Blog tour calendar: Sharks, by Simone Buchholz
Monthly Archives: February 2026
Extract: Tombstoning, by Doug Johnstone
PAPERBACK ORIGINAL | £ 9. 99 | ORENDA BOOKS
Your best mate just fell off a cliff in mysterious circumstances. You
were the last person to see him alive. What do you do?
If you’re David Lindsay from Arbroath, you leg it – and don’t go
back. Not for fifteen years.
Then Nicola Cruickshank – yes, that Nicola, the girl you always
fancied but never had the guts to speak to – gets in touch. She
wants you back for a school reunion. At the very place it happened.
Of course you say yes. Not to lay ghosts to rest, but because you
still fancy Nicola.
The thing is, if you are David Lindsay, then returning to Arbroath
isn’t going to bring closure. Because when someone else tumbles
off the cliffs – an act the locals now call tombstoning – David has a
choice: run away again, or finally find out why people around him
keep dying…
Review: Path to Power, by Charlotte Goodwin
PATH TO POWER
The Stolen Throne Trilogy, Book 1
A queen without a throne, a sorcerer without magic, a usurper bent on genocide…
Emma thought she was just an ordinary woman. She had no idea that she’d been abducted by aliens to save her life; until they returned her memories. The Zargons watch, they study, they don’t interfere, until one of them did. One of them saved Emma’s life when they shouldn’t have, and now they want her to save thousands more.
Emma’s stepmother is the mightiest sorcerer Dunia has ever seen. She used her power to steal Emma’s birthright, and now she’s using it for genocide. Only Emma can supplant Queen Lila, but she can’t do it alone. Her husband, Tom, has a potential he never knew; a potential to wield magic. Together, they must travel across the galaxy, find Tom’s magic, and save the homeland she never knew existed, until now.
About the Author
Charlotte Goodwin is an Army Reservist of twenty years with just another twenty-two to go! She openly admits she is unable to ever leave through choice and will still be serving until they kick her out at sixty. Around the Army, Charlotte somehow manages to fit in being a mum to two young children, a never ending renovation project, adventures in the great outdoors and an addiction to writing.
Continue reading “Review: Path to Power, by Charlotte Goodwin”Blog tour calendar: Tombstoning, by Doug Johnstone
Review: The Night Ship, by Alex Woodroe
● ISBN hardback – 978-1-78758-918-6
● ISBN ebook – 978-1-78758-919-3
● Pricing [USD] $26.95 (HB) / $4.99 (EB)
● Pricing [GBP] £20 (HB) / £4.95 (EB)
● Releases January 20 2026
● Published by Flame Tree Press
● Distributed by Hachette UK / Simon & Schuster US
SYNOPSIS
Driving a logging truck through the Romanian mountains, smuggler Rosi and her crew come across a radio signal that hints at impending doom. As the world goes completely dark, their truck becomes a vessel sailing across a sea of nothingness.
But they’re not alone: transmissions trickle in through the radio from similar isolated islands across the country, from amateur radio hobbyists and police cars and customs facilities. Attempting to rescue survivors and find a way out, the group save more lives, but soon discover that something hungry lurks below, and it’s sending up agents – and transmissions – of its own.
Comparison Titles: Pontypool Changes Everything by Tony Burgess, The Boats of the Glen Carrig by William Hope Hodgson, Void 1680 AM by Ken Lowery, The Vast of Night (2019 film directed by Andrew Patterson)
Review: Lives of Bitter Rain, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Published: October 14, 2025 by Head of Zeus — an AdAstra Book
ISBN 9781035911448
Format: Audible Audio
Published: October 14, 2025 by Head of Zeus — an AdAstra Book
City-by-city, kingdom-by-kingdom, the Palleseen have sworn to bring ‘Perfection’ and ‘Correctness’ to an imperfect world. But before these ruthless Tyrant Philosophers send in their legions, they despatch Outreach – the rain before the storm.
Outreach is that part of the Pal machine responsible for diplomacy — converting enemies into friends, achieving through words what an army of five thousand could not, urging the oppressed to overthrow the bloody-handed priests, evil necromancers and greedy despots that subjugate them.
Angilly, twelve-years-old, a child of Pal soldiers stationed in occupied Jarokir, does not know it yet, but a sequence of accidents and questionable life choices will lead her to Outreach. As she travels from Jarrokir to Bracinta, Cazarkand, Lemas, The Holy Regalate of Stouk and finally, Usmai, she’ll learn that the price of her nation’s success is paid in compromise and lost chances, and that the falling rain will always be bitter.
LIVES OF BITTER RAIN is a novella in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s award-winning Tyrant Philosopher series. It is a prequel to the third novel in the sequence, DAYS OF SHATTERED FAITH.
My Review
I’ve listened to all of the books in this series, and have them all in hardback, so obviously I had to get this novella.
We follow the life of Angilly from the time her parents die in Jarokir to the day she fights a duel in Usmai. Each important moment of her life as she rises to the rank of Resident is catalogued.
If you’ve read Days of Shattered Faith this will give you some insight into the actions and character of Angilly and extra background to the events in that novel. If you haven’t, you should, and this novella will give you a taste of the style of writing and the worldbuilding.
The narration is excellent as ever and it is easy to listen to. At just over 4 hours, this novella can keep you company for half a work shift if you can’t get away with reading at work.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 