strong female protagonist

HTP Blog Tour for: A Most Puzzling Murder by Bianca Marais

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Here I am on the blog tour for a new and fun-to-read novel: A Most Puzzling Murder, by Bianca Marais, complete with puzzles and choose your own next step! Just a note that I recommend getting this one in a physical copy as I personally struggled with my older Kindle in navigating the pages and also clearly seeing the puzzles. That said, this was great fun and something that I would have enjoyed as an older teen as well. Definitely a unique choice that was fun and engaging – thank you for my copy and having me as part of the tour!

Here’s the scoop:

A Most Puzzling Murder

Bianca Marais

On Sale Date: June 10, 2025

9780778368601, 0778368602

Trade Paperback

$19.99 USD, $23.99 CAD

Fiction / Myster & Detective

480 pages

About the Book:

Interspersed with riddles and puzzles that both Destiny and the reader must solve, A Most Puzzling Murder is a one-of-a-kind mystery that will leave you guessing and gasping until the very last page!

Destiny Whip is a former child prodigy, world-renowned enigmatologist and very, very alone. A life filled with loss has made her a recluse, an existence she’s content to endure until a letter arrives inviting her to interview for the position of Scruffmore family historian. Not only does an internet search for the name yield almost nothing, it’s a role she never applied to in the first place!

She decodes the invitation’s hidden message with ease, and its promise to reveal her family secrets proves too powerful a draw for the orphaned Destiny, who soon finds herself on Eerie Island. It’s a place whose inhabitants are almost as inhospitable as the tempestuous weather. The Scruffmores themselves turn out to be not much better, a snarled mess of secrets and motives connected by their mistrust for one another.

Their newly arrived guest proves to be just as much an enigma to them as they are to her. While Destiny slowly works to unravel the mysteries hidden throughout the ominous castle, she struggles to interpret disturbing nightly visions of what is to come. In the midst of cryptic ciphers, hidden passages, and the family’s magical line of succession, Destiny is certain of two things: one of the Scruffmores is going to die and she’s running out of time to stop it.

About the Author:

BIANCA MARAIS cohosts the popular podcast The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, which is aimed at helping emerging writers get published. She teaches creative writing through the podcast and was named a winner of the Excellence in Teaching Award for Creative Writing at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. She lives in Toronto, where she loves playing escape-room games and writing about strong female protagonists. 

Social Links:

Author website: https://www.biancamarais.com/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/biancamaraisauthor 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/biancam_author/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/biancamarais_author/ 

Buy Links: (not affiliated with BBNB)

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Most-Puzzling-Murder-humorous-mystery/dp/0778387690

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-most-puzzling-murder-bianca-marais/1146847363

Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-most-peculiar-tale-indeed-original-bianca-marais/21435438 

Books-A-Million: https://www.booksamillion.com/p/9780778368601 

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-most-puzzling-murder 

AppleBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/a-most-puzzling-murder/id6501987778 

Google Play: https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Most_Puzzling_Murder.html?id=rbs7EQAAQBAJ 

Libro.FM: https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781488233814-a-most-puzzling-murder 

Indigo: https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/a-most-puzzling-murder-a-quirky-humorous-locked-room-murder-mystery-with-riddles-and-puzzles-for-the-reader-to-solve/9780778368601.html 

Target: https://www.target.com/p/a-most-puzzling-murder-by-bianca-marais/-/A-93112360 

Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/ip/A-Most-Puzzling-Murder-A-Quirky-Humorous-Locked-Room-Murder-Mystery-with-Riddles-and-Puzzles-for-the-Reader-to-Solve-Paperback-9780778368601/5560832578?classType=REGULAR&from=/search 

Thank you to Harper-Collins for my copy and for having me as part of the tour!

Finding Flora by Elinor Florence

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Elinor Florence is one of my favorite Canadian authors. Her books are generally historical fiction and feature strong, female protagonists. I’ve gotten to “know” Elinor through social media and she seems like a truly nice person who loves her heritage and her family.

