#Review By Lou of Leave No Trace By Jo Callaghan @JoCallaghanKat @simonschusterUK #LeaveNoTrace #Thriller @RandomTTours

Leave No Trace
By Jo Callaghan

Leave No Trace is a different crime book. Humans and AI come together. Check out the blurb and my review below as part of the Random T. Tours blog tour.
I didn’t read much acclaimed, In A Blink Of The Eye first and I felt that it was fine to read this as a stand-alone or of course, read after that.

Blurb

DCS Kat Frank and AIDE Lock return in the provocative new thriller from the author of In the Blink of an Eye.

One detective driven by instinct, the other by logic.
It will take both to find a killer who knows the true meaning of fear . . .

When the body of a man is found crucified at the top of Mount Judd, AIDE Lock – the world’s first AI Detective – and DCS Kat Frank are thrust into the spotlight as they are given their first live case.

But with the discovery of another man’s body – also crucified – it appears that their killer is only just getting started. With the police warning local men to be vigilant, the Future Policing Unit is thrust into a hostile media frenzy as they desperately search for connections between the victims. But time is running out for them to join the dots and prevent another death.

For if Kat and Lock know anything, it’s that killers rarely stop – until they are made to.

Review

Leave No Trace is almost futuristic in that one detective is human and the other is AI, except nowadays, this feels closer than ever and even the original creator of AI is now questioning certain aspects of its unleashing. An AI detective feels just a step or two further than that of what we see today.

Leave No Trace is a very well-written, thought-provoking book. You can tell for awhile that the AI is perhaps not perfect within the detective creation, but mixed in with humans, it feels increasingly humanistic as though your brain almost accepts it and I think that’s down to the great quality of the writing, until you remember that it’s AI and this is what makes it interesting for society and readers. It adds many questions for the real world about how far AI could go and how far humans perhaps want it to go and the impacts. It’s quite an exploration of it in this crime series.

The mystery itself is intriguing and some of the book is set out like an interview, which adds an immersive quality. Time is running out for the detectives to solve the case as there’s the danger of more murders. It’s a challenging, rather dark case because how do you solve a murder, when seemingly there’s no trace to collect clues from?
For the answer, you’ll need to find out by reading the book.

Overall it’s a very good read, in its style, including its short, sharp sentences, especially at the beginning and the compelling twists of the plot.
It’s thought-provoking nature beyond the page.

#Review By Lou of The Dirty Dozen By Lynda La Plante @LaPlanteLynda @simonschusterUK @Tr4cyF3nt0n #TeamTennison #CrimeFiction #TheDirtyDozen

The Dirty Dozen
By Lynda La Plante

Another great book from Lynda La Plante as we go on the journey of how her most famous creation, Jane Tennison progresses in her career, from where it all began. This is book 5 and followers of these reviews will know I have the privilege of reading and reviewing the entire series. Find out more in the blurb and my review below.

Blurb

Jane Tennison has worked hard to become the first female detective ever post to the infamous Flying Squad, or ‘the Sweeney’. But the Dirty Dozen is a notorious boys’ club, and Jane’s new colleagues make it clear that they don’t think a woman is up to the dangers of the job. Dealing with some of London’s most ruthless armed criminals, who think the only good cop is a dead cop, is no joke. Determined to prove she’s as good as the men, Jane discovers from a reliable witness that a gang is going to carry out a massive robbery. Tennison doesn’t know who they are or where they will strike. And with time fast running out, she must put everything on the line to stop them – including her own life . . .

Review

The intensity of the times with certain attitudes and ways of working and mystery is woven well together. Jane Tennison has a lot to prove and is closely observed by her work team in The Flying Squad/ The Sweeney. They’ve not had a woman being posted to such a position before and the male testosterone is out in force. Alright, I can hear women scream at the attitudes, but that’s how it was back then and women had to work even harder than now to get into different sectors and areas of work. The fact of the matter is, it all feels authentic. You see how she tries to win her colleagues round, but the question is whether they’ll respect her in the end or not?
I will say it’s an interesting career journey she is on as is her personal one, how you see her grow in confidence in situations and growing up and maturing in general.

The streets of London are becoming more dangerous and trying to predict where the next crime is going to happen is hard, even for the reader, which makes it an intriguing read. The tension is there with the criminal gangs being armed and ready to fire at any police officer. They’re ruthless and with everything laid on the line for the police, you’ll have to read the book to find out what happens…

#Review By Lou of The Hidden Years By Rachel Hore @Rachelhore @simonschusterUK @BookMinxSJV #TheHiddenYears

The Hidden Years
By Rachel Hore

Rachel Hore’s writing is exquisite and absorbing in The Hidden Years. It’s easy to get into it and a pity it has to come to an end. I highly recommend it. Find out more in the blurb and my full review as part of the blog tour below, thanks to Simon & Schuster.

