The latest unforgettable timeslip novel from the USA Today bestselling author of The Secret of the Chateau.
Will love lead her to a devastating choice?
1942. Three years into the war, Pam turns down her hard-won place at Oxford University to become a codebreaker at Bletchley Park. There, she meets two young men, both keen to impress her, and Pam finds herself falling hard for one of them. But as the country’s future becomes more uncertain by the day, a tragic turn of events casts doubt on her choice – and Pam’s loyalty is pushed to its limits…
Present day. Julia is struggling to juggle her career, two children and a husband increasingly jealous of her success. Her brother presents her with the perfect distraction: forgotten photos of their grandmother as a young woman at Bletchley Park. Why did her grandmother never speak of her time there? The search for answers leads Julia to an incredible tale of betrayal and bravery – one that inspires some huge decisions of her own…
Gripping historical fiction perfect for fans of The Girl from Berlin, The Rose Code and When We Were Brave.
The Girl From Bletchley Park is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy using the links below.
My Review:
I’m a huge fan of dual timeline stories so this book instantly appealed to me. I was not disappointed as I found this a hugely enjoyable and compelling read.
The story is set in 1943 and the present day which I always love as it’s great fun trying to solve war time mysteries. I keep hoping I might find a war time diary one day like Julie in the book so it was fun to live precariously through Julie as she learns more about her grandmother Pamela’s war time work. I must admit I did enjoy the wartime story line a bit more than the present day one but I think that mainly down to my fascination with Bletchley Park. It was interesting to see how the two women’s stories seemed to mirror each other and how they gradually came together which I thought was very clever.
I thought the research in this book was fantastic and I loved learning more about the wartime work at Bletchley Park. The author really made the place come to life and I often felt like I was actually there experiencing everything alongside the characters which I always enjoy. It was also very interesting to get to know the characters more and they soon started feeling like old friends so the reader feels everything that happens to them as if they were experiencing everything themselves.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be recommending it to others. The story had a great pace to it and there was always something happening to keep my interest. I very much look forward to reading more from this author in the future.
Huge thanks to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me onto the blog tour and to HQ stories for my copy of this book via netgalley.
About The Author:
Kathleen McGurl lives in Bournemouth with her husband. She has two sons who have both now left home. She always wanted to write, and for many years was waiting until she had the time. Eventually she came to the bitter realisation that no one would pay her for a year off work to write a book, so she sat down and started to write one anyway. Since then she has published several novels with HQ and self-published another. She has also sold dozens of short stories to women’s magazines, and written three How To books for writers. After a long career in the IT industry she became a full-time writer in 2019. When she’s not writing, she’s often out running, slowly.
Good morning everyone today I’m pleased to announce the winners if The Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship and to tell you a little bit more about them. I was also lucky enough to be sent two extracts from two of Dzifa’s fabulous poems which you can find below!
About The Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship:
Three of the UK’s most exciting poets Romalyn Ante, Dzifa Benson, and Jamie Hale have been selected as the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellows for 2020/21. Each poet receives £15,000 and is given a year of critical support and mentoring. Turning the idea of an arts prize on its head, the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship provides each poet with the time and space to focus on their craft and fulfil their potential with no expectation that they produce a particular work or outcome.