I was very excited for her to send me her new novel Finding Flora, which publishes at the end of April. This novel centered on a young woman who was a sole, female homesteader in the Canadian West in the early 1900s. It was an interesting story, and I learned several new things about homesteading in Canada.

Here’s the scoop:

Description

A rollicking historical novel set in turn-of-the-century Alberta about a young woman on the run from her abusive husband who uses a legal loophole to claim a homestead in the Wild West—perfect for fans of Outlawed and The Giver of Stars.

Scottish newcomer Flora Craigie jumps from a moving train in 1905 to escape her abusive husband. Desperate to disappear, she claims a homestead on the beautiful but wild Alberta prairie, determined to create a new life for herself. She is astonished to find that her nearest neighbours are also female: a Welsh widow with three children; two American women raising chickens; and a Métis woman who supports herself by training wild horses.

While battling both the brutal environment and the local cynicism toward female farmers, the five women with their very different backgrounds struggle to find common ground. But when their homes are threatened with expropriation by a hostile government, they join forces to “fire the heather,” a Scottish term meaning to raise a ruckus. To complicate matters, there are signs that Flora’s violent husband is still hunting for her. And as the competition for free land along the new Canadian Pacific Railway line heats up, an unscrupulous land agent threatens not only Flora’s livelihood, but her very existence.

Not only Flora, but her female homesteader friends were all interesting characters and I was cheering them on during this story. I was so glad to have a chance to read this novel and I can say with certainty that I do NOT have what it takes to be a strong female on the prairies like the women featured in this book!

Thank you, Elinor, for sharing your work with me – and for teaching this American a bit about Canadian history!

Blog Tour for THE LIBRARY THIEF by Kuchenga Shenjé

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I’m thrilled to take part in the Harper-Collins blog tour for the new novel The Library Thief by Kuchenga Shenjé. This story had a true Gothic feel to it, and I enjoyed the somewhat creepy ambience and mysterious atmosphere it held! I also loved the strong female protagonist.

Here’s the overview:

THE LIBRARY THIEF 

Author: Kuchenga Shenjé

Publication Date: May 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781335909695

Hardcover 

Publisher: Hanover Square Press

Price $29.99

Buy Links: NOT affiliated with BBNB

HarperCollins: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-library-thief-kuchenga-shenje?variant=41109244739618 

BookShop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-library-thief-original-kuchenga-shenje/20641408?ean=9781335909695 

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-library-thief-kuchenga-shenj/1144095064 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1335909699/keywords=fiction 

Social Links:

Author website: https://kuchenga.com/ 

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/32054609.Kuchenga_Shenj_ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kuchengcheng 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kuchenga/ 

Book Summary: 

The library is under lock and key. But its secrets can’t be contained.

A strikingly original and absorbing mystery about a white-passing bookbinder in Victorian England and the secrets lurking on the estate where she works, for fans of Fingersmith and The Confessions of Frannie Langton 

1896. After he brought her home from Jamaica as a baby, Florence’s father had her hair hot-combed to make her look like the other girls. But as a young woman, Florence is not so easy to tame—and when she brings scandal to his door, the bookbinder throws her onto the streets of Manchester.

Intercepting her father’s latest commission, Florence talks her way into the remote, forbidding Rose Hall to restore its collection of rare books. Lord Francis Belfield’s library is old and full of secrets—but none so intriguing as the whispers about his late wife.

Then one night, the library is broken into. Strangely, all the priceless tomes remain untouched. Florence is puzzled, until she discovers a half-burned book in the fireplace. She realizes with horror that someone has found and set fire to the secret diary of Lord Belfield’s wife–which may hold the clue to her fate…

Evocative, arresting and tightly plotted, The Library Thief is at once a propulsive Gothic mystery and a striking exploration of race, gender and self-discovery in Victorian England. 