Blurb

Sunday Times bestseller Rachel Hore’s captivating new novel of secrets, loss and betrayal – set on the beautiful Cornish coast during World War Two and the heady days of the 1960s.

When talented musician Gray Robinson persuades Belle to abandon her university studies and follow him to Silverwood, home to an artistic community on the Cornish coast, Belle happily agrees even though they’ve only just met. She knows she is falling in love, and the thought of spending a carefree summer with Gray is all she can think about.

But being with Gray isn’t the only reason Belle agrees to accompany him to Silverwood.

Why does the name Silverwood sound so familiar?
What is its connection to a photo of her as a baby, taken on a nearby beach?
And who is Imogen Lockhart, a wartime nurse who lived at Silverwood many years ago?

As the summer months unfold, Belle begins to learn the truth – about secrets from the past that have been kept hidden, but also about the person she wants to be.

Review

The Hidden Years is a fascinating read with almost an air of the bohemian lifestyle about some of it, which appeals as a concept in the book. It brings originality and an air of curiosity, so much so that you want to know more. It seems so carefree, with love in the air with Gray and Belle almost seeing where life takes them. Belle’s plans for pursuing all her desires and studies at university change when Gray persuades her otherwise. They’ve only just met and yet she allows herself to go off to an artists commune – Silverwood, where he resides to pursue the path and lifestyle of being a musician. It all sounds rather romantic and you get caught up in the romanticism and new adventure of it all.
Belle finds it hard to adjust to what is a completely different lifestyle to what she was used to as it is so laid-back, rather like Gray himself, yet there are some tensions amongst some of the residents, a little unrest here and there, bringing a realism to having so many people all living together would have.
It turns out to be a summer like no other and quite the escape from university life.

The Hidden Years doesn’t only have the summer atmosphere and characters as a pull, there are questions about the grand house – Silverwood, where the artistic community reside and a woman – Imogen Lockhart, from the past – world war 2.

Uncovering what links a nurse – Imogen, from the second world war and people we read about in the 1960’s is intriguing, especially since what is happening in the world is so different in the duo-timeline and both women lead different lives than what they started out to do. It makes for compelling and twisty reading to feel changes in atmospheres and discover secrets from the past that are carried and revealed along the way. It is fascinating and astonishing, with so many secrets, including betrayals, to read about how Belle then tries to fathom that out from the mystery of a photo of her and work out her life all over again. It keeps you there, right in the book and wondering how it could end for the characters you get to know and care about and then Hore ends it in an unexpected way and yet it satisfies.

The Hidden Years is unputdownable and perfectly encapsulates you into both worlds Rachel Hore writes about. I highly recommend this book.

#Review By Lou of An Italian Girl In Brooklyn @SantaMontefiore @BookMinxSJV #AnItalianGirlInBrooklyn @simonschusterUK

An Italian Girl In Brooklyn
By Santa Montefiore

An Italian Girl in Brooklyn is atmospheric with an incredible sense of place, set in interesting periods of time. Find out more in the blurb and my review below.

Blurb

New York, 1979.

It is Thanksgiving and Evelina has her close family and beloved friends gathered around, her heart weighted with gratitude for what she has and regret for what she has given up. She has lived in America for over thirty years, but she is still Italian in her soul.

Northern Italy, 1934.

Evelina leads a sheltered life with her parents and siblings in a villa of fading grandeur. When her elder sister Benedetta marries a banker, to suit her father’s wishes rather than her own, Evelina swears that she will never marry out of duty. She knows nothing of romantic love, but when she meets Ezra, son of the local dressmaker, her heart recognises it like an old friend.

Evelina wants these carefree days to last forever. She wants to bask in sunshine, beauty and love and pay no heed to the grey clouds gathering on the horizon. But nothing lasts forever. The shadows of war are darkening over Europe and precious lives are under threat…

Review

The sights and the smells give full impact to the senses and suddenly, you’re immersed. The sense of place it gives you is immense and that is testament to Santa Montefiore’s writing style.

Evelina Pierangeli is whose life readers get to follow, between when she was young and almost carefree, until war broke out and older with both gratitude and regret. If you think about it, it is at a time when the world was changing and the governments coming into power were either extreme left or extreme right, Russia was immersing itself further into the far left and in Italy Mussolini came into power. It makes for an interesting time period for a book with all these extremes from the left and the right forever on the march, forever increasing.

