Book Synopsis:

Nineteen year-old Max is the duchesse de Claireville’s second footman, but he does not intend to endure the indignities of service for long. He has a plan – to find an aristocratic patron who will become his unwitting accomplice in an audacious fraud.

It is true that in 1880s’ France, despite nearly a century of revolution and social turmoil, the aristocracy is still firmly entrenched in privilege, and the gulf between the salon and the servants’ hall is as wide as ever. But Max is handsome, quick to learn and confident of his abilities as a seducer of both men and women.

Whether ladling soup into noble plates beneath crystal chandeliers, or reading biographies of the great generals in his squalid footman’s dormitory, he is planning his strategy. He, Max, is the man of the future – ruthless, above morality and sentimental attachments.

Yet, when, after a couple of false starts, he at last acquires his patron, he finds himself ambushed by instinctive longings—for friendship, for affection—that threaten his grand plan.

‘Be true to yourself…’ the saying goes. But to which self? And what is ‘truth’?

The Second Footman is available now in ebook and paperback now.  You can purchase your copy of bothhere.

My Review:

The Second Footman was a very intriguing, gripping piece of historical fiction that I really enjoyed.

I haven’t read many books from a servant’s point of view so it was very interesting to learn about their lives and what they have to do day in day out.  This book follows a male servant too which I unusual as it’s normally female servants that are featured.  I enjoyed reading about what their jobs entailed, how they lived and the secret parts of their job.  I was especially I interested to learn more about their living conditions and the lack of privacy that they had to cope with.  It’s amazing to think that such a high servant still had such trouble.

I really warmed to Jean, the second footman.  He was obviously really hard working and consciousness which was lovely to read about.  He’s also an avid reader and I loved that he had to read for two hours each night despite how late he goes to bed.  His tentative friendship with the third footman was very sweet and it was great to see their friendship develop.

This was a surprising gripping read as there was always alot happening and a lot of twists and turns that I didn’t see coming.  I felt invested in the characters quite quickly and I wanted to keep reading to find out what happens to them.  Especially Jean as i quickly developed a soft spot for him.

This is the first book by this author I have read and I look forward to reading more from from them.

Huge thanks to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for my copy of this book and for inviting me onto the blog tour.  If you like unusual historical fiction you’ll love this book!

About The Author:

Book Synopsis:

When Alice Hart’s husband runs off with his secretary, she runs off with his dog to lick her wounds in a North Yorkshire village. Battling with loneliness but trying to make the best of her new start, she soon meets her neighbours, including the drop-dead gorgeous builder Richard Wainwright and the kindly yet reticent café owner, Owen Maltby.

As Alice employs Richard to start renovating the barn next to her house, all is not what it seems. Why does she start seeing Owen when he clearly isn’t there? Where – or when – does the strange crying come from? And if Owen is the village charmer, what exactly does that mean?

The Cheesemaker’s House is a gripping read, inspired by a framed will found in the dining room of the author’s dream Yorkshire house. The previous owners explained that the house had been built at the request of the village cheesemaker in 1726 – and that the cheesemaker was a woman. And so the historical aspect of the story was born.

Jane Cable’s novel won the Suspense & Crime category of The Alan Titchmarsh Show’s People’s Novelist competition, reaching the last four out of over a thousand entries. The judges of this competition compared her work to that of Barbara Erskine, but it also resembles the more recent works of Alan Titchmarsh or Kate Mosse.

The Cheesemaker’s House can be enjoyed by anyone who has become bored of today’s predictable ‘boy-meets-girl’ romance novels.

The Cheese Maker’s House is available now in ebook and paperback now.  You can buy your copy of bothhere.

My Review:

The Cheese Maker’s House is a wonderful story of friendship, love and new beginnings, which I absolutely loved.

Firstly Alice is a great main character.  I loved how real she seemed as she made mistakes that I would and seemed a very genuine person. I found her utterly hillarious and often found myself laughing out loud over things she did or observations she makes.  Owen was another great character, I think everyone needs an Owen in their lives.  He was such a kind, caring guy and I loved reading about his meetings with Alice.  The fact he is involved in the church was very sweet and I instantly warmed to him. I found myself hoping early on that they would end up together.

For me this was quite a gripping read as I loved reading about life in the village and finding out more about the characters lives.  I found I didn’t watch to put the book down as I was enjoying it so much and I didn’t want to leave the world the author has created.

