Bookouture Blog Tour for The People Next Door by Carla Kovach

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I’m excited to be part of the tour for this new novel that is SO suspenseful and thrilling! It’s The People Next Door by Carla Kovach. It kept me guessing the whole book and I also kept thinking how it would make a GREAT limited series for Netflix. I really like stories told from different points of view, too.

Thank you for my copy and for having me as part of the tour.

Here’s the scoop:

Dear Neighbour. I know who you are. I know what you did…

After that summer, I swore I’d never come back to Clover Lane. But when my aunt left us her house, I couldn’t say no. The last in a neat row of houses with white fences and countryside views, it was the life I’d always dreamed of for my family. They deserved it, even if I didn’t.


As the last boxes are unpacked and neighbours drop by to welcome us, I see the sparkle back in my daughter Morgan’s eyes and know we’re safe. I won’t ever let her near the woods where my best friend went missing, but welcome gifts and a coffee date with my neighbours have me feeling like we belong here. But then the first letter arrives, and my perfect new life shatters…


Suddenly, I notice curtains twitch as I unload the car and I find myself looking over my shoulder every time I leave the house. When more letters arrive and rumours poison the street, I start double-locking the doors at night. How much do I really know about the people next door? Are my children safe? Is there anyone I can trust?


Someone in this close-knit community thinks they know what happened that summer. I know they’re wrong, but my worst fear is realised when the last letter drops: Morgan is missing…

If you loved reading The Housemaid, The Perfect Marriage and The Girl on the Train, you will devour this absolutely jaw-dropping psychological thriller from Carla Kovach.

Buy links – NOT affiliated with BBNB:

Here’s a bit about the author:

Carla has been writing seriously since her mid-thirties. She started by writing stage plays which led to her producing and directing her own full length piece of theatre. After that, she decided to write films and books where she began by self-publishing. In the past, she has acted in a few indie films and has also co-owned a photography and video production company.

Right now, she is a full time crime and thriller author living in Worcester with her husband, Nigel and Poppy the cat.

Okay – hold the phone a minute here. Carla — we are practically NEIGHBORS! I live near Worcester as well. We could get together and drink coffee and chat about books and writing and theater if you want!

The Windsor Affair by Melanie Benjamin

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I love Melanie Benjamin’s novels but I truly adored this book! I love anything to do with the royals and it was so interesting to have a book that is largely written from the viewpoint of the Queen Mother. And it involves that crass Wallis Simpson who stole the heart of a king! So fun to read about the characters as they are all real people.

I highly recommend it to those who enjoy historical fiction related to the royals from not too long ago!

Thank you for my copy!

Here’s the scoop:

Description

A scandalous affair. A power struggle for the throne. A sensational rivalry between an English queen and an American social climber. In this electrifying novel, the New York Times bestselling author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue tells the story of the Abdication of Edward VIII—and the two women at the center of it all.

“As deliciously dishy as an English cream tea and the royal gossip whispered over it!”—Kate Quinn, author of The Astral Library

Feuding Windsor brothers and their wives—some things, it seems, never change. The Windsor Affair recreates the cataclysmic events that nearly toppled the monarchy and incited the power struggle between Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon and Wallis Simpson. Told from the perspective of both women, the novel propels readers into the fabulous world of the debonair Prince of Wales, café society of the 1930s, and the glittering private lives of the Windsors. The first novel to be dedicated to this infamous rivalry, The Windsor Affair brings us all the gossip and intrigue between the two very different—yet perhaps more similar than they would admit—wives of royals.

As Queen, Elizabeth would become the symbol of British pluck and courage during World War II and remain a British institution the rest of her long life. Wallis would be forever forced to enact the World’s Greatest Love Story even after it sours, as she goes from being admired to vilified and, ultimately, pitied. Against the backdrop of the Abdication Crisis, World War II, coronations, funerals, births, and deaths, these two women maintain a biting, sharp-tongued feud—until age and the long arm of history bring about a kind of understanding. For the last communication between these bitter rivals was a simple, surprising message: “In friendship, Elizabeth.”

Blog Tour for HARRY ALTMAN: BUFFALO’S MASTER SHOWMAN by Susan Fenster

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I’m shouting it out today for a new historical fiction novel that sounds really interesting, especially if you love the history of live entertainment as I do!

Entertainment history often focuses on the performers audiences recognized, while the people creating the spaces behind those moments disappear into the background. Susan Fenster’s Harry Altman: Buffalo’s Master Showman centers on one of those overlooked figures and the world that surrounded him.