Evelina meets Ezra Zanotti, a Jew and his background is rather different to hers. It makes things increasingly challenging with Hitler’s views and even more so, when he tries to impose certain rules.

The book, as it shows both 1934 and 1979 is eloquently written in showing how things you think you desire and plans you make can change in a heartbeat. She wasn’t particularly looking for love, but it turned out it was looking for her and with the world ever changing, futures can become more uncertain than they’d ever thought, making life increasingly complicated.

Throughout, the Italian spirit comes through, even in 1979, with Evelina still in Brooklyn.

There is lots of uncertainty, family, romance. resilience and friendship running through this well-written, interesting, heartfelt book.

#Review of Goddesses By Nina Millns @ninamillns @simonschusterUK @jessbarratt88 @RandomTTours #BlogTour #Goddesses

Goddesses
By Nina Millns

I am excited to be on the blog tour for Goddesses. You may never view an invitation to a retreat or hen weekend in the same light again in this dark contemporary fiction book. Today it gives me great pleasure in closing the Blog Tour with a review, thanks to Random T. Tours and Simon and Schuster for a copy of the book and for the invite in-exchange for an honest review.

Blurb

Some friends have your back.
Some friends stab you in the back.

Ayesha is just about finding her feet on the London stand-up scene, but when her response to a sexist heckler goes viral, she finds herself drawn into an exclusive group of activists: a sacred circle of change makers, each woman with a specific gift to contribute to the cause.

The circle draws in her friend Yaz too and they are both invited to an intimate hen do, except it’s not a hen do – it’s a Goddess Retreat. While Ayesha, longing to find her tribe, tries desperately to fit herself into a shape that the women will accept, Yaz treats the entire ‘itinerary’ with open disdain. But the Goddess Retreat is no laughing matter. As the weekend descends into chaos, they’ll need to stick together if they want to get out alive.

Goddesses is a bitingly brilliant novel that explores the power dynamics of sisterhood and activism, the dark side of white feminism and the importance of making your voice heard.

Review

The book sweeps you along from the start. It welcomes reader into India’s Goddess Retreat. India and Clemmie are waiting for your arrival. Read the rules carefully and then swing into your itinerary for your stay… but will you feel better and all zingy, full of life and light and positive energy or will the dark, negative energy come across in your stay as not everyone is as expected… will you get out alive?
This is no ordinary retreat experience… Twisty stuff happens… Enter, if you dare…

Ayesha, Yaz, Frankie, Joni and of course India and Clemmie who will be Goddesses within the Goddess Retreat. You find out how and when they met each other. Readers first meet the characters in 2018. The timeline then jumps a year back, when in 2017 Yaz and Ayesha are on the stand-up circuit breaking through into the comedy club scene. The unfolding of how they met the other people then occurs, pulling readers with them into a house in North London.

There’s the socialite hen party of the year. All should be perfect and wonderful. The nightmare begins… Someone has an axe to grind and is out for revenge.

Nina Millns is great at changing the tone and vibe between the serene of a retreat to the buzz and adrenaline fuelled comedy club scenes to the intensity within situations. Your body (because it’s clever like this) absorbs each vibe, so you really travel with the characters (because the author is clever like that). The book makes societal, feminist, patriarchal and political points of view throughout in various ways and how things are and how things are viewed during the plot, with themes of retreats, friendship, sisterhood along with its togetherness and breakdowns, feminism, including its darker side, which is quite refreshing in a way, because no matter what your background, colour or creed, the darker side can pop up within certain people and this acknowledges a bit of that. There is also a smattering of humour and it creates an aura, a tension that makes you keep wanting to read on and on until the end of what is a twisty, sometimes surreal read with divine writing.

Goddesses is also optioned for TV and the rights sold to a company. It certainly has very good potential for a tv drama. Now, find out about the author below.

About the Author

Nina Millns has won several awards for her scripts, her work has been featured on BBC Radio 4, and she has recently written various episodes for the Dr Who audio drama, including an all-female International Women’s Day Special, as well as writing the BBC Sounds series Mortem.

Her second play Service was placed in the top 2% of the BBC Scriptroom Drama 2021 and has just won the 2021 ETPEP Award. She is also one of twelve writers on this year’s Channel 4 Screenwriting Course. Nina is a Londoner of mixed heritage who speaks four .languages. She comes from a musical family and was named after Nina Simone.

She also works with young people as a tutor and mentor and is passionate about helping them fulfil their potential.