The mystery of the crying Alice can hear and the mysterious figure that looks like Owen is very interested and definitely kept me intrigued throughout the book as I wondered what was going on.

This was the author’s debut novel and Im excited to read more from her in the future.

Huge thanks to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for my copy of this book and for inviting me onto the blog tour.

About The Author:

Although brought up in Cardiff, Jane Cable left Wales to study at the age of eighteen and has lived in England ever since. Her father was Anglo-Welsh poet Mercer Simpson so growing up in a house full of books Jane always read – and wrote. In 2011 she started to take her hobby seriously when The Cheesemaker’s House, which became her debut novel, reached the final of The Alan Titchmarsh Show’s People’s Novelist competition. She writes romance with a twist of mystery which has been published independently and through the UK ebook giant, Endeavour Press. Jane is an active member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and a director of Chindi Authors.
In 2017 Jane moved to Cornwall and this year will become a full time author. She’s passionate about her new home, cricket, travelling and her husband of 22 years – although not necessarily in that order.

Book Synopsis:

For years, two sisters have vied for the turf of their dead crime boss father. Across the streets of Guatemala City, bodies have piled up; the US Drug Enforcement Agency, operating far from its own borders, is powerless to stop the fighting.

But now one sister has a weapon that could finally win the war – a cold, amoral hitman known, fittingly, as ‘Victor’.

Freed from previous employers the CIA and MI6, Victor is a killer for-hire whose sense of self-preservation trumps all else. Yet as betrayal and counter-betrayal unspool in the vicious family feud, Victor finds himself at the centre of a storm even he could be powerless to stop.

Kill For Me is available to buy now.  You can purchase a copy here.

My Review:

Kill For Me is a fast paced thriller that grabbed me from the start.

The world of gangs has always fascinated me so I found this story very intriguing.  It’s amazing to think about how much power they have over people and what they can get them to do.   In this book the author creates a very seedy world where people aren’t just involved in gangs for a sense of power but to survive.  The gang members are desperate people who are doing what they need to in order to get by, who switch sides in order to survive and live another day.  Through fantastic, action packed scenes the author manages to transport the reader into this world so you almost feel the same fear they do and understand their actions more.  It did make me feel sorry for the gang members at times.

Victor is an interesting main character.  Very sharp and extremely capable I was never entirely sure what he would do next.  He’s very good at thinking on his feet and his ability to think through the situation makes him very unpredictable and I was unable to guess what he would do next or where the story was going which definetly kept me on my toes.

Tom Woods is fast becoming a favourite author of mine as his books are incredibly readable and gripping which makes them a must read for me.  He’s one of those rare author’s where you know that the book will be good before you read it.  This book was no exception as his ability to draw me into the characters world and make me empathise with the characters made this a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Huge thanks to Little Brown for my copy of this book via Netgalley and to Millie Seward for inviting me onto the blog tour.

About The Author:

Tom Wood is a full-time writer born in Burton-on-Trent who now lives in London. After a stint as freelance editor and film-maker, he completed his first novel, The Hunter, which was an instant bestseller and introduced readers to a genuine antihero, Victor, an assassin with a purely logical view on life and whose morals are deeply questionable. Like Victor, Tom is passionate about physical sport, being both a huge boxing fan and practising Krav Maga martial arts, which has seen him sustain a number of injuries. He has not, however, ever killed anyone.

Book Synopsis:

Thea and Isaac first met at University. Theirs was an instant connection but it never went further than friendship.

Because, then and now, Thea only has eyes for her work. Not just her course, but also a private project – Thea is determined to prove that time travel is not just the stuff of science fiction. And she has never told anyone the reason why.

When one of their friends goes missing in an experiment, Isaac and Thea must work together to find her – forcing them to re-examine their own friendship.

Is it really as platonic as they used to think?

The Light Between Us is a story of unrequited love and second chances. It begs the dangerous question that we all ask ourselves – what could have been?

The Light Between Us is available on this 9th August in ebook and hardback.  You can pre-order your copy here

My Review:

Katie Khan has done it again with a fascinating book about great friends, romance and time travel all rolled together to create a fabulous story.

My favourite thing about the story was the wonderful descriptions of Thea and her friends.  I loved how they were all very intelligent ladies but we’re able to have such fun with one another.  The way they trick their way into the labs was utterly hillarious and made me laugh out loud.  I found myself wishing I was a part of their group as they seemed so happy together while also being very loyal and supportive.

