#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

#Review By Lou of Maybe Tomorrow by Penny Parkes @CotswoldPenny @BookMinxSJV @simonschusterUK #BlogTour

Maybe Tomorrow
By Penny Parkes

Having very much enjoyed Home by Penny Parkes, in an unputdownable, totally enthralling kind of way, I jumped at the chance of Maybe Tomorrow to see if I’d also enjoy that too… So, thanks to the publisher, Simon and Schuster for inviting me onto the blog tour, I got the opportunity to read and review.
So, follow on down to the blurb and my review below…

Blurb

A story of friendship, possibilities and hope that maybe tomorrow will be brighter than today . . .

Jamie Matson had once enjoyed a wonderful life working alongside her best friend, organising adventures for single-parent families, and her son Bo’s artistic flair a source of pride rather than concern.

She hadn’t been prepared to lose her business, her home and her friend. Not all in one dreadful year.

Jamie certainly hadn’t expected to find such hope and camaraderie in the queue at her local food bank. Thrown together with an unlikely and colourful group of people, their friendships flourish and, finding it easier to be objective about each other than about themselves, they decide that – when you’re all out of options – it’s okay to bend the rules a little and create your own.

What a difference a year could make . . .

Review

When things are tough, we all hope for a better tomorrow, don’t we? Well, even Jamie Matson hopes so. Life is great and when life is so great and running in a smooth line, we all know what can happen, right? Something changes and that line develops kinks, until it shatters.

Jamie had a life of working alongside her best friend, organising adventures for single-parent families. It all sounds amazing fun, amongst having a lot of work to pull each one off. She also has a comfortable roof over her head. This all abruptly changes as this comfort, and in some ways, privilege and one that many people take for granted, shatters and crumbles, fast. She loses her friend and their business as well as her home. It shows how one minute you can be sailing through life, and the next, what you knew, what you got so comfortable with, can come crashing down, causing immense impact. It a sad situation, but in a way I like the way this book goes because it may grab readers attention, to look around them, especially if they have a comfortable lifestyle and truly think how lucky they are, but also how there are times when the certainty of wealth and things, doesn’t necessarily always last forever.

Then, comes the hope. It comes in the form of friendships in places she never would have expected to find it, along with the element of when you’ve hit rock bottom and not many options left but to try and re-invent your life and find what’s next and confound all the rules.
I think this is brilliantly done, with the warmth and all sorts of people who find themselves using the food bank.

The book is more uplifting than you think, with the friendships formed and the hope that it provides. It is a compelling and highly satisfying read.

#Spotlight on Conviction By Jack Jordan – his new #Thriller @JackJordanBooks @simonschusterUK #compulsivereaders #BlogTour #Conviction

Today I have a spotlight post on Conviction, but first, let me tell you a bit about the hugely successful Do No Harm. It is a Sunday Times 10 bestseller for 2 weeks running, Waterstones Thriller of The Month and #2 in the Saturday Times bestseller list. It has been making huge waves across all social media platforms. Find out more about the medical, psychological crime thriller that is so cleverly written by Jack Jordan in my review link: Do No Harm.

Conviction – published 22nd June and can be pre-ordered for a special signed copy from Waterstones link – Waterstones – Signed Copy of Conviction is hot off the heels of Do No Harm, Out Now (other retailers can be found below).

Conviction is set to be another thrilling book, this time within the world of the legal system. Find out about this exciting book in the blurb and then you’ll come across the link as to how to buy such gripping books. You won’t want to miss them!
Don’t just take it from me, take a look at the comments early readers are already making, some may just be authors you enjoy.

CONVICTION

Wade Darling stands accused of killing his wife and teenage

children as they slept and burning their house to the ground.

When the case lands on barrister Neve Harper’s desk, she knows

it could make her career.

A matter of days before the case, as Neve is travelling home for

the night, she is approached by a man. He tells her she must

throw the case or the secret about her husband’s disappearance

will be revealed. Failing that, he will kill everyone she cares

about, until she does as she is told.