Synopsis:
The rise of Harry Altman unfolded during a period when entertainment was changing rapidly and audiences were searching for something larger, louder, and more immersive than before. Through casinos, nightclubs, and performance venues, Altman became part of that transformation, helping shape experiences that kept crowds returning night after night.

What appeared glamorous from the outside carried enormous pressure behind the scenes. Success depended on constant movement, financial risk, and an ability to keep pace with an industry that rarely stopped changing. As public habits evolved and new entertainment models emerged, the structures Altman built began losing their footing.

Susan Fenster reconstructs this vanished world through archival discoveries, historical fragments, and surviving records that reveal how quickly influence can fade once an era passes. Rather than presenting a straightforward rise-and-fall story, the book examines the instability beneath visibility itself.

Harry Altman: Buffalo’s Master Showman explores memory, reinvention, and the uneasy reality that some people help define an era without remaining part of the story that survives afterward.

Author bio: 

Susan Fenster is a nonfiction author and historian whose work focuses on New York State and the evolving cultural life of the region.

With degrees in history and journalism from Buffalo State University, she brings together long-form research and narrative storytelling to examine how people, businesses, and communities shaped their time. Her work draws extensively from archival sources, including newspapers, business records, and local collections.

She has spent more than 30 years writing about the region and lives in Williamsville, New York.

Visit Susan at her website.

Amazon: https://bit.ly/4a8Qrsm (not affiliated with BBNB)

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/243895850-harry-altman

Bookouture Blog Tour for A Wartime Promise for the East End Girls by Jean Fullerton

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I’m here today to dish about the latest in the East End Girls series, a WWII historical fiction saga. I did not discover Books 1 or 2 so I’m so happy to have found Book 3. You do NOT need to read these novels in order to enjoy the story! So – you know I love my WWII stories and I love books where ordinary people are doing extraordinary things, especially in the face of hardship. I really enjoyed this book because it was not about a famous person or a top spy or a military hero; these were ordinary young women making a difference in the war by using their strength, smarts, and grit. And those East Enders are a scrappy lot! There’s some romance in here but it doesn’t take over the narrative in my opinion. In all, a solid read that makes me want to go back and find books one and two!

Thank you for my copy and for having me as part of the tour!

Here’s the scoop:

East London, 1943: As air raid sirens wail, can the East End Girls join forces to protect their city and the people they love?

Nell Reilly’s blonde curls and piercing blue eyes might look angelic, but she is ready to fight with everything she has for a better future. Brought up in London’s tough East End, she is fiercely determined to keep the promise she made to her little sister Jo to build a new life for them one day. Until a chance meeting changes everything…

Absorbed in her work with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, the last thing Nell is looking for is love, but tall, broad-shouldered Tom Hunter stops her in her tracks. Tom is her wayward brother Frank’s new right-hand man in his black-market operations, and Nell knows from bitter experience the risks of falling for a man like that. But when she witnesses his unexpected kindness and sees how he cares for Jo, she realises that Tom has made an impression she can’t forget, no matter how hard she tries…

But Tom has a secret, one he’s finding harder and harder to keep. And when Nell finally discovers that he is an undercover police officer, she also learns something that makes her heart stop: his cover is blown and he’s in terrible danger.

As London prepares for another night of air raids, Nell races through the blackout to find Tom and warn him. Can she reach him in time to save his life? And as bombs crash down over the East End, will their love survive to fight another day?

Fans of Katie Flynn, Rosie Goodwin and Lizzie Lane will adore this page-turning, heart-warming and emotional World War Two saga about love, friendship and finding hope in the darkest of places.

About the Author: Jean Fullerton

Born and bred in East London, Jean was a District Nurse by trade working throughout East London. Since 2008, she has been publishing bestselling saga fiction, including the popular World War Two Ration Book series, which, like all her books, is set in East London. Jean has also written her autobiography A Child of the East End , about growing up in post-war Stepney and Wapping.

Amazon: https://geni.us/B0G2BMW817social NOT affiliated with BBNB

Bookouture Blog Tour for The Girl with Two Names by Imogen Matthews

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Today I’m posting about a new historical fiction novel, centered on WWII: The Girl with Two Names by Imogen Matthews.

This was an engaging read – I always love reading about the Resistance because it forces me to ask myself if I could ever be that brave. There is some romance/love interest built in, but the story, in my opinion, is driven by the war experience. Stories like this always remind me of how much people were (are) willing to sacrifice to stand up for what they believed in, even if it meant death.

I haven’t read this author before, but I would look for her again!

Thank you to Bookouture for my copy and for having me as part of the tour.