The idea of time travel is one that has always intrigued me as I’ve often wondered where I would like to travel to if I had the chance.  The author cleverly includes some of the scientific theory behind time travel in such a way that the reader understands the story but not so the reader becomes confused.  I enjoyed reading about Thea’s work and really hope it is possible some day.

The relationship between Thea and Issac was beautiful to read about.  It was lovely to watch their relationship develop from friends to lovers . I really wanted to keep reading as I do hoped there would be a happy ending for them.

The book goes a long at a good pace that lets the story unfolds naturally at a pace that never seems forced.  I really got to know and care about the characters, so wanted to keep reading to find out how everything ended for them.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this fantastic book.  If you like unusual love stories pick this book up!

About The Author:

Katie Khan has spent 10 years working in online editorial in the film industry,
including 4 years as Head of Digital at Paramount Pictures. She joined Warner Bros.

in 2017 to work on a major film production. Her first book, Hold Back the Stars, is being adapted into a film by the producers of Stranger Things.
She is a graduate of the acclaimed Faber Academy writing course.

Katie lives in London with her boyfriend and rescue cat Artie.

Book Synopsis:

Charlotte is looking after her best friend’s daughter the day she disappears. She thought the little girl was playing with her own children. She swears she only took her eyes off them for a second.

Now, Charlotte must do the unthinkable: tell her best friend Harriet that her only child is missing. The child she was meant to be watching.

Devastated, Harriet can no longer bear to see Charlotte. No one could expect her to trust her friend again.
Only now she needs to. Because two weeks later Harriet and Charlotte are both being questioned separately by the police. And secrets are about to surface.

Someone is hiding the truth about what really happened to Alice.

My Review:

Wow, what a book this was.  It was absolutely brimming with tension and full of so many unexpected twists and turns that I felt dizzy.

This book covers one of my worst fears, losing one of the kids in a public place and not being able to find them.  Having lost Douglas for five terrifying minutes in Matalan once (I say lost but he’d actually decided to hide behind some coats) I know how scary it is and the author’s fabulous descriptions really brought the incident back to me as it was very true to what I remember.

The story goes back and forth between then (when Alice disappeared to the present day.  This definitely intigued me as the present day thread seemed to hint that a lot had happened since the fete where Alice disappeared and that something dodgy had happened.  As the two threads continue and start to merge together secrets start to be revealed.  I found myself reading faster and faster as I desperately wanted to get to the bottom of things.

I felt very sorry for the two main female characters in the book.  The guilt that Charlotte felt about losing Alice was almost tangible and I hated seeing her tearing herself up over what happened, especially when it comes to light that she was having a sneaky look at Facebook when Alice went missing (how many of us do that).  The abuse she receives on the internet about it was hard to read and I felt that the police should perhaps have done more to protect her.  Harriet’s grief over Alice was heartbreaking as the little girl was obviously her world.  I really felt for her as such a situation must be truly terrifying.

I really didn’t like Ben, Alice’s father however.  From the moment you meet him he comes across as quite a dislikeable, controlling bully who I couldn’t feel sorry for.  His absolute determination to blame Charlotte for Alice’s disappearance and his behaviour towards her was shocking and made me wonder what he was hiding.  At the beginning I passed it off as grief but as things get murkier and his behaviour worsens I got more angry towards him and more suspicious.

The ending was brilliant and one that I didn’t guess was coming.  A fantastic way to finish this fabulous book!

This is the author’s second book and I’m very excited to read any future books by her.  I will be be recommending this book to everyone as it’s a real must read.  Just make sure that you have lots of time to finish the book, as once you’ve started its its  to put down.

Huge thanks to Arrow Publishing for my copy of this book via Netgalley and to Rachel Kennedy for inviting me onto the blog tour.

About The Author:

Good morning everyone! I’m very excited to be finally revealing the paperback cover for this fantastic book and reshaping my review.  I originally read this book last year and it’s definitely one that has stayed with me.  I love this new cover, especially the inclusion of the slugs as they were one of my favourite parts of the book.

The Things We Thought We Knew is available in ebook and hardback now, the ebook is currently the bargain price of 99p.  The paperback is being published on the 9th of August.  To can pre-order or purchase your copy here.

Before I re-share my review with you here is a little bit about the book.