Author Bio:

KUCHENGA SHENJÉ is a writer, journalist, and speaker with work on many media platforms, including gal-dem, British Vogue and Netflix. She has contributed short stories and essays to several anthologies, most notably It’s Not OK to Feel Blue (and Other Lies), Who’s Loving You and Loud Black Girls. Owing to a lifelong obsession with books and the written word, Kuchenga studied creative writing at the Open University. Her work is focused on the perils of loving, being loved and women living out loud throughout the ages. The Library Thief is the ultimate marriage of her passions for history, mystery and rebels. She currently resides in Manchester, where she is determined to continue living a life worth writing about.

PRAISE: 

“Shenjé rightfully joins a distinguished line of authors who love books and secrets and know exactly how to combine the two.”—Booklist 

“A tantalizing read that swells with secrecy and intrigue. It’s hard to believe that Kuchenga Shenjé writes of the past, and not of the present. A beautifully and skillfully written debut.”—Candice Carty-Williams, bestselling author of Queenie 


“Shenjé shines a light on LGBTQIA+ love and people of color in Victorian England… Fans of Sarah Waters and Bridget Collins might have in Shenjé a new author to add to their TBR lists.”—Library Journal 

“Powerful, sagacious and warm, The Library Thief is both a gripping, multi-layered mystery and a gorgeously absorbing novel that demanded I return to its pages whenever I had the audacity to set it down. Without a doubt, Shenjé’s wholly original debut has bestseller written all over it.“—Joanne Burn, author of The Hemlock Cure
 
“A compelling novel that starts as a mystery and grows into a coming-of-age story, examining identity, belonging, loneliness and friendship within the restrictive and stifling world of late Victorian society. The Library Thief is filled with fantastically drawn characters and with a love of books that shines through the prose.”—Katie Lumsden, author of The Secrets of Hartwood Hall

 “If this book’s a thief of anything—it was my attention. I was hooked, the story opening with the tantalizing traditions of a gothic mystery and then unfurling in unexpected directions, threading themes of identity, sexuality and a woman’s impossible choices into an intricate web of mysteries that would not let me go.”—Cari Thomas, international bestselling author of Threadneedle

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

Finding Flora by Elinor Florence

/ drbethnolan / 1 Comment

Elinor Florence is one of my favorite Canadian authors. Her books are generally historical fiction and feature strong, female protagonists. I’ve gotten to “know” Elinor through social media and she seems like a truly nice person who loves her heritage and her family.

I was very excited for her to send me her new novel Finding Flora, which publishes at the end of April. This novel centered on a young woman who was a sole, female homesteader in the Canadian West in the early 1900s. It was an interesting story, and I learned several new things about homesteading in Canada.

Here’s the scoop:

Description

A rollicking historical novel set in turn-of-the-century Alberta about a young woman on the run from her abusive husband who uses a legal loophole to claim a homestead in the Wild West—perfect for fans of Outlawed and The Giver of Stars.

Scottish newcomer Flora Craigie jumps from a moving train in 1905 to escape her abusive husband. Desperate to disappear, she claims a homestead on the beautiful but wild Alberta prairie, determined to create a new life for herself. She is astonished to find that her nearest neighbours are also female: a Welsh widow with three children; two American women raising chickens; and a Métis woman who supports herself by training wild horses.

While battling both the brutal environment and the local cynicism toward female farmers, the five women with their very different backgrounds struggle to find common ground. But when their homes are threatened with expropriation by a hostile government, they join forces to “fire the heather,” a Scottish term meaning to raise a ruckus. To complicate matters, there are signs that Flora’s violent husband is still hunting for her. And as the competition for free land along the new Canadian Pacific Railway line heats up, an unscrupulous land agent threatens not only Flora’s livelihood, but her very existence.

Not only Flora, but her female homesteader friends were all interesting characters and I was cheering them on during this story. I was so glad to have a chance to read this novel and I can say with certainty that I do NOT have what it takes to be a strong female on the prairies like the women featured in this book!

Thank you, Elinor, for sharing your work with me – and for teaching this American a bit about Canadian history!

No Exit by Taylor Adams

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Am I the only person who loves to read about the dead of winter in the heat of summer?

I had come across this title on the blogosphere and it sounded soooo good: suspense, mystery, a young woman out to save a kidnapped child, an unknown perpetrator, all stuck at a rest stop during a blizzard! This story had many twists and turns and it kept me guessing until the last chapters.

I’ve never read a novel by Mr. Adams but he has several and they all look suspenseful! I enjoyed this one a lot and will look to read his others.

Highly recommended if you like this genre!

Here’s the overview from Amazon (where I purchased my kindle copy):

A brilliant, edgy thriller about four strangers, a blizzard, a kidnapped child, and a determined young woman desperate to unmask and outwit a vicious psychopath.

A kidnapped little girl locked in a stranger’s van. No help for miles. What would you do?

On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Inside are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers.

Desperate to find a signal to call home, Darby goes back out into the storm . . . and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her car, a little girl is locked in an animal crate.

Who is the child? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her?

There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one?

Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation, with a child’s life and her own on the line, Darby must find a way to break the girl out of the van and escape.

But who can she trust?

With exquisitely controlled pacing, Taylor Adams diabolically ratchets up the tension with every page. Full of terrifying twists and hairpin turns, No Exit will have you on the edge of your seat and leave you breathless.

The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs by Katherine Howe

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This spring I listened to the audiobook of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane via Audible and I loved it! I knew Katherine Howe from her awesome YA novel, Conversion, so I knew I’d enjoy another novel by her. Physick Book is the first in a series about women “witches” and their descendants. It was quite intriguing and well-narrated. And I was thrilled that I could immediately pair it with The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs, since that continued the story. That said, I don’t think you need to read one in order to read the other — “Daughters” stands alone as a novel in its own right.

Here’s the overview:

Description

New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe returns to the world of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane with a bewitching story of a New England history professor who must race against time to free her family from a curse

Connie Goodwin is an expert on America’s fractured past with witchcraft. A young, tenure-track professor in Boston, she’s earned career success by studying the history of magic in colonial America—especially women’s home recipes and medicines—and by exposing society’s threats against women fluent in those skills. But beyond her studies, Connie harbors a secret: She is the direct descendant of a woman tried as a witch in Salem, an ancestor whose abilities were far more magical than the historical record shows.

When a hint from her mother and clues from her research lead Connie to the shocking realization that her partner’s life is in danger, she must race to solve the mystery behind a hundreds’-years-long deadly curse.

Flashing back through American history to the lives of certain supernaturally gifted women, The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs affectingly reveals not only the special bond that unites one particular matriarchal line, but also explores the many challenges to women’s survival across the decades—and the risks some women are forced to take to protect what they love most.

Now I’m the type of person who LOVES reading about history and Salem and Katherine Howe has a wealth of information and knowledge, and is a gifted writer, so this was a win for me. I actually had the chance to briefly meet Ms. Howe at BEA several years ago and she was quite gracious and lovely and humble.

Thank you, Net Galley and Henry Holt and Co., for my review copy!

Happy June 25th Pub Day to Ms. Howe!

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

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I absolutely loved this story about a “blue” woman who works as a librarian on horseback in the mountainous “hollers” of Kentucky. Cussy Mary’s vocation is to bring literacy to the people of her area and the fact that she is shunned for being “blue” won’t stop her. I loved the voice of this character and found the storyline intriguing and interesting. I did wonder why the author chose the blue storyline and then discovered that it is based in fact — there was a succession of Kentuckians who shared a recessive gene that led to unoxygenated blood, which makes the skin appear blue. Interesting!

Highly recommended! Thanks for my e-copy to review!

Description

The hardscrabble folks of Troublesome Creek have to scrap for everything—everything except books, that is.  Thanks to Roosevelt’s Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, Troublesome’s got its very own  traveling librarian, Cussy Mary Carter. 

