – before they are buried forever . . .

In Unholy Murder, Tennison must lift the lid on the most chilling murder case of her career.

Review

Spine-tingling and darkly chilling, this latest book in the Tennison series leaves its mark. Murder, let’s face it, its always going to be dark in some ways or another. Being unexpected killed isn’t exactly going to be light. This, however, is the darkest case that Jane Tennison has to solve, to date and the darkest and more tense one that readers will read.

Imagine the horror of digging up a coffin, when you’re just going about your daily job of construction. That’s what recent builders discover and it sparks, what turns out to be a rather more complicated investigation than what Jane Tennison first thought. A nun is unearthed, it’s a cold case and scratch marks are discovered on the coffin, just where you wouldn’t expect to see such a thing.

Both the priest and the builder are intriguing characters. The priest, you get the feeling, may actually want to assist Tennison, but feels conflicted between doing what’s right, which may go against certain things within the church, which you sense is hiding some truths, or to stay tight with his religion. The layers of complexity, in that not everything is black and white works well in the character development.

Tennison is still having, not just work issues, but also personal ones that interweave throughout this mystery, which continues her character profile. This takes readers further into her life story, with its conflicts, relationship building and slight, occasional elements of ease. She never really settles and life is often not plain-sailing.

For a chilling and rather haunting read, I recommend Unholy Murder.