Book Synopsis:

The first memory I have of you is all knickers and legs. You had flipped yourself into a handstand and couldn’t get back down. We became best friends, racing slugs, pretending to be spies – all the things that children do.

Ten years later, eighteen-year-old Ravine Roy spends every day in her room. Completing crosswords and scribbling in her journal, she keeps the outside world exactly where she wants it; outside.

But as the real world begins to invade her carefully controlled space, she is forced to finally confront the questions she’s been avoiding. Who is her mother meeting in secret? Who has moved in next door?

And why, all those years ago, when two girls pulled on their raincoats and wellies and headed out into the woods did only one of them return?

My Review:

About The Author:

Mahsuda Snaith is the winner of the SI Leeds Literary Prize 2014 and Bristol Short Story Prize 2014, and a finalist in the Mslexia Novel Writing Competition 2013. She lives in Leicester where she leads writing workshops and teaches part-time in primary schools. Mahsuda is a fan of reading (obviously) and crochet (not so obviously). This is her first novel.

Book Synopsis:

What if you made one mistake and it came back to kill you? 

Detective Zac Boateng’s old friend, Troy McEwen, is found dead in his home. The official verdict is suicide. But Boateng believes it was murder. And he thinks he might be next on the killer’s list.

If Troy didn’t take his own life, then who did? As he investigates, Boateng discovers a link to an incident from decades earlier. Mistakes were made that day. Lives were lost and secrets kept. Until now…

As more people who were there on that fateful day are found dead, Boateng knows that the killer is closing in on him…

A tense crime thriller for fans of Lee Child, Mark Billingham and Mark Dawson. Last Witness is a gripping, fast-paced thriller that will have you hooked from the first page.

The Last Witness is available now in ebook and paperback.  The paperback is currently only 99p.  You can purchase a copy of both here.

My Review:

Chris Merritt is one of those author’s that you can relax whilst reading as you know you will be reading a fantastic story.

This book gripped and intrigued me from the start by the heart stopping and harrowing first scene.  My mind immediately went into overdrive wondering what exactly was happening and why.  It’s a fairly gory opener just to warn people and I did feel sorry for the witness who saw every detail.

I really liked the main character Boateng. Despite having quite a dark past he seemed quite a nice, hardworking guy who was obviously well respected in his field.  His obviously affection to Troy and his determination to try and get justice for him was touching to read about really made me warm to him.

This book was incredibly fast paced and I literally (yes I do mean literally) felt myself holding my breath at times as the action unfolded.  I did guess the killer fairly early in but the author cleverly creates many twists and turns throughout the book that I found myself second guessing myself and trying to work out who else it could be.  I felt this showed great skill by the author that he could confuse a reader that way and make them think that way.

This is the author’s second book and the second book of his I have read and I’m very excited to see what he comes up with next.

Huge thanks to Bookouture for mt copy of this book via Netgalley and for inviting me onto the blog tour.

About The Author:

As a psychologist who has worked in the NHS with both victims and perpetrators of crime, I write stories that explore why people commit serious offences and how their victims are affected. I try to bring these perspectives together with lots of rich, authentic detail about London and its many communities to let readers discover the city I love.

I always wrote – whether blogs, psychology articles or travel pieces – but it wasn’t until 2014 that I began writing fiction. I’d spent several years working as a diplomat in Iraq and Jerusalem before I decided to go back to university and retrain as a psychologist. I completed a doctorate in psychology at King’s College London in 2016. Now, when I’m not writing, I work on the Wellcome Trust’s African Mental Health Research Initiative (AMARI) at King’s College in south London, where I live.

Please check out my novels Bring Her Back (out now) and Last Witness (out 24th July 2018), featuring south London detective Zac Boateng.

Book Synopsis:

Mya loves planes and wants to be a pilot when she grows up. As luck would have it she comes across a flying school run by lieutenant Drake who awards his pupils splendid pilot hats when they graduate. Mya wants to join the class but there’s just one problem. She’s not a duck! Could Goose the little duckling with big flying ambitions be the key to Mya getting her pilot’s hat? Or will Mr Sour the teacher who never quite made the grade have other ideas…Inspired by authors such as Lewis Carroll, Roald Dahl and Angela Sommer-Bodenburg, Michelle weaves a story with the humour and invention of Nick Ward’s ‘Charlie Small’ series meets Dick King Smith’s wonder of the animal world.

The Yellow Bills is available in paperback now and you can purchase your copy here.