Recognising the power of potential, the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship’s approach to funding advocates for a change in art funding practice in the UK, providing opportunities outside commercial pressures for artistic growth and new ideas to flourish. The Fellowship provides financial support towards the development of under-supported and diverse artistic practices across the UK, with a focus on the pursuit of artistic experimentation and the space for artists to thrive. This alternative approach to recognising and rewarding outstanding poets, is now in its third and final edition. Previous recipients are: Raymond Antrobus, Jane Commane and Jackie Hagan (2017-18 Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellows) and Hafsah Aneela Bashir, Anthony Joseph and Yomi Ṣode (2019-20 Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellows). Romalyn Ante, Dzifa Benson, and Jamie Hale illustrate how diverse and exciting poetry has become in the 21st century. Through activism, visual arts, theatre, and drawing from their personal experiences/circumstances, the three poets express their practice through a multitude of ways, opening poetry up to a wide range of audiences. Each poet has produced outstanding work to date and have demonstrated enormous, unselfish generosity towards other poets, giving far more than they have received particularly during the pandemic. They have been selected for the potential they display at this critical point in their individual careers, when the support provided from the Fellowship will make the most difference. Alongside the freely given grant of £15,000, the three Fellows will each receive mentoring from the programme’s manager Dr Nathalie Teitler FRSA and access to experts drawn from the poetry world and beyond. Nathalie has run literature programmes promoting diversity in the UK for over 20 years, founding the first national mentoring and translation programmes for writers living in exile. She is the Director of The Complete Works – a national development programme that helped to raise the number of Black and Asian poets published by major presses.
The Winners:
Romalyn Ante
Romalyn Ante is an award-winning Filipino-born, Wolverhampton-based poet, translator, editor and essayist. She is co-founding editor of harana poetry, an online magazine for poets writing in English as a second or parallel language, and her accolades include the Poetry London Prize, Manchester Poetry Prize, Society of Author’s Foundation Award, Developing Your Creative Practice, Creative Future Literary Award, amongst others. Apart from being a writer, she also works full-time as a nurse practitioner, specializing in providing different psychotherapeutic treatments.
Dzifa Benson
Dzifa Benson is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work intersects science, art, the body and ritual, which she explores through poetry, prose, theatre-making, performance, essays and criticism. She has performed nationally and internationally for Tate Britain, the Courtauld Institute of Art, BBC Africa Beyond and more, and she abridged the National Youth Theatre’s 2021 production of Othello in collaboration with Olivier award-winning director Miranda Cromwell.
Jamie Hale
Jamie Hale is a poet, script/screenwriter and essayist based in London, whose work often explores the disabled body, nature, and mortality. Their pamphlet, Shield – about disability, treatment prioritisation, and the COVID-19 pandemic was published in January 2020. Their solo poetry show, NOT DYING, was performed at the Lyric Hammersmith and Barbican Centre in 2019, and the filmed version has screened nationally and internationally since. Jamie is also the founder of CRIPtic Arts, an organisation showcasing and developing work by and for d/Deaf and disabled creatives.
How they were selected:
The three recipients were selected from a strong field of nominees by award-winning poet and writer Joelle Taylor; writer, performer, and facilitator Yomi Ṣode (Jerwood Compton Poetry fellow 2019); and award-winning poet Pascale Petit.
Nominations were made by a pool of over 200 specialists nationally including poets, publishers, editors, literary development agencies, artists, funders and festival organisers.
Selector Joelle Taylor said: ”The task of selecting only three Fellows from a longlist of 86 poets was a painful process. Each of the poets we saw were of an international standard, committed to their practice and the changes they wish to see in their work. We made decisions based not only who was ‘best’ but on who it felt most essential to support. The three Fellows we chose are at an urgent moment in their careers. They stand at a crossroads within their art, compelled to make substantial changes, to forge new narratives, to develop in a way that would not be possible without support from Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowships.”
Extracts: Dzifa Benson
For the Love of Hendrik de Jongh, Drummer from Batavia
i In the beginning, he was my lord of the 6 weeks. When !Kaub showed the dark side of his face again, I had to slough off my lover’s name.
ii You are on the other side of the water. Here, my forehead touches only air. I map the radiant places of your body the seams of my skin brittle and ablaze.
iii Even when the rise and fall of our ribcages insist we are still here, I try to live above the flood. I breathe you in. You breathe me out. The world, in rain-wind and dilate-sun, leans in to learn which way to carve the howling sweep of years.
iv You asked: What parts of you are unknown to me? I answered: This too muchness of self in its not enoughness.
v Day empties through us as a Cape sugarbird sparkles thinly in the shadows. You let me follow you into your dreams. Vast night looks in, open-mouthed, leads us by a nose of buchu into its fluid corners on the //Stars Road. Our eyes don’t close. I want to bury the chameleon of this love in a secret place of nerve and sinew while we wait for the mantis to sing the !Great Hunger to sleep.
vi If I arrived at your voice again would it fatten into a new kind of passing time, pour down my back into this thousand years hollow of my spine? Your memory breathes warmth over my skin. My body catches it like when our astonished spirits were every crashing leaf on every tree, when our hallowed hands cupped soft curving and fingered lean meat.
vii You never left. We endured. I was still denied.
viii My I was him. In order to live I had to use the knife between us.