#Review By Lou – A Little In Love By Florence Keeling @KeelingFlorence @simonschusterUK #TeamBACT @BookMinxSJV #Fiction #Romcom #RomanticFiction

A Little In Love
By Florence Keeling

A Little In Love is a laugh out loud rom-com and there aren’t many rom-coms I say that about. It’s so much fun. Thanks to Books And The City, Simon & Schuster for gifting me a copy of the book of which you can find out more in the blurb and the rest of my review below as well as praise by other authors for this book.

Blurb

The little village of Weddington is fast becoming THE place to get married. With its stately home, castle and two churches it has something for everyone, and now, famous after appearing in huge romcom movie hit A Little In Love, it’s hosting a monthly wedding fayre…

Rose Pedal is the proud owner of Pedals & Prosecco, a brand new business serving ice-cold fizz from a vintage bicycle, and she’s excited to be attending her first wedding fayre. But, on the way to Weddington Hall she’s involved in a near miss crash involving dashingly handsome James from Blume’s Florist.

Arriving at the beautiful stately home drenched and disheveled, Rose is horrified to find James is not only not sorry for nearly knocking her off her bike, but he’s gatecrashing her allocated spot on the lawn. His arrogance gets her back up and it’s definitely a case of hate at first sight. But as the wedding fayre season continues, James gently wins Rose over, and their relationship starts to bloom.

Can being just ‘a little in love’ help Rose and James find their own happy-ending…

Review

Rather apt for now, the book opens up with a bit about the environment and gas guzzling vehicles.
This is a gorgeous book about Rose Pedal and her new business – Pedals & Prosecco, set up after dropping out of university for reasons that are rather funny. She first gains some experience in the working world from working with Mr Booth at his off-licence and all wasn’t lost as there are connections to what she learnt there to her inspiration to what she would do in her new business, running from a vintage bike, complete with wicker basket and then she looks for a trailer to put her bottles of fizz in. She has a penchant for weddings, so makes this her customer base. The book is all rather warm and cute with an edge of conflict. At a wedding when a florist turns up and tensions arise. It’s great that Rose stands her ground. She’s a woman with some sass and gumption, which is great to see in such a book.

The book is rather fun, with that cosy, entertaining rom-com feel and it’s so easy to get swept along with the romance of the wedding atmosphere as well as seeing the changing atmosphere between James Blume and Rose Pedal. There’s the most fun conversations between Megan and Rose about James. The dates between Rose and James aren’t exactly what you would expect, certainly not traditional things to do at venues and there’s always something going on. There are also places like The Copper Kettle, a quaint cafe turns out not to be so easy to find either. The book becomes more hilarious as it goes on. It’s most certainly a laugh out loud book with chemestry and all the fun and splendour of weddings.

The book ended unpredictably and that was rather nice indeed.

The book is just perfect for sitting back with a glass of fizz as the words, creating fun scenes on the page lightly bubble through the book.

Praise for the Author By Other Authors

A warm, delightful joy of a book’ PATRICIA SCANLAN, Sunday Times Bestselling author

‘The perfect romantic read’ HEIDI SWAIN, Sunday Times Bestselling author

‘You’ll fall a lot in love with A Little in Love. Weddington is the village we all dream of living in, and there’s really no mystery why our heroine Rose falls for the handsome James. Secrets, romance, escapism – yes please!’ JULIET ASHTON, bestselling author of The Sunday Lunch Club

‘An absolutely charming and joyful read with lots of laugh-out-loud moments along the way. Overflowing with fabulous friendships, dreamy romance and all things weddings, it really did warm my heart and leave me with a big smile on my face’ KIM NASH, author of Moonlight Over Muddleford Cove

‘I fell more than a little in love with this book. Florence is an incredible storyteller and this book is the perfect cute romance read’ LUCY KEELING, author of Just Friends

‘A warm, comfort read of a book with the kind of rom-com characters you recognise and root for’ ANNA MANSELL, author of What We Leave Behind

‘I thoroughly enjoyed this heart-warming and ever-so-cute story. What an adorable tale!’ LUCY MITCHELL, author of Instructions for Falling In Love Again

‘Fun, fresh and full of fizz, I loved it!’ LAURA KEMP, author of Under a Starry Sky

‘I absolutely loved this charming romance! It was funny, fresh and an utterly fabulous read’ HOLLY MARTIN, author of Sunlight Over Crystal Sands

‘Tender and engrossing, this romance will touch your heart and make you smile’ RACHEL HORE, Sunday Times bestselling author

‘A good old fashioned ‘will they, won’t they’ romance filled with as much fun and sparkle as the bubbles in Rose’s prosecco. Perfect escapism, best enjoyed with a glass of fizz!’ KATHLEEN WHYMAN, author of Wife Support System