My Review:

I really enjoyed this charming children’s fiction book with some truly unforgettable characters.

Firstly I loved the concept of this book.  The idea that there is a flying school for ducks was a brilliant one and I loved learning more about it.  The author makes the duck’s world seem very real and I loved the descriptions of this world just tantalisingly out of sight for most people.  I can well imagine young children searching through bushes in search of hidden control towers!

The book challenges gender and disability stereotypes too in a subtle way that children will hopefully learn from.  We have Mia, a mix raced little girl who loves to play with aeroplanes and Officer Peacock who has managed to get to her high ranking despite having a disability.  I hope that this would encourage similar children to not let their differences hold them back and to treat everyone with respect.

The adventure was pitched perfectly for a child and my son absolutely loved the story, despite being a little younger then the age this book is aimed at.  I also read it with my 8 year old god daughter who loved it and seemed to have no problem with the language used.  Selfishly I would have loved to have seen more pictures as I loved the characters and would love to have seen more of them in action.

This is Michelle’s debut novel and I look forward to seeing what her wonderful imagination will come up with next.  She has been compared to one of my favourite childhood author’s Dick King Smith and I am pleased to say I think that is well deserved.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.  I will definitely be recommending it to friends.

About The Author:

During the day Michelle works part time in an office in London and then gets home to her full time job looking after two little fab ones. Michelle has been writing stories on and off for years but The Yellow Bills is the first time she’s had the confidence to put her children’s story into print.She finds her inspiration for writing is on the train journey to and from work.When she was younger one of her favourite stories to read was (still is) Lewis Carroll’s, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In fact she loved it so much she used to try and think of ways to see how she could change her name to Alice. She was about seven so had to listen to her Mum, who said she couldn’t change her name until she left home. By the time that day came she decided she didn’t mind being called Michelle after all.Michelle’s other favourite’s are Roald Dahl’s, The BFG and The Little Vampire by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg.

Good morning everyone I’m kicking off the blog tour for Playing With Death by Simon Scarrow today and I have an exciting guest post to share with you all.

Playing With Death is available in ebook, paperback and hardback, purchase your copy here.

Before I share my guest post with you here is a little bit about the book.

Book Synopsis:

A UNEXPLAINED DEATH

The discovery of a horribly mutilated corpse launches FBI Agent Rose Blake into a puzzling investigation. The victim was alone at home with no signs of forced entry. Who – or what – burnt him to death?

THE GAME BEGINS

Strips of rubber melted to the body emerge as evidence that the victim was wearing The Skin, an innovation that takes users deep into a virtual world.

ESCAPE OR DIE…

When a body with identical wounds is discovered, Rose realises that in the darkest corners of the Dark Web, a brutal killer is playing a deadly game. A game with no rules – and no mercy. To stop it, Rose must play too…

Guest Post:

Playing With Death is a fast paced crime thriller that also tackles head on the grittier aspects of our everyday reliance on technology. I’m trying to avoid too many spoilers here, but one of these aspects is Virtual Reality/VR. The concept of VR is not new, but what is new is the daily potential for VR. 

VR was attempted before back in the 90’s. The real life efforts never really took off with clumsy equipment, prohibitively high prices and intolerable nausea. VR in cinema didn’t fare much better. The Lawnmower Man movie is a fairly terrible example (it was completely disowned by Stephen King) andThe Thirteenth Floormovie flopped (although I quite liked it). 

Fortunately, The Matrix in 1999 made virtual reality very cool again, but this VR only worked via highly advanced artificial intelligence controlling our brains, something that isn’t really an option. Yet… and hopefully won’t be!

Fast forward to 2018. The technology explosion has finally caught up and closed the gap, with a number of companies offering consumer grade headsets (PSVR, HTC, Oculus), although personally I still can’t use VR for longer than thirty minutes. The Batman crime scene reconstruction is probably my favourite use of VR, as it’s very clever and immersive. 

Stephen Spielberg’s adaptation of Ready Player One also hit cinemas this year, and I found it a very enjoyable kaleidoscope of nostalgic pop culture. VR, I think, is here to stay longer this time. 

Ready Player One, however, offers a fairly sanitised use of VR, at least, the film version does. I haven’t read the book so I’m happy to be corrected. Playing With Death takes a distinctly darker look at VR addiction via the use of a super immersive haptic feedback suit called a ‘Skin’, to add another layer of thrills and tension to a serial killer plot. Crime + VR? Sounds cool to me!