Here’s the scoop:

She smooths her light blue coat with trembling hands as a man approaches. ‘Felix?’ he says, and she nods. ‘We weren’t expecting a girl.’ He smiles, but panic grips her throat at what he says next. ‘Whoever you are, you’ve been betrayed…’

1943, Nazi-occupied Holland. Turning up her collar against the wind, Trix prepares for her rendezvous. Hidden in the bottom of her bag are coded instructions from the British Special Operations Executive and a silk handkerchief, secretly printed with a map of her next meeting point. She knows working for the Dutch resistance is dangerous, but she must put her past behind her and become someone new… someone brave.

Trix’s friends think she’s a secretary – they can never know the truth. Living a double life is desperately lonely, but the longer she goes under her alias, Felix, the more comfortable she becomes with this new version of herself: one who will stand up for what is right, and fight for those who can’t. That is, until the warm brown eyes of a pilot from her past spark hope for a life after the war.

But when she’s ambushed and imprisoned by German soldiers posing as men from the Dutch resistance, Trix must lean on everything she’s learnt if she’s going to survive and grasp her chance at love. These soldiers see her as just a woman. But is that her greatest weapon? In war, often it’s those we underestimate the most who have the power to change everything…

Inspired by a remarkable true story, The Girl with Two Names is a totally heartbreaking and emotional World War Two novel of bravery, sacrifice and the power of hope in dark times. Perfect for fans of Heather Morris, Kristin Hannah and Fiona Valpy.

About the author:

Imogen Matthews is an Oxford-based, award-winning author and journalist with an interest in forgotten stories from WW2 Holland. Imogen was born in Rijswijk, Holland, to a Dutch mother and English father who moved the family to England when Imogen was very young. All her life, she listened to her mother’s stories about her life in Holland, in particular the hardships she faced during the Hunger Winter in 1944-5, which has had a profound impact on her writing.

Amazon: https://geni.us/B0GN9G684Xsocial (NOT affiliated with BBNB)

Bookouture Blog Tour for The Book Club Murders by Maggie Allswell

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I’m so happy to be part of the tour for this new cozy series which is a murder mystery but also laugh out loud funny. I love that the characters are diverse and of various ages and abilities, too.

Here’s the scoop:

What Judy’s book club doesn’t know about murder mysteries isn’t worth writing about. Nothing beats cracking a fictional case over some wine and salt and vinegar crisps. But can they put their puzzle-solving skills to the test when the local librarian dies in a real-life murder?

For widower Judy, her murder book club is the highlight of the month: she gets to hear all the local gossip and even discuss a good fictitious poisoning or two. But when local librarian Wendy disappears, Judy follows in the footsteps of her fictional detective heroes only to find her dead in her home, clasping a copy of Romeo and Juliet…

The police rule it a tragic accident, but Judy knows that her friend hated Shakespeare, and suspects foul play. Gathering her fellow book lovers together, soon they discover that several townspeople had motive to want Wendy dead. Was it Nigel from the tavern, who may have been Wendy’s secret boyfriend? Or could it be Bryan, the local bookshop owner, tangled in a bitter rivalry with the library?

The plot thickens at a charity murder mystery night held at Nigel’s tavern. Suddenly more murders come to light, both real and very badly staged. And when Nigel makes an astonishing revelation, the book club agree it’s a plot twist no-one saw coming. Can Judy and her book club solve the mystery before they too fall victim to a killer plot?

An utterly addictive and hilarious new cozy mystery series, perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Robert Thorogood and Faith Martin.

Here’s a bit about the author:

Tracy started writing when her cruel, heartless husband ripped her away from her dream job – shopping for rollercoasters for the UK’s leading theme parks – to live in America with a brand new baby and no mates. In a cunning plan to avoid domestic duties and people who didn’t understand her Derbyshire accent, she wrote NO-ONE EVER HAS SEX ON A TUESDAY.
It went on to become a No 1 bestseller and publishing phenomenon. So now Tracy has a new dream job, making people laugh and sometimes cry through her writing and has had many more novels published successfully around the world. She now lives back in Derbyshire with her now wonderful husband and two children!

Thank you so much for having me on the tour for this new series. I look forward to reading the next installment! Thank you for my review copy.

Bookouture Tour for THE IRISH INHERITANCE by Daisy O’Shea

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Today I’m part of the blog tour for a new novel by Daisy O’Shea: The Irish Inheritance. This was a story full of secrets as Tara and her mother Aoife trace the events that shaped the life of Aoife’s twin, Eithne, who was thought to be deceased for decades.