Lusus Naturae at Bartholomew Fair: Natural-Born, Made and Fake
Ms Harvey’s eyes and hair made people weak at the knees with an uncommon fervour
They say I look like an angel with my hair the pale straw colour of the silkworm’s thread my eyes, a shade lighter than Indian pink. They say I’m impertinent without being impolite while maintaining a proper feminine dignity. Yet the mob at Glasgow Fair was so unaffected by my beauty, it turned me out of my cosy booth as it also turned out a showful of wild beasts.
Ms Hipson, the tall Dutchwoman, dreams of dancing with a man tall enough to make her feel delicate
I cannot stand silence so it’s the glee and the din of the stage for me. I sway among rafters to the patter of the gaffer, to the gauge of long drum and hurdy-gurdy. I am a spiritual sister of giraffe-necked women, daughter of a stilt-walking Titan. Home is sawdust and greasepaint. Kin is the spit-snarl of the rabble, half-cut with pale ale.
Ms Morgan, the Windsor Fairy, excited in the breasts of dukes sensations of wonder and delight
It’s a big world and I’m a little person. Blood can be flowers or the very last thing you ever see. Even walking can seem like a uncanny thing when you are a simulacrum of woman, when something has been left behind. It’s a strange tongue, this one my body has to speak. But please, do not mistake the smallness of my anatomy for the smallness of a life.
Ms Sidonia married twice and retired a wealthy woman
God sent me this beard, I will not take it off! How else would they notice me? This visage is a lure, toast of the mob, I am a sight to silence the baying crowd. I cheated death, I fought and won. That makes me beautiful. I bow now to the deities who live in my whiskers.
Ms Hopwood silenced the room when they lifted her out of the womb
They look at me as if this embarrassment of limbs protruding from my chest is an act of war committed against them. A wound, God in the shape of a jest, the flight of chimaeras in hurricanes. My body is surely not the most hospitable of hosts, cobbled together in taverns and fairgrounds, in excess of the natural order of things. They can’t imagine what I choose to believe in this armour.
Ms Vaughn of the piebald skin is also a trick-roper of royal lineage
Your bodies were given to you, not chosen by you. You take your bodies for granted so you don’t exist to me. When you thought of a daughter, you never expected this. Shrivelled apple for a face, my epidermis a hot to the touch patchwork of failed answers. Myth is your yawning maw. I am the mooncalf who comes and goes. After the fifth time my mother marked me so she would know me again in other lives.
Ms Baartman wears her sense of self tightly, she musn’t let it float free
Here I am ripe and raw, carved root fashioned as woman. Stone born from the brow of a dark mother whose many limbs speak in tongues of glinting silver and singeing iron. I hang like a curtain skirting the stage, my cloth pouring down endlessly. These watchers, black holes where their hearts should be, would walk right through me. They see in me the things they would do to themselves if they were me. Who marked me while I was in the womb? Who would curse me? I prance up and down these floorboards to keep from weeping, sing myself away over and over again with the same red song.
THE ELEVENTH NOVEL IN THE BESTSELLING SHIPYARD GIRLS SERIES
Sunderland, 1944
As the promise of victory draws closer, this Christmas will surely be one to remember.
It should be a magical time for Dorothy, who has just been proposed to by her sweetheart Toby. But with each day that passes, Dorothy’s feelings for someone else are growing stronger. Now she has an impossible choice to make.
Gloria is thrilled that her sweetheart Jack is finally home after more than two years away. But his past is continuing to catch up with them both – creating untold heartache for Gloria and everyone she holds dear.