Simon and I started formally developing this project together back in 2013, when VR was still very much a far fetched concept. Simon actually conceived of the initial idea of a ‘Skin’ way back in 1995.When we finished writing Playing With Death in 2016, what started as science fiction is now verging on a contemporary reality. In our story, VR is also used as a metaphor to explore broader concerns that FBI Special Agent Rose Blake has to tackle. Our access to digital words is now only a tap away, but what does that do to us as human beings? What happens to our lives in the real world if we spend so much time in artificial ones? Will we get critically dependent on these things, to theexclusion of everything else? 

I grew up with dial up internet (fortunately, I think in some ways), so I’d only get 2 hours a night to use the internet for homework! Now, we can be online 24/7, sucked into other worlds, whether it be VR, or on social media. We even have a prequel app to Playing With Death called ‘Catch a Killer’, available on iOS and Android that allows you to ‘message’ a serial killer and start the story. We wanted to offer an immersive experience for the reader, with more to explore than just the book.

Playing With Death is a page turner with intelligence, and takes a thrilling look at how things can go very wrong for one FBI agent and her family… Stay tuned to our social media accounts for more exciting content and videos, with our very own VR ‘Skin’ suit being revealed shortly!

About The Author:

A regular on the Sunday Times bestseller list with his historical novels, Simon Scarrow launches an exciting new strand to his writing with PLAYING WITH DEATH, written with Lee Francis: both an edge-of-your-seat thriller and a terrifying exploration of the dangers of the modern world.

Simon’s Eagles of the Empire novels are legendary amongst readers of historical fiction, and all his novels, have been acclaimed by reviewers and readers alike. Prior to writing fiction Simon worked as a teacher and lecturer; he is now a full-time writer.

Lee Francis worked for several years in the world of film, TV and advertising as a script reader and assistant director. PLAYING WITH DEATH, written with his former lecturer Simon Scarrow, is his first novel.

Book Synopsis:

Tamil Nadu, southern India, 1765. Maya plays among the towering granite temples in the ancient city of Tanjore.

Like her mother before her, she is destined to become a devadasi, a dancer for the temple. On the day of her initiation, a stranger arrives in town. Walter Sutcliffe, a black-frocked clergyman, strives to offer moral guidance to the British troops stationed in Tanjore, but is beset by his own demons.

When the British tear apart her princely kingdom, Maya heads to the steamy port city of Madras, where Thomas Pearce, an ambitious young Englishman, is entranced from the moment he first sees her.

The Pagoda Tree takes us deep into the heart of a country struggling under brutal occupation. As East and West collide, Walter Sutcliffe unknowingly plays the decisive card in Maya’s destiny.

The Pagoda Tree is available now in ebook and hardback, you can buy a copy of both here.

My Review:

I so enjoyed this wonderful piece of historical fiction about a period of history I knew little about.

I loved how the author throws the reader straight into the book so that they feel immediately involved in this unusual story.  This period of time in India utterly fascinated me and I really enjoyed learning more about it.  Women are obviously thought of as the lower sex, the most important jobs being ones that involve pleasing men which did infuriate me at times, however both Maya and Palani seem determined to make the best of their situation which was great to see.

The author cleverly woves fascinating historical facts into the story which really intrigued me.  It was interesting to learn more about the religions that were around at that time and how they operated.  I’d never heard of women being ‘dancers’ of the temples or some of the god’s they followed so that was an eye opener for me.  I also enjoyed learning more about the way villages operated and how so called justice was carried out.  I couldn’t believe some of the decisions that were made and felt it was very unfair that they were carried out with the skant evidence provided.  If made my blood boil in frustration as I read about the injust sentences being carried out.

I really liked Maya and admired the strengthshe shows in the situations she go ds herself in.  I felt very sorry for her with her stuff relationship with her mother as I felt all she wanted was a bit of love.  Her relationship with her aunt was lovely to read about and it was heart warming to read about some of the conversations they have.

This is a well paced book which I loved reading as I so enjoyed learning more about the period.  Told from the point of view of Maya, Palani and an English priest this is a story that allows you to become fully immersed in the story and dazzles with the fabulous descriptions of another time and culture.

This is the author’s debut novel and Im so excited to read more from her in the future.  If you like historical fiction, especially ones set in British rules India then you will love this book.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.

About The Author: