Bookouture Tour for THE IRISH INHERITANCE by Daisy O’Shea

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

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

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

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.

Bookouture Blog Tour for: The Afternoon Tea Murders by Helena Dixon

I’m so happy to be part of this tour for Book 4 of the Secret Detective Agency series The Afternoon Tea Murders by Helena Dixon. I just love this series, which is WWII historical mystery. It probably can count as a cozy as it’s not graphic or violent, but it’s more like a Maggie Hope mystery or an Agatha Christie novel, than a true cozy. Always well-plotted, this one focuses on Jane and Arthur in the countryside when a local tea shop owner is found dead. No one is as they seem and Jane needs to get to the bottom of it all. I love that she takes her cranky cat Marmaduke everywhere with her, too!

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

Here’s the scoop:

London, 1942. Miss Jane Treen is at her desk in Whitehall sipping a strong coffee when she receives an urgent message about her colleague, codebreaker Arthur Cilento. He’s in danger in Devon, and Jane needs to get there sharpish. But before her bags are properly unpacked, the local teashop owner in Arthur’s village is found lying amidst the scones and teacakes… and she’s dead.

When Jane arrives, it quickly becomes clear that the murder is a half-baked attempt to curdle Arthur’s current codebreaking mission – but how? There seem to be suspects at every turn. Is Arthur’s boss be going to extremes to cover up his incompetence? Can the teashop customers be trusted? And what about the secretary, who seems to have secret links to the village teashop…

Spurred on by scones and clotted cream, Jane and Arthur start to whip up a theory as to who the killer could be. But just they begin to make progress, someone else is murdered – and it looks like Arthur could be next. It’s clear they need to solve this case quickly, before teatime is over and Arthur meets a sticky end…

If you love twisty crime novels, top-secret intrigue and the very best of Golden Age mysteries, then you will adore Helena Dixon’s utterly gripping cozy novel, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey and Verity Bright!

About the Author:

Helena Dixon is the author of the internationally bestselling Miss Underhay cozy mystery series. She is a Black Country girl living in Devon. Married to the same man for over thirty-five years she has three daughters, a cactus called Spike, and a crazy cockapoo. She was the winner of the RNA Romance Prize in 2007 and the RNA Love Story of the Year 2010.

Bookouture Tour for The Hopeful Hearts Bookshop by Debbie Johnson

I’m here today for the tour of The Hopeful Hearts Bookshop by Debbie Johnson. This is the start of the new “Bonnie Bay” book series. If you read me, you know I don’t read too many romances, but I do like a gentle, happy story/romance occasionally. I loved the premise of this story, where folks mysteriously find an invitation in a book and they are drawn together. I am thankful to Bookouture who sent me the audio of this book as my ARC never arrived. It was ably narrated by Josh Wichard and Lucy Paterson. I was in the middle of enjoying it during my commute when it must have archived due to Pub Day as it disappeared from my NG shelf and I was unable to finish it. I trust there is a happy ending!!

“Take a leap of faith and visit our perfect little bookshop by the sea.” Bookshop owner Moira writes the first of many invitations she’ll send out into the world. They’ll find the right people, she’s certain…

Single and in a dead-end job, Kate feels hope spring when an anonymous invitation falls from the pages of a book. Now, she’s standing in a charming Scottish village and trying to ignore the six-four silver fox by her side. He’s got an invitation too, a husky Chicago accent, and dangerously gorgeous sea-blue eyes…

Widowed ex-police officer Brody never expected to be stranded in Scotland with a cute British lady. Her smile might be bewitching… but her attitude? Way too cheerful. And eccentric bookshop owner Moira says they can stay for free, as long as they don’t mind sharing one very cozy little cottage.

That’s the least of their problems. Turns out Moira’s bookshop needs them just as much as Kate and Brody need a fresh start. And with a twinkle in Moira’s mischievous matchmaking eye, things are soon hotting up in surprising ways!

But as they string fairy lights over snug reading nooks and rally the whole community to buy their favourite reads, can Kate and Brody save the bookshop and heal their hearts? Or will their fresh start come crashing down?

From the million-copy bestselling author of the Comfort Food Café series comes a brand-new, totally addictive and feel-good escapist romance with delicious steam and spice. Perfect for anyone who loves getting lost in a book – in more ways than one! Fans of Susan Mallery, Phillipa Ashley and Laurie Gilmore won’t be able to put this down.

About the Author:

Debbie Johnson is an award-winning author who lives and works in Liverpool, England, where she divides her time between writing, caring for a small tribe of children and animals, and not doing the housework. She writes feel-good emotional women’s fiction, and has sold more than 1 million books worldwide. She is published globally in many different languages, and her books include the best-selling Comfort Food Cafe series, the popular Starshine Cove series, Maybe One Day The Moment I Met You and Forever Yours . Her publishers include One More Chapter (HarperCollins), Orion (Hachette), Storm, and Bookouture (Hachette).

Bookouture Tour for The Tuscan Villa by Ella Carey

I’m dishing today about a new historical fiction book that I really enjoyed: The Tuscan Villa by Ella Carey. Fran leaves her life in the US to return to Italy to try to find out what happened to her beloved Vivi who disappeared during the war (WWII). I really liked this storyline and Carey’s writing. As you know if you read me, I love a good WWII story!