I liked this story a lot, and I have a lot of Irish in me (50%)! Some of the emotional and physical abuse is hard to read (warning to readers), but unfortunately, it’s a story shared by many young women of that time. That said, I feel compelled to say that I grew up with many nuns and priests in my life and my personal experience was only one of positive experiences and interactions. Ireland is such a beautiful country, but it has a history marked by great darkness and suffering.

Thank you for my copy and having me on the tour!

Tara took in the grand farmhouse sitting high on the hill amidst the emerald grass. She never knew her mother came from money. Now, this house will be passed down to her. But how can Tara accept it when there is still a mystery hiding within the faded walls?

When Tara Hourihan’s mother receives a letter informing her she’s inherited a house down south in Roone Bay, Tara sees her mother pale. Aoife hasn’t been back to her tiny hometown in years.

When mother and daughter arrive in town, the lawyer handling the estate gives them some shocking news: the inheritance may be split. There is evidence that Aoife’s twin sister Eithne, thought to have died as a teenager, may still be alive. Her name is listed as a patient at a local mother and baby home.

With the help of handsome local garda, Declan Ford, Tara and Aoife must untangle a decades old family secret and a possible terrible cover-up that tore the sisters apart. Did Aoife’s parents lie to her about Eithne?

What the women discover will change everything they thought they knew about their history. But can they finally put the past to rest, before it is too late?

A totally gripping and heartbreaking tale about family secrets, the ties that bind mothers and daughters and the tragedy of the Irish mother and baby homes. Fans of Kathleen McGurl, Tricia O’Malley and Maeve Binchy will be utterly swept away.

About the author:

Sue Lewando was a teacher for several years before migrating to the office environment, where she was PA to the Treasurer of Clarks Shoes, a multi-national company, then, briefly, PA to Susan George, the actress best known for Straw Dogs. Sue had many genre books published (M&B and Virgin), under pseudonyms, and self-publishes her crime thrillers. She was on the committee of the Romantic Novelists’ Association in England, for whom she assessed typescripts. She has been a fiction tutor for the London School of Journalism for twenty years. She has two grown-up children, a happy second marriage, and a bundle of cats and dogs. She moved to West Cork with her husband to undertake a farmhouse refurbishment project, foster their joint passion for playing Irish traditional music, and to invest time in their individual academic projects. She recently completed a Masters in Creative Writing at UCC, taking the opportunity to explore diverse writing genres. She works with the Jeremy Murphy Literary Consultancy in the capacity of typescript analyst, ghostwriter, editor, and online publishing advisor. She loves good commercial fiction, and is a devotee of the Oxford comma.

Blog Tour for The Shadow Appears and The Shadow Grows by Burt Tyson

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Hey there!

I’m shouting it out today for two new titles that are just out from Burt Tyson as part of his new The Devil’s Shadow series that look like great western HF reading!

Here’s the scoop:

What remains when everything a man has built his life on is taken from him without warning? In The Devil’s Shadow series by Burt Tyson, Captain Robert Hester’s journey begins in the aftermath of war and follows the difficult choices that take shape when duty gives way to something far more personal.

Synopsis:
The end of the war leaves Captain Robert Hester in a world that no longer resembles the one he fought to preserve. Wounded, hunted, and without a place in the future taking shape around him, he is forced to confront what remains when everything he relied on has been stripped away. What follows is not simply survival, but a reckoning with loss, memory, and the limits of the code he has tried to live by.

In The Shadow Appears, Hester awakens to the collapse of the Confederacy and the reality that his name has already been marked for death. Once a cavalry officer under Mosby, he returns home expecting what little remains of his former life, only to find devastation that changes everything in a single brutal moment. The war becomes something deeply personal. Riding with his loyal sergeant, he moves through a defeated landscape where former soldiers have become outlaws and survival often comes at the expense of honor, each mile pulling him further from the man he once was.

With vengeance behind him, The Shadow Grows finds Hester without direction. He drifts into unfamiliar territory, carrying the weight of everything he has lost, surviving one day at a time. A chance encounter introduces a different way of living, shaped by patience, discipline, and endurance. When violence reaches a small mountain town, he must decide whether to walk away as he has before or stand and fight, knowing the choice will determine who he becomes.

Author bio:

Burt Tyson writes historical Western fiction rooted in the aftermath of the Civil War, where questions of honor, loss, and survival take center stage. Influenced by classic storytellers like Louis L’Amour, Larry McMurtry, and the Western television heroes he grew up watching, his work explores what happens when the fight is over and a man is left to decide who he is without it.

His Devil’s Shadow series follows Captain Robert Hester through a fractured post-war America and into the unforgiving frontier beyond.

