Book Blitz: Vanishing Point by Vanessa Robertson @Ness_Robertson @lovebooksgroup #lovebookstours

Right, you lovely book devouring people, I have an interesting one for you.

If you like the sound of it, sign up for Vanessa’s newsletter and get a free gift.

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/67sq0x823y

A stolen painting.

A high stakes recovery operation.

A game of nerve.

Art advisor Kate Carpenter has an off-the-books sideline in art recovery, dealing with thieves and gangsters to reunite valuable artworks with their owners. But this time she’s taking it up a notch. Only a day after her ex-boyfriend was convicted of assaulting her, she’s off to Belarus on the trail of a priceless van Gogh with a posse of ex-soldiers riding shotgun. Right now, the buzz of securing the return of that painting is just what she needs.

Vanessa Robertson

Midlander by birth, Scot by choice, Vanessa Robertson won Pitch Perfect at the Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival in 2015. Death Will Find Me, a crime novel set in 1920s Edinburgh featuring former spy, Tessa Kilpatrick is her first novel. Later in 2019, Vanessa will be launching a series of thrillers set in the world of high stakes art crime, and the second Tessa Kilpatrick book will be published in early 2020.

Vanessa lives in a cottage in the middle of a Scottish wood with her family and unfeasibly large dog. She enjoys wild beaches, Venetian cafes and wandering around art galleries. She dislikes celery, cheap notebooks and writing about herself in the third person.

Blog tour calendar: The Creak on the Stairs, by Eva Bjorg AEgisdottir

Because I like the sound of this book so much, I have ordered a signed, numbered, UK first edition from Goldsboro books, where it is the May ‘Book of the Month’.

I like buying books from Goldsboro Books, and I’m so pleased to see that they and Orenda Books have teamed up.

I am also a member of their SFF Fellowship and so far I have bought two ‘Books of the Month’ plus another book, since the beginning of the month. The books are always so pretty, and so well produced. I love sprayed edges and signed, numbered, 1st editions…

…I have a problem…

Cover Reveal: Anna, by Laura Guthrie

Every cloud has a silver lining… doesn’t it? Anna is thirteen years old, lives in London with her father, and has Asperger’s syndrome. When her father dies, she moves to Scotland to live with her estranged, reclusive mother. With little support to help her t in, she must use every coping strategy her father taught her—especially her ‘Happy Game’—as she tries to connect with her mother, discover her past, and deal with the challenges of being thrown into a brand new life along the way.

Laura Guthrie

Laura Guthrie grew up in the rural Scottish Highlands (“I come from where the planes don’t fly”). Her creative influences include Nessie and the elusive ‘Caiplich Beast’, as well as some choice authors and their works.

She has an honours degree in biological sciences from the University of Edinburgh, and a PhD in creative writing from the University of Glasgow.

Review: The Tainted, by Cauvery Madhavan

Fiction/historical
Paperback: 198 x 129
Print RRP: £9.99
Print ISBN: 978-1-9164671-8-7
Extent: 336
E-book ISBN: 978-1-913109-06-6
Publication: 30 April 2020

Its spring 1920 in the small military town of Nandagiri in south-east India.
Colonel Aylmer, commander of the Royal Irish Kildare Rangers, is in charge. A distance away, decently hidden from view, lies the native part of Nandagiri with its heaving bazaar, reeking streets and brothels.
Everyone in Nandagiri knows their place and the part they were born to play – with one exception. The local Anglo-Indians, tainted by their mixed blood, belong . . . nowhere.

When news of the Black and Tans’ atrocities back in Ireland reaches
the troops in India, even their priest cannot cool the men’s hot-headed rage.
Politics vie with passion as Private Michael Flaherty pays court to Rose, Mrs Aylmer’s Anglo-Indian maid . . . but mutiny brings heroism and heartbreak in equal measure. Only the arrival of Colonel Aylmer’s grandson Richard, some 60 years later, will set off the reckoning, when those who were parted will be reunited, and those who were lost will be found again.

Blog Tour Calendar: The Tainted, by Cauvery Madhavan

Review: The Mayfair Mafia, by Dick Kirby

It is a little known fact that one immigrant Italian family ran London’s thriving vice trade unchecked from the mid-1930s for some twenty years.
The five Messina brothers imported prostitutes from the Continent on an industrial scale, acquiring the women British citizenship by phoney marriages. Demanding 80% of earnings, the Messina became fabulously wealthy, purchasing expensive properties, cars and influence.
As this revealing and absorbing account describes, the brothers ruled with a ruthless combination of charm, blackmail and all too credible threats of disfigurement and death.
It took a sensational Sunday newspaper exposé to get the authorities to act. A series of dramatic arrests and trials followed and one by one the brothers were imprisoned and deported for crimes including immoral earnings, attempted bribery and firearms offences.
Such was their fortune that numerous potential beneficiaries came forward, most recently in 2012.
The author, a much published former Metropolitan police officer, has researched the remarkable criminal careers of the five Messina’s and the result is a riveting and shocking read.

Cover Reveal: Sword by Bogdan Teodorescu @Corylusb @lovebooksgroup #lovebookstours

Blurb

On the streets of Bucharest, a brutally efficient serial killer is at work. His targets: individuals from the Roma community with a criminal record. Each victim is killed with a single blow to the throat and tensions rise at the same rate as the body count. For not everyone disagrees with this vigilante killer.

With Presidential elections about to take place, and the police seemingly unable to track down the elusive assassin they’ve nicknamed Sword, the government struggles to keep control while other political figures try to stoke public resentment for their own ends.

The demons in Romania’s fractured society begin to resurface, as old distrust and prejudices grow with each new victim from the Roma community. The case is under the media’s relentless spotlight. Meanwhile, ruthless figures both inside and outside the government are manoeuvring to take advantage of the situation. But are they playing with political fire for their own purposes – are they in danger of sparking a vicious racial conflict?

Bogdan Teodorescu paints an acid portrait of a divided society in this powerful political thriller containing themes that will echo around the world.

Book Blitz: A Lesson for Every Child: Learning About Food Allergies – Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino

A Lesson for Every Child: Learning About Food Allergies by Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino & Illustrated by Sally Huss @SallyHuss #Bookbuzz #KidsBooks #BookTweet

A Lesson for Every Child: Learning About Food Allergies

Learning was everything to Mrs. Emerson. So when a new student was brought into her classroom, Mrs. Emerson was delighted because she discovered that this young man knew something that everyone needed to know. She told her class that Jack was just like everyone else, except for one thing – he had food allergies. “Would you like to explain that to us, Jack?” Jack proceeds to educate us all. This book is endorsed by Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Connection Team (FAACT), MedicAlert® Foundation, Elijah Alavi Foundation, The Love for Giovanni Foundation, No Nut Traveler, and Food Allergy Zone.

Buy Link: https://amzn.to/2xJUTOT

About Sally Huss

Author/Illustrator Sally Huss creates children’s books to uplift the lives of children. She does this by giving them tools to overcome obstacles; by helping them value themselves and others; and by inspiring them to be the best that they can be. Her catalogue of books now exceeds 100.

“Bright and happy,” “light and whimsical” have been the catch phrases attached to the writings and art of Sally Huss for over 30 years. Sweet images dance across all of Sally’s creations, whether in the form of children’s books, paintings, wallpaper, ceramics, baby bibs, purses, clothing, or her King Features syndicated newspaper panel “Happy Musings.”

Sally is a graduate of USC with a degree in Fine Art and through the years has had 26 of her own licensed art galleries throughout the world. sallyhuss.com.

About Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino

Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino is one of America’s foremost personal and corporate development consultants. She is the creator of The Best Ever You Network (or Best Ever You), a leading multimedia provider of lifestyle and self-help content. While participating in the Harvard Business School for Leadership program, Elizabeth serves as a Leadership Advisor for the Olympia Snowe Women’s Leadership Institute.

In 2020 Elizabeth joined Sally Huss to create the best-selling children’s book A Lesson for Every Child: Learning About Food Allergies. Living with life-threatening food allergies for many years, Elizabeth added her personal experience and her expertise to the project. She also sits on several boards of organizations and foundations that bring awareness to this life-threatening condition.

Elizabeth is also the best-selling author of Percolate – Let Your Best Self Filter Through (Hay House Publishing). elizabethguarino.com.

Review: The English Civil War: Fact and Fiction, by James Hobson

Have you ever found yourself watching a show or reading a novel and wondering what life was really like in the Civil War? Did the war really split families? Was Charles I just too stupid to be King? Did Cromwell really hate the monarchy and did Parliament actually ban Christmas?

In The English Civil War: Fact and Fiction, you’ll find fast and fun answers to all your secret questions about this remarkable period of British history. Find out about people’s lives and how the Civil War affected them. Learn about the role of women and if they merely stayed at home and suffered, and if Cromwell really was always miserable.

James Hobson brings to life the tumultuous and unprecedented period of history that is known as the Civil War. An unfussy yet accurate history, each chapter presents a controversy in itself and sets about dispelling commonly held myths about the Civil War.

Review: Feasible Planet, by Ken Kroes

Blurb

Are you concerned about the state of our planet and hope that governments and corporations will find a sustainable way for us to live? If you do not think about it too hard, that may work, but will it? Left on their own, with drivers of popularity and profits, I am not too convinced that it will.

This leads to the key question. Are we doing enough? I believe that the answer to this question is no and that our best hope is for each of us to vote smart, lobby hard, stay informed, and to act. This book primarily focuses on the last part, the actions that each of us can take.

While environmental aspects are key areas of concern, sustainability goes beyond controlling our consumption and pollution. There are key social, political, and economic areas that need to be addressed as well, and there are several steps that individuals can take to help in all of these areas.

For those of you who feel we could do more, this book is for you and is loaded with actionable activities, the reasons for doing them, and explores why we are not doing them already.