Cussy’s not only a book woman, however,  she’s also the last of her kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike most anyone else. Not everyone is keen on Cussy’s family or the Library Project, and a Blue is often blamed for any whiff of trouble.  If Cussy wants to bring the joy of books to the hill folks, she’s going to have to confront prejudice as old as the Appalachias and suspicion as deep as the holler. 

Inspired by the true blue-skinned people of Kentucky and the brave and dedicated Kentucky Pack Horse library service of the 1930s, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a story of raw courage,  fierce strength, and one woman’s belief that books can carry us anywhere — even back home.

The Forbidden Place by Susanne Jansson

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Creepy and weird — if you like books that are somewhat haunting and creepy and very “atmospheric”, this is one for you! This novel is a mystery centered around deaths (murders?) at a bog and our protagonist lives right next to it and is drawn to it. I liked the bit of history woven into the story about how human sacrifices were done many years ago and how the bog was used for ritual.

I liked the main character in this story, though she has a sad back story – a story which becomes apparent as the novel unfolds. I almost wondered if there could be a sequel to this book when I reached the end – ?? Overall, it was compelling and mysterious and I enjoyed it!

Thank you for my review copy via Net Galley.

Description via N.G. –

Kitty Hawk and the Curse of the Yukon Gold by Iain Reading

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Several weeks ago I received a copy of the first “Kitty Hawk” mystery — Kitty Hawk and the Curse of the Yukon Gold. This is a start of a series geared for readers in the middle grades and up.

Here’s the overview from Amazon:

**************************************************

This was a fun read, with interesting real-life pictures and a spunky heroine who is both brace and intelligent. It’s my favorite type of historical fiction, a novel where you learn as you read. This is book one in the series (currently at five installments) but you can read it as a stand alone. Kitty is a likable and memorable protagonist.

If I were to change one thing (and remember I’m old!), I found the print very dense. I would have preferred it on my kindle where I could make the print larger.

Thank you for my review copy! I could see this being used in classrooms — around grades 5/6.

Here’ a bit on Mr. Reading, author:

About the Author

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I Like Root Beer. When I was younger I fancied myself a bit of a Root Beer connoisseur, drinking my favourite brand (A&W, of course) from tall, narrow champagne flûtes and revelled in the sound of the ice cubes clinking against the side of the thin glass, creating a magical tinkling ambiance as I looked down my nose at all the other inferior Root Beer vintages. As I grew older and began to travel all across the globe I was naturally inclined to seek out the very best Root Beers that the world had to offer. Sadly, as I was to discover, Root Beer is very much a North-American thing and you can’t really find it anywhere else in the world. On the bright side, however, it turns out that the world is a pretty great place even without Root Beer. There are a million amazing things to see and as many more ways for all of us to see them, as our heroine and friend Kitty Hawk finds out in the course of her various adventures.

 

Historical Fiction Blog Tour Review: A LITTLE WICKED by Janet Macreery

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03_A Little Wicked_Blog Tour Banner_FINAL (2)

Hello! I’m happy today to be part of HFVB tour’s A LITTLE WICKED blog tour, hosting Janet Macreery’s YA novel about a young, resilient Scottish girl in the 1600’s.

In A LITTLE WICKED, young Dory’s clan is murdered by a rival clan, and she is sent by her uncle to America. Dory first poses as a boy in order to get passage on a ship (where she works as the bird boy). Upon arriving in Massachusetts, she finds her uncle and aunt and joins their household – in Salem. It is 1692 and that is definitely NOT a year to be living in Salem, Massachusetts! Dory is drawn in to the hysteria over witchcraft. Will she have the wits to once again survive?

I enjoyed reading this short and entertaining book. I loved the character of Dory, who was resourceful and strong and sensible. This poor girl had one tough time after another, yet she never gave up. I also liked the little twist at the end!

Recommended for older elementary readers and middle school, it should also be engaging for reluctant readers.

Thank you, Amy of HFVBT and Ms. Macreery, for my review copy!

Here’s a You Tube book trailer (love the bagpipes!):