Meanwhile Helen must contend with the fall-out of a shocking family secret that has repercussions for all the Shipyard Girls, while holding out hope for her own happy ending…
Can a little festive magic help them win the day?
The Shipyard Girls Under The Mistletoe is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy using the links below.
I’ve been a huge fan of this series from the start so a new book is always cause for great excitement. This is actually the second to last Shipyard Girls book ever (sob) so while I was excited to read and to see where the story would go I was also trying to read a bit slowly so I could drink in every bit.
It was lovely to be back with the girls and to catch up on their lives. The author has a great way of writing her characters so the reader feels they really know them and I loved feeling part of their group. In this book the story focussed on Helen, Gloria and Dorothy which was great for me as I’ve always had a soft spot for Gloria. Helen has taken a while to grow on me but she’s also one of my favourites now. I particularly like how happy she is being accepted as part of the group, it always makes me smile.
As always there as lots of action in this book cleverly tied in to some actual events in the war which was very interesting to learn more about. The introduction of the horrible Miriam and her wicked father certainly helped create some drama filed moments. I’m very nervous to see what they’ll do next. Alongside the action there were one wonderfully heart warming moments and some lovely festive moments which I always love.
This book could be read as a standalone as the author does a great job in recapping the story but it probably is best to read them in order.
Huge thanks to Sarah Hardwood for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.
About The Author:
Nancy Revell is the author of the Shipyard Girls series, which is set in the north-east of England during World War II.
She is a former journalist who worked for all the national newspapers, providing them with hard-hitting news stories and in-depth features. Nancy also wrote amazing and inspirational true life stories for just about every woman’s magazine in the country.
When she first started writing the Shipyard Girls series, Nancy relocated back to her hometown of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, along with her husband, Paul, and their English bull mastiff, Rosie. They now live just a short walk away from the beautiful award-winning beaches of Roker and Seaburn, within a mile of where the books are set.
The subject is particularly close to Nancy’s heart as she comes from a long line of shipbuilders, who were well known in the area.
Good afternoon everyone today on Tunes For Tuesday I’m featuring The Past Is A Foreign Place the fantastic new EP from Joey Collins.
Joey is a full time musician from Nottingham in the UK. I first discovered him on twitch where he streams multiple times each week. Joey’s streams are always great fun to hang out in as he has a fantastic community and always makes me smile with his cheeky humour.
If you would like to follow Joey on twitch or social media you can do so by clicking on the links below.
The Past Is A Foreign Place is the fourth EP Joey has released and includes six amazing songs:
1. Feed Me Your Love 2. Fade Out 3. The Abyss 4. Family 5. London Town 6. Where Is My Mind?
It is available on all major streaming platforms and available to buy on Bandcamp which is one of the best ways to support musicians. I have included the YouTube video from two of my personal favourites from the EP below.
Joey was kind enough to answer some questions for me last time he was featured on my blog so you can read more about Joey and his music from Joey himself by clicking on the link below.
Miranda Reynolds has lost her home, her job and her husband – all thanks to an economic collapse that has brought America to its knees.
The shops are empty; the streets no longer safe. Miranda and her daughter Emma have nowhere left to turn.
There is one final hope, a self-sufficient haven for women who want to live a life free from men. Femlandia.
For Miranda, the secluded Femlandia is a last resort. Life outside the gates is fraught with danger, but there’s something just as sinister going on within.
Welcome to Femlandia… It’s no place like home.
Femlandia is out in hardback and ebook now. You can purchase your copy using the links below.
Femlandia is another amazing, chilling and thought provoking read from this talented author. It’s going to be a difficult book to review as I don’t want to give anything away.
Firstly I thought this author does a great job with the world building with the post apocalyptic world of Femlandia seeming very realistic which helps add to the sinister undertones in this book. The reader soon becomes aware that all is not as perfect as the leaders would like the residents to believe. When Miranda and her daughter Emma first join the community they are quickly given a long list of rules and expectations they have to follow which residents are punished for breaking . The residents, some of whom Miranda knows from her previous life, seem completely ok with all that is happening there. However there are some who aren’t happy with their lives there who firmly support Miranda in her quest to discover the truth about what’s going on on Femlandia.