Thanks for my copy and for having me on the tour!

Here’s the scoop:

Italy, 1945. As war rages through Europe, a crumbling family villa that becomes a vital safe space for the people of Cortona during the war. But that sanctuary is lost the day its owner, Vivi, mysteriously vanishes…

Manhattan, 1953. Francesca feels smothered by lace as she tries on wedding dresses in an uptown boutique. Can she really start a new life with her fiancé without first answering the questions she has about her childhood in Italy? Confronted with the news that the bougainvillea-covered villa she grew up in is for sale, and the lavish gardens her father designed and cultivated are destined to be razed, she buys a plane ticket and doesn’t look back. She can’t stand by and watch it all turn to rubble.

Fran chokes back a sob as she finds the gardens wild and overgrown and the once-pristine follies crumbling under the baking sun. But the lingering scent of the Italian basil from the kitchen garden brings Fran closer to the father she lost. To save this sacred space she must uncover what really happened when Vivi disappeared.

But while standoffish locals treat Fran like an outsider, she knows she is closing in on a secret at the very heart of the gardens she ran barefoot through as a young girl; a tragic love triangle that plagued the villa, defied the authorities, and might change everything Fran thinks she knows about who she is. One thing is certain: what happened to Vivi was no accident.

And just when Fran thinks she’s uncovered a truth that will shake the little village of Cortona to its foundations, she discovers a letter that changes everything once again. Can Fran find a way to save the gardens before they are destroyed? Or will she be forced to return home to a future in New York that no longer fits?

From bestselling author Ella Carey comes an utterly heart-wrenching and gripping World War Two historical novel that will transport you straight to the Tuscan countryside. Fans of Kathryn Hughes, Fiona Valpy and Victoria Hislop will be utterly enchanted.

About the Author:

Ella Carey is the international bestselling author of The Things We Don’t Say, Secret Shores, From a Paris Balcony, The House by the Lake, and Paris Time Capsule. Her books have been published in over fourteen languages, in twelve countries, and have been shortlisted for ARRA awards. A Francophile who has long been fascinated by secret histories set in Europe’s entrancing past, Ella has degrees in music, nineteenth-century women’s fiction, and modern European history. She lives in Melbourne with her two children and two Italian greyhounds who are constantly mistaken for whippets.

Ella loves to connect with her readers regularly through her facebook page and on her website.

Too Close to Home by Seraphina Nova Glass

Harper-Collins sent me a early galley and an audiobook of this new title and I really really enjoyed it! It was an explosive thriller that kept me reading (or listening!) and I couldn’t put it down. At times, I would think “how is this all going to come together??” but the end tied it all together and was very satisfying. Thank you for my copy and for the audio (always good for the 2+ hours I drive a day!!).

Here’s the scoop:

From the two-time Edgar Award–nominated author of ON A QUIET STREET and THE VACANCY IN ROOM 10

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES meets FINLAY DONOVAN in this darkly humorous thriller about three women’s lives colliding around an explosive murder, a bizarre cover-up, and a riveting search for the truth in a multi-cast audiobook narrated by Brittany Pressley, Rebecca Lowman, and Karissa Vacker!

“Explosive, addictive, and impossible to put down.”—Noelle Ihli, bestselling author of Such Quiet Girls

Those lucky enough to live in the elite lakefront community of Cloverhill Lakes are drawn to it for its safety and top-notch school district. The moms meet for coffee at the park while their kids play, they’re heavily involved in the PTA, and the summers are filled with chardonnay, brunch, sundresses, and backyard bonfires.

But everything changes when Regan Hoffman’s car explodes at the annual Labor Day party. The wrong person is killed, but it was meant for her. As the carefully crafted walls of her community begin to crumble, Regan tries to keep it together—something made infinitely harder when she sees her dead husband…alive.

When a Cloverhill Lakes resident suddenly goes missing, dark secrets begin to surface from underneath the idyllic veneer of their beautiful community—and the truth threatens to destroy them all as Regan finds herself in a fight for her life.

For readers who love:

  • Small lakeside community vibes
  • Twists that will leave you breathless
  • Dark humor and wild antics
  • Dramatic domestic suspense
  • Multiple POVs
  • Desperate Housewives meets Finlay Donovan

Seraphina Nova Glass was a fairly new author for me (I read her “Nothing Ever Happens Here” last year), and I look forward to reading more by her. Here’s some info about her from her website: seraphinanovaglass.com

Seraphina Nova Glass is a two-time EDGAR AWARD nominated author. Her novel, On A Quiet Street, was a New York Times Summer Read, a #1 Amazon Bestseller, and Editor’s Pick. It was also featured in the Boston Globe and Bustle.

Publisher’s Weekly has named her “a writer to watch.” She’s also an award-winning playwright and holds an MFA degree in Dramatic Writing from Smith College.

She is a proud dog mom to Boston Terrier, Spaghetti, and loves to travel the world with her husband, Mark. She resides in Dallas, TX.