Neve must make a choice – go against every principle she has

ever had, or the people she loves will die.

Here are some of the comments early readers are saying about it, some of whom are very popular authors themselves who just can’t get enough of it, looking at their glowing positivity:

‘No one crafts a dilemma quite like Jack Jordan. Conviction is a tour de force of a legal thriller that will have you guessing at every turn and then gasping when the plot inevitably catches you unawares. His characters are beautifully and shockingly flawed yet so vividly drawn you just can’t help investing in them – and if you’re anything like I was, you’ll be swept away on a thrilling ride that starts from the very first page’ Janice Hallett

‘No one crafts a dilemma quite like Jack Jordan. Conviction is a tour de force of a legal
If you like a legal thriller you’ll love this!’ – Harriet Tyce

‘A masterclass in misdirection. Smart, stylish, taut and twisting. Conviction is Jack Jordan’s best yet’ Chris Whitaker

Where you can buy Conviction. Also look out for Do No Harm if you haven’t already read it

Waterstones Foyles Bookshop.org Amazon

#Review By Lou of The Cornish Hideaway by Jennifer Bibby @jennyfromthewr1 @simonschusterUK @BookMinxSJV @#TeamBATC #TheCornishHideaway #Blogtour

The Cornish Hideaway
By Jennifer Bibby

Enter sun-drenched Cornwall in the Cornish Hideaway. Discover more in the blurb and review below.
Thanks to Books and the City – Simon and Schuster for inviting me on the blog tour with a book in-exchange of an honest review.

Blurb

All Freya has ever wanted to do is paint. So when she fails her Master’s Degree in Art, on the same day that her boyfriend decides he needs a ‘more serious’ partner, to Freya it feels like the end of the world.

Luckily, she has a saviour in the shape of best friend Lola, who invites her to the sleepy Cornish village of Polcarrow, to work in her café. With nothing keeping her in London, Freya jumps at the chance of a summer by the sea.

Freya needs time to focus on herself. But then dark and mysterious biker Angelo blows into town on a stormy afternoon, with his own artistic dreams and a secretive past, and Freya’s plans of a romance-free summer fly straight out of the window…

Heart-warming, heartfelt and romantic, The Cornish Hideaway is a novel of community, friendship and learning to love again, for fans of Jenny Colgan, Cathy Bramley and Heidi Swain.

Review

The Cornish Hideaway is a bit of lovely escapism to curl up with after a busy day. There isn’t anything keeping Freya in London and Cornwall is the place of choice, when a friend practically rescues her and offers her a job in a cafe. This is when her life changes, from going from thinking it is the end of the world to being in a village by the sea. It was then going to become her coastal hideaway, after all, what could happen in somewhere that seems so sleepy? A new lover for starters, someone who is arty and is unlike the previous guy in her life, who was way too serious for her anyway and possibly not helped that she didn’t pass her art course. I quite like that she isn’t some high-flyer because not everyone can be, nor is in real life (the world just as not cope for a start if everyone is) and it gives a small sense of reality and shows that for the few, that they can get lucky and it at least provides escapism.

Alongside what seems like a perfect idyll, is her new romance entering Freya’s life, who has secrets and quite the dark past for her to learn. There’s quite a rocky road ahead…

It is time to be whisked away to Polcarrow in Cornwall and all its beautifully described scenery an uplifting characters with quite the past and quite the present.

About the Author

As a lifelong lover of stories, I spent my teenage years wowing various teachers with historical epics before finding my feet writing modern love stories. I enjoy exploring the lives of women as they set out on life changing adventures, which usually lead them somewhere picturesque and full of new friendships and of course, the promise of romance. I adore a romantic hero with a dark backstory, the typical bad boy turned good.

In addition to being a bibliophile (my to be read pile is embarrassing stacked all around my house) I love classy cocktails, cake and dressing in the vintage style – never leaving the house without my signature red lipstick. I’m happiest by the sea, or stomping around a muddy field and I love to travel (Venice is my absolute favourite place, it’s so enchanting and calls to the artist in me.) I love medieval history, steam trains and firmly believe dinosaurs improve everything.