The characters were interesting creations who I found very interesting to follow throughout the book. I liked that the author took the two ‘normal’ female stereotypes; one of a girly girl who liked playing with dolls and wearing dresses and an independent strong women who doesn’t need a man to survive and smudges the line between them showing that it is possible for women to be a bit of both. Miranda especially quickly shows that she has much more about her then the lady who lunched her mother dismissed her as when she created her female only community. I found Jen a very sinister character who I loved to hate. From the first mention of her I thought there was something very off about her. Her willingness to step into Miranda’s shoes as her mum’s surrogate daughter, the way she stamps her authority on Femlandia and the way she steals Emma from Miranda all had alarm bells going off in my head. I had to keep reading to find out what would happen and which side would win.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and read it very quickly as I found it very hard to put down. There was always something happening and the gradual build up of tension made this book very gripping. The ending,a massive showdown between Miranda and Jen, was brilliantly done and kept me guessing who would win until the end.
Huge thanks to HQ stories for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book via netgalley. I think this would make a great book club read as I can imagine it creating a lot lively discussion.
About The Author:
Christina Dalcher is the Sunday Times bestselling author of VOX. She earned her doctorate in theoretical linguistics from Georgetown University, specializing in the phonetics of sound change in Italian and British dialects. She and her husband split their time between the American South and Naples, Italy.
From the bestselling author of The Librarian of Auschwitz, Antonio Iturbe, comes a captivating historical novel based on a true story – the extraordinary life and mysterious death of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince.
Writer. Romantic. Pilot. Hero.
All Antoine de Saint Exupéry wants to do is be a pilot. But flying is a dangerous dream and one that sets him at odds with his aristocratic background and the woman he loves. Despite attempts to keep him grounded, Antoine is determined to venture forwards into the unknown. Together with his friends, Jean and Henri, he will pioneer new mail routes across the globe and help change the future of aviation. In the midst of his adventures, Antoine also begins to weave a children’s story that is destined to touch the lives of millions of readers around the world. A story called The Little Prince . . . Fame and fortune may have finally found Antoine, but as the shadow of the Second World War begins to threaten Europe, he’s left to wonder whether his greatest adventure is yet to come . . .
Translated by Lilit Žekulin Thwaites, The Prince of the Skies is a moving tale of love and friendship, war and heroism, and the power of the written word.
The Prince Of The Skies is a powerful, inspirational and absorbing read that I really enjoyed. It’s based on the true story of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry the author of one of my favourite children’s books ever, so I was very excited to read this book and to learn more about him.
I was soon drawn into the story and into Antonie’s life. The author does a great job of bringing historical characters to life and I loved that we got to know more about the person behind the book, learning more about his passions and what makes him tick. It made me feel like I knew him as a friend which I always like. He truly lead an amazing life and it was fascinating to follow him from the 20’s and through the war.
The author has clearly done a lot of research into this book and I found is very interesting to learn more about Antonie’s experience in the French air force during the war but also his key role in helping to create the air mail, a service to get letters delivered to other countries which is something that we take for granted now. It was great to follow him and influencial pilots Jean Mormoz and Henry Guillamet as they try to navigate this new service. It was especially fascinating to visit the many different countries with them and get a taste of what life was like there at that time.
Overall I thought this was an amazing read which I will be recommending to all historical fiction fans and anyone who is a fan of The Little Prince. I felt this book has a bit of everything lots of danger from being a pilot in quite primitate planes which had no cover for the pilots and exposed them to the elements as they flew, to a love story of his attempted romance with the lady he loved. There is also a beautiful quality to the author’s writing which just draws the reader in and keeps them enthralled until the end.
Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Pan Macmillan for my copy of this book.