Bookouture Tour for A Body at the Irish Book Club by Lucy Connelly

I really enjoy this series with mystery author Mercy McCarthy solving mysteries with her sister, her love interest police officer, and her dog! They live in Ireland in a bookshop they’ve inherited and I really like how Mercy and her sister are close but not similar. This was a good one (they’re all good!) that kept me guessing. You can read these in order or by themselves. I’ve read them in order and can’t wait for the next one!

Here’s the scoop:

The Shamrock Cove Autumn Festival is filling the town with the delicious aroma of cinnamon-stuffed pastries, the cheerful sight of jaunty jack o’lanterns and… a body at the local book club

Mercy McCarthy is delighted to see old neighbors and new friends come to the bookstore to support her sister’s autumn book club. But as Mercy closes the chapter on the evening, she stumbles across local grandmother Eva, lifelessly slumped in a squashy armchair at the back of the store.

She recognizes Eva as one of the festival’s main organizers and though she looks to be at peace, the plot thickens when Mercy notices a suspicious mark on her neck. She knows this was no accident. With so many people in the store that night, any one of them could be the killer.

Just as Mercy reads a suspicious-sounding entry for the festival’s fiction-writing contest, another body turns up on the beach. Is someone in Shamrock Cove dying for a bestseller?

It’s up to Mercy and her crime-solving canine companion Mr. Poe to sniff out the suspects before another victim is taken. Could the murderer be the garden center owner who dabbles in chemistry? Eva’s ne’er-do-well grandson-in-law? Or the local busybody who has an opinion about everybody?

Mercy has to hit the books—and the streets of Shamrock Cove—to solve the mystery before the killer has the last word.

An utterly addictive Irish cozy mystery in a small town full of quirky neighbors, charming festivals and one unstoppable amateur detective. Fans of Agatha Christie, Carlene O’Connor and Faith Martin will love meeting Mercy McCarthy!

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

Here’s a bit about the author…

Bestselling author Candace Havens has published more than 25 books. Her novels have received nominations for the RITA’s, Holt Medallion, Write Touch Reader Awards and National Reader’s Choice Awards. She is a Barbara Wilson Award winner. She is the author of the biography Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy and a contributor to several anthologies. She is also one of the nation’s leading entertainment journalists and has interviewed countless celebrities from George Clooney to Chris Pratt. Candace runs a free online writing workshop for more than 2000 writers and teaches comprehensive writing classes. She does film reviews with Hawkeye in the Morning on 96.3 KSCS, and is a former President of the Television Critics Association.

Bookouture Tour for Murder at the Highland Games by Dee McDonald

I’m dishing today about the fourth book in the Ally McKinley cozy mystery series – Murder at the Highland Games. I love this series, which focuses on a middle-aged woman who runs a guest house in Scotland and solves mysteries. There’s a fun cast of local characters in these stories and they are well-plotted and well-paced. I did not figure it out before the “reveal”. Can’t wait for the next story – you can read them as stand alones or in order.

Here’s the scoop:

When a fun day out in the Scottish Highlands turns fatal, there’s only one solution: call for Ally McKinley!

It’s the annual Locharran Highland Games and Ally McKinley has never seen her little village so busy or excited. Everyone’s enjoying the Scottish dancing, the bagpipes, and cheering the competitors on. But there’s a hitch in the proceedings when champion challenger Archie Armstrong drops dead in the middle of tossing the caber. Rushing to the scene, Ally is the first to spot that Archie’s death was no accident – this was murder!

Ally flings herself into a new investigation and soon discovers that more than one person may have had a murderous motive, including some of the current residents of her cosy little guesthouse. Patti, Archie’s glamourous wife, seems intent on acting like the perfect widow, but rumours of infidelity have been flying. Is her performance too good? Could her uncle, cranky gamekeeper Angus, have finally snapped, furious at Archie’s treatment of his niece? Or was it one of the frustrated local competitors, desperate to end Archie’s winning streak?

Determined to crack the case and fuelled by more than one piece of her famous shortbread, Ally begins to narrow down her list of possible culprits, but is thrown for a loop when her chief suspect is found dead by the loch, a mysterious and threatening note clutched in their fingers. With a killer at large, can Ally finally uncover the truth? Or, as the sun sets over the highlands, will this game be her last?

For fans of Agatha Christie, Faith Martin and Clare Chase, this totally unputdownable cozy mystery set in the beautiful Scottish Highlands will have you turning the pages late into the night!

About the author:

Dee MacDonald grew up on an isolated farm in the Scottish Highlands. An only child, she’d often get fed up of reading and listening to a crackling radio, so her mother encouraged her to draw and to write ‘wee stories’, which she’d sew together into little books.

As an adult, her working life took her all over the globe as an air stewardess, into the world of TV, where she worked in Market Research and Sales, and then into hospitality, running B&Bs for over ten years.

After first finding her love of writing as a little girl, Dee became a published author of cosy crime and women’s fiction in her seventies. She lives by the sea in Cornwall with her husband, and has one son and two grandsons.

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

Fun fact: I’m currently in a local production of Brigadoon so this read was very timely for me!