The Cornish Hideaway is my debut novel and I hope you enjoy your trip to Polcarrow. Please feel free to follow me on twitter for sea, scones and story inspiration @jennyfromthewr1 Happy reading!

#Review By Lou of This Could Be Everything By Eva Rice @EvaRiceAuthor @simonschusterUK @simonschusterPR @RandomTTours #ThisCouldBeEverything #1990 #ContemporaryFiction #Music #1990Vibe

This Could Be Everything
By Eva Rice

Transport yourself back to the 1990’s with This Could Be Everything. It even ups the ante with a QR code containing the sound tracks of the era. Discover the blurb and my review below as today I close the Random T. Tours blog tour.

Blurb

From the author of modern classic The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets comes a feel-good novel about hope, love and the powerful bond between sisters.

It’s 1990. The Happy Mondays are in the charts, a 15-year-old called Kate Moss is on the cover of the Face magazine, and Julia Roberts wears thigh-boots for the poster for a new movie called Pretty Woman.

February Kingdom is nineteen years old when she is knocked sideways by family tragedy. Then one evening in May she finds an escaped canary in her kitchen and it sparks a glimmer of hope in her. With the help of the bird called Yellow, Feb starts to feel her way out of her own private darkness, just as her aunt embarks on a passionate and all-consuming affair with a married American drama teacher.

THIS COULD BE EVERYTHING is a coming-of-age story with its roots under the pavements of a pre-Richard Curtis-era Notting Hill that has all but vanished. It’s about what happens when you start looking after something more important than you, and the hope a yellow bird can bring…

Review

The year is 1990. I was in the middle of my young childhood. It wasn’t until just a few years later, I would hit my teens, however, I was very aware of the music and film scene in 1990. It was pre-Richard Curtis era (thankfully as I was way too young to watch anything he produced). This Could Be Everything, well, 1990 had that vibe and as a young child realising the earth wasn’t about to spin off its axis and we didn’t fall off the cliff edge, it may well have been everything (I was an imaginative child alright). . I was also a teen in the 90’s and she captures that vibe well of music and fashion and the wider world well.

This Could Be Everything is nostalgic for anyone who lived through it, after all, who wasn’t aware of Kate Moss or Pretty Woman? It was an era of change, of innovations we see and use today and it had a certain grit.
This book is a must to relive it and also listen to the music tracks in the QR code within the book to get you in the mood, just for fun. Revisit New Kids on the Block, Kylie Minogue, The Blues Brothers, Madonna, Erasure and many more. The ingenious QR code in the book links into the list on Spotify. I really liked this idea.

February Kingdom, aged nineteen also lived through 1990 and it captures that belief of This Could Be Everything type feeling well. This is her take on the year and one where she was coming of age. Turns out humans then aren’t so different from now with tragedies and life continuing on through the darkness. Readers see February’s life and how it tumbled, first with her losing both parents when she was younger and secondly with her losing her twin sister. Just as you think this is going to be an emotionally grim book, it turns out not to be so. February has a lot to deal with on top of the usual stuff of trying to find your place in the world when you step into adulthood and the wider world, but this book has a sunny disposition, not only in the way it is nostalgically written, but in the hope. February comes across a sunny, yellow canary that has flown into her house, whom belongs to Theo, called Yellow. Yellow becomes like a companion, which helps her to navigate life, including grief and makes her want to try to find a future and that light at the end of the tunnel. It shows that things do and can change even when you don’t think it can and as a reader it is easy to root for February.

The book vividly encapsulates its reader, whisking back to 1990 well and what it’s like at that turning point of really growing up. It is a slow burn, but it is well worth sticking with. It is intense at times and lighthearted at times, It’ll take you on a great journey of both nostalgia and the depth of life and all that’s thrown at it.

I totally recommend you get the book, put on the tunes and read!

Thanks to Simon and Schuster for the book, for which I enjoyed a talk about last year and for Random T. Tours for inviting me to review on the blog tour.