About The Author:
Antonio Iturbe lives in Spain, where he is both a novelist and a journalist. In researching his previous novel, the international bestseller, The Librarian of Auschwitz, he interviewed Dita Kraus, the real-life librarian of Auschwitz.
Good evening everyone I’m pleased to re-share my review of the fabulous When The Music Stops by Joe Heap today in celebration of its paperback release. As you can probably tell from my review below I loved this book when I first read it. If you haven’t read it yet I highly recommend you do!
Book Synopsis:
A truly original, bittersweet tale of life, loss and enduring love that had me completely hooked. A treasure of a book!’ Sunday Times bestseller, Ruth Hogan
This is the story of Ella. And Robert. And of all the things they should have said, but never did.
‘What have you been up to?’ I shrug, ‘Just existing, I guess.’ ‘Looks like more than just existing.’ Robert gestures at the baby, the lifeboat, the ocean. ‘All right, not existing. Surviving.’ He laughs, not unkindly. ‘Sounds grim.’ ‘It wasn’t so bad, really. But I wish you’d been there.’
Ella has known Robert all her life. Through seven key moments and seven key people their journey intertwines.
From the streets of Glasgow during WW2 to the sex, drugs and rock n’ roll of London in the 60s and beyond, this is a story of love and near misses. Of those who come in to our lives and leave it too soon. And of those who stay with you forever…
When The Music Stops is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy using the link below or by visiting your local indie bookstore.
When The Music Stops has to be one of the most unique books I have read! It’s beautifully written and highly emotional which makes it a very compelling read.
There’s something very interesting about following one person throughout their life, especially if they have lived through some significant historical events. I found it fascinating to follow Ella and to see how certain things have shaped her life. That being said I never really warmed to Ella as a character as I found her to be very prickly and some of her decisions incredibly questionable. I did feel sympathetic towards her however and although I didn’t agree with her choices I had to admire her bravery.
The story is told in two timelines one following Ella through the important events her life, while the other focuses on elderly Ella who is trapped in a sinking boat with a baby. While she is trying to work out what’s happening and care for the baby she is visited by old friends who help her make amends for past mistakes. I have to admit I enjoyed the flash backs to Ella’s life much more then the present day as I found it quite stressful reading about Ella trying to care for the baby. It was a weird situation as I wanted to keep reading to see what happens to them but at the same time wanting to skip that part as I found the tension too great.
Overall I really enjoyed this absorbing and intriguing read which will definitely stay with me. I think I went through every emotion as I read, laughing and crying alongside the characters. I will be recommending this book to everyone and will definitely be buying a few copies as Christmas presents.
Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Harper Collins for my copy of this book via Netgalley.
About The Author
Joe Heap was born in 1986 and grew up in Bradford, the son of two teachers. In 2004, he won the Foyle Young Poets award, and he is a published poet. He studied for a BA in English Literature at Stirling University and a Masters in Creative Writing at Glasgow University. Joe lives in London with his long-suffering girlfriend, short-suffering baby, and much-aggrieved cat. The Rules of Seeing is his first novel.
Arthur C. Clarke Award winner Tade Thompson makes a triumphant return to science fiction with this unforgettable vision of humanity’s future in the chilling emptiness of space.
The colony ship Ragtime docks in the Lagos system, having travelled light years from home to bring one thousand sleeping souls to safety among the stars.
Some of the sleepers, however, will never wake – and a profound and sinister mystery unfolds aboard the gigantic vessel. Its skeleton crew are forced to make decisions that will have repercussions for all of humanity’s settlements – from the scheming politicians of Lagos station, to the colony planet of Bloodroot, to other far flung systems and indeed Earth itself.
Far From The Light of Heaven is available in ebook and paperbackback now. You can purchase your copy using the links below.
Far From The Light Of Heaven us a very readable, absorbing and gripping book that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Firstly I’m a big fan of books set in space as I feel they give the author great scope to use their imagination and it’s always fascinating to see what they come up with . This book was no exception and I loved the author’s vision of space and his ideas for future people living on other planets. I thought it was interesting to see that there were other languages in his vision, which were recognisable as languages on earth, as this isn’t something I remember from other books where everyone seem to speak English or some kind of alien gobbledegook.