Tyson lives in a small town in South Carolina, where the landscape is quiet—but the stories he tells are anything but. Visit Burt at his website.

Amazon link – not affiliated with BBNB: https://bit.ly/4vTQamj

Goodreads: 

THE SHADOW APPEARS: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242866374-the-shadow-appearsTHE SHADOW GROWS: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/249546840-the-shadow-grows

Bookouture Blog Tour for The Lady at the Lodging House by Natalie Meg Evans

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I’m so happy to take part in the tour for this historical fiction/WWII novel, which is book 3 of the Wartime Boarding House series by Natalie Meg Evans: The Lady at the Boarding House. This installment focuses on Betony, the wealthy socialite who is living with her friends in London and trying to make her way on her own financially, though her past life has left her with very few skills. Even though Betony is the main character, the other major characters, Grace and Jess, play key roles in the story. As I read each book in the series, I like it even more than the one before – I think this is because each one brings a further depth to the main characters and their trials and tribulations. Okay, I’ll say it: this was my favorite in the series so far!

Thank you for my copy and for having me as part of the tour.

Here’s the scoop:

The Lady at the Lodging House

The Wartime Lodging House Book 3

Natalie Meg Evans

London, 1940. In a Mayfair townhouse behind a wide front door, three women must bond together to make it through the war – no matter their differences.

A world away from the wealth and comfort of her family home, lord’s daughter BetonyStyles has come to love her new life at a London lodging house with Grace and Jess. Selling her beautiful gowns to pay for her rent and rations for the other girls, Betony is determined to do her bit.

By day she works in the factory sewing much-needed uniforms for the Women’s Air Force. At night, air raid sirens blaze – but Betony and the other girls do all they can to help in the hardest hit neighbourhoods, rescuing a precious newborn from the rubble. And she’s head over heels with her beau, brave Canadian pilot Winter Macpherson.

But her father believes duty to her family should come before her duty for her country. He demands she give up playing games and come home once and for all.

To stand up to her father and follow her own path, Betony needs Grace and Jess more than ever. But when Winter disappears, her heart shatters. Together, can the lodging house girls give each other hope even in the darkest times?

A completely unputdownable historical novel, perfect for fans of Jean Grainger, Lisa Wingate and Diney Costeloe. Your heart will break at this beautiful story of love, friendship and courage.

About the Author:

Natalie Meg Evans has been an art student, actor, PR copywriter, book-keeper and bar tender but always wanted to write. A USA Today best-seller and RITA nominee, she is author of four published novels which follow the fortunes of strong-minded women during the 1930s and 40s. Fashion, manners and art are the glass through which her characters’ lives are viewed. Each novel is laced with passion, romance and desire. Mystery is never far away.

An avid absorber of history – for her sixth birthday she got a toy Arthurian castle with plastic knights – Natalie views historical fiction as theatre for the imagination. Her novels delve behind the scenes of a prestige industry: high fashion, millinery, theatre, wine making. Rich arenas for love and conflict. Most at home in the English countryside, Natalie lives in rural Suffolk. She has one son.

Voted Most Likely to Murder by Lacey Moone

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My friends at Crooked Lane Books sent me several options of cozies to read this spring and one I chose was Voted Most Likely to Murder by Lacey Moone. Loved this fun read about a murder at a high school reunion. Who doesn’t like a good reunion story where chaos ensues? So much fun and well-written, too!

Thank you for my copy!!

Here’s the scoop:

A high school reunion comes to an abrupt end when the dead body of the class jock shocks the school’s gymnasium in this cozy mystery debut, perfect for fans of Ellery Adams and Eva Gates.

Belinda Bishop is unemployed and single. At thirty-two, her journalism career feels stuck, and let’s not even speak about her love life, which isn’t helping her look forward to her upcoming high school reunion. Stuck working at her parents’ seaside cottage and RV park in Nova Scotia for the time being, she needs time to regroup and come up with a killer story to get her career and her life back on track.

When she literally stumbles across the dead body of the philandering class jock at the reunion, the party quickly comes to a stop. At first, it seems like the perfect opportunity for Belinda to channel her inner Christianne Amanpour, until her childhood-best-friend-turned-nemesis, Jolene Dexter, is declared the prime suspect. Despite their falling out, Belinda is convinced the former pageant queen is innocent.

As the two women struggle to put aside their differences, they have to work together to catch the real murderer before this sleepy coastal town is rocked to its foundations. 

This romp of a mystery is perfect for fans of Jenn McKinlay and Benjamin Stevenson.