The book is told mainly from the point of view of Michelle “Shell” Campion the captain of the Spaceship Ragtime. Shell is a very brave determined lady who is desperate to prove herself on this mission and step out of her famous father’s shadow. I loved her back and forth banter with Finn, the detective sent to try and solve the mystery of the missing people with her, especially as its soon aparent that neither of them trust the other.
Overall I really enjoyed this book which drew me in from the first page. There were lots of very interesting twist that kept me guessing and lots of mayhem to keep me very entertained right up to the last shocking reveal.
Huge thanks to Tracy Fenton for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Orbit for my copy of this book.
About The Author:
Tade Thompson is the author of the Rosewater novels, the Molly Southbourne books, and Making Wolf. He has won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Nommo Award, and the Prix Julia Verlanger and been a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award, the Locus Awards, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Hugo Awards, among others. He lives and works on the south coast of England.
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another Tunes For Tuesday. Today I’m featuring Cigarette Breath which is the new single from Dead Shoto.
Dead Shoto is from New York in the states where he lives with his family. He is also the proud owner of a skateboard company and studied graphic design at college. I first found out about his music from twitch were he often streams his favourite games. His lyrics are clever and often thought provoking, but very adult so don’t listen if you are easily offended.
You can follow Henry on twitch and social media by clicking on the links below.
Dead Shoto’s music is available on all major streaming platforms which I’ve included below. There will be a proper music video for this song coming soon so hopefully I’ll be able to share it in future posts! I’ve included the YouTube video for Cigarette Breath below.
Dead Shoto was kind enough to do an interview with me last time I featured him, so if you’d like to learn more about him and his music you can read the interview via the link below.
A resident of small-town Visberg is found decapitated
A festival
A grim celebration in a cultish hilltop community after the apple harvest
A race against time
As Visberg closes ranks to keep its deadly secrets, there could not be a worse time for Tuva Moodyson to arrive as deputy editor of the local newspaper. Powerful forces are at play and no one dares speak out. But Tuva senses the story of her career, unaware that perhaps she is the story…
Bad Apples is available in ebook and hardback now. You can purchase your copy using the links below.
Ooh I do enjoy a Will Dean book and always look forward to new ones coming out. Bad Apples is another creepy, dark and addictive read from this talented author which, in my opinion, is his best book yet.
It was great to be back with Tuva and the characters from previous books. It was really evident how much Tuva had grown in this book and I like the new, confident more street wise Tuva we see in this book. She’s definitely a very brave lady as there were a few situations in this book I’d have run away, screaming from. There are some familiar faces from previous books including the fabulous troll sisters who I was pleased to see make an appearance. There are also some new faces which helped bring a new element to the story and were fun to learn more about.
The author has included some fascinating facts about Halloween, or Pan night in Sweden, traditions which make English traditions seem rather tame. It was interesting to learn more about them and these help to create some of the atmosphere and intrigue in the book which I thought was clever. Through these Tuva finds herself in some unusual situations which were a bit of an eye-opener to be honest.
Overall I really enjoyed this book which is perfect for reading on the run up to Halloween. It’s very twisty with the book often going in directions I wasn’t expecting. There’s lots of misdirection too and I couldn’t figure out who was guilty which I always find really fun. The ending was brilliant and I can’t wait to read more from this fabulous series.
Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Point Blank for my copy of this book. Highly recommended!
About The Author:
Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands and had lived in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. His debut novel, Dark Pines, was selected for Zoe Ball’s Book Club, shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker prize and named a Daily Telegraph Book of the Year. The second Tuva Moodyson mystery, RedSnow,won Best Independent Voice at the Amazon Publishing Readers’ Awards, 2019, and was longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year 2020. His third novel, Black River, was chosen as Observer Thriller of the Month. Will Dean lives in Sweden where the Tuva Moodyson novels are set.
Over The Rainbow Blog 