promo post – Page 3 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Extract Post: Starlight Stables Gang, by Esme Higgs and Jo Cotterill

**Information About the Book**
**Title:** The Starlight Stables Gang (The Starlight Stables Gang #1)
**Author:** Esme Higgs
**Author:** Jo Cotterill
**Illustrator:** Hannah George
**Release Date:** 30^th March 2023
**Publisher:** Puffin Books UK
**Genre:** MG (8 – 12 year olds)

Summary:

Summer has always loved horses but she never thought she’d be able to learn how to ride them – not with money being so tight at home. Then she discovers the Starlight Stables where she meets a new gang of friends and learns how to ride in return for helping-out with the horses. It’s a dream come true!

Summer falls in love with life at the stables and especially with Luna, a beautiful dapple-grey pony. But one day, Summer arrives at the stables to find that Luna has been stolen in the night. It’s up to the Starlight Stables Gang to follow the clues and rescue Luna before it’s too late!

Full of fun, friendship and and mystery, this is the first book in the brand-new Starlight Stables Gang series. Beautifully illustrated by Hannah George.

Author Information

Esme Higgs

Esme Higgs is one of the biggest social-media content creators in the equestrian world with over 1.5 million followers. She’s a writer, presenter, video producer – and a horse-mad ordinary girl.

Her online videos are a mix of tutorials, horse-care videos, and vlogs about her horses (Mickey, Joey and Casper) and her life. She is also a proud ambassador for the Brooke charity and a patron to her local charity riding stables – Team Tutsham.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/thisesme

Instagram: http://instagram.com/this_esme

Tiktok: http://tiktok.com/this_esme

Facebook: http://facebook.com/thisesme

Jo Cotterill

Jo Cotterill is a multi-award-winning author with over forty books for children and young people. Her novel A Library of Lemons has sold into twelve countries and her superhero-comic strip series Electrigirl has encouraged many reluctant readers to enjoy reading. She has written stories for Disney and Doctor Who, and her background in acting and teaching makes her a hit on school visits. Jo lives in Oxfordshire with her daughters, one of whom is a massive Esme fan!

Instagram: http://instagram.com/jocotterillbooks

Twitter: http://twitter.com/jocotterillbook

Extract

There are two routes to school. One goes along pavements and across roads. The other is twice as long and involves going down a little alleyway and round the back of the houses. For maybe fifty metres, the path borders a couple of fields. In one of the fields there are two ponies. One of them is a small chestnut gelding who stays at the other end of the field, but the other is a dapple-grey mare and she always, always comes to the fence to say hello.

When we first moved here, I was miserable – until I discovered the path behind the houses, and now I visit the grey mare on my way to and from school. She’s my best friend, which is either amazing or very sad, depending on how you look at it.

This morning I leave the house extra early so I can spend even more time with the pony. She makes this funny sound when she sees me – they call it ‘nickering’: it’s like a cross between a snort and a purr. She trots over and nuzzles me. I used to give her an apple, but then a sign appeared on a fence post saying PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE PONIES’ so now I pull up handfuls of grass because I figure she eats that anyway. And I check to see that no one else is around, in case I get into trouble.

‘Hello,’ I say softly this morning. I don’t know what her name is, but I call her Pebbles because the markings on her back look like pebbles in a stream. I rub her velvety nose and she tips her head and bumps it against mine. ‘How are you today, Pebbles? Have you eaten any nice dandelions recently?’ I place my hand against her neck, feeling the muscles

underneath. She’s warm and solid and has this smell that I can’t describe – like biscuits and friendship.

I tell her about the video I watched this morning where a girl my age was talking about the three ponies she owns, and about the different tack she uses, and Pebbles nods like she understands. I think Pebbles is a Welsh Cob, according to the pictures I’ve looked at on the internet. She’s the most beautiful pony I’ve ever seen.

Even though I’ve got to the field early, I’m nearly late for school because I always lose track of time when I talk to Pebbles. I would spend all day talking to Pebbles if I could. Even simply resting my head against hers makes me feel … I can’t explain it. Calm. At peace, like all my worries and fears have gone away. I wave goodbye and have to run the rest of the way, arriving at school breathless ten seconds before they close the gates.

Extract post: Fade Into You, by Catriona Child

Blurb

It’s 1994, Kurt Cobain has just died, and teenager Alex is spending the summer working in her Aunt’s Bed and Breakfast in rural Argyll. The village pace of life is slow compared to home in Edinburgh and Alex resigns herself to a quiet summer spent serving breakfasts and making beds. Everything changes however once she meets the twin brothers who live next door.

Spanning the next fifteen years of Alex’s life, Fade Into You is a love letter to growing up in Scotland in the 90s and 2000s. Set against a backdrop of T in the Park and the war in Iraq, soundtracked by Britpop and Grunge mixtapes, with the sweet taste of tablet, it is a novel about growing up and growing apart. It explores the intensity of childhood friendships, how they change as we get older but how they never really leave us.

Promo Post: The Children of Moonstone Beach by F V C Miller

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Clink Street Publishing (30 Sept. 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 190 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1913962911
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1913962913

Do you have a moonstone tucked away at the back of a drawer? If you do, then dig it out, hold it close and read this heartfelt adventure, because you are invited to dive wholeheartedly into the magical world of Moontide, where almost anything can happen with a moonstone in your hand.

Join four unlikely friends as they are thrown together on a beach far away from their homes in London amidst the chaos of the Covid pandemic as it hits the UK.

Troubled, lost, sad and with hearts searching for more, they unknowingly kickstart a chain of events which sees them swept up into a new and spellbinding world; one that has been waiting patiently for their arrival for a very long time.

With royal dragons, howling wolves, evil magic-maker pirates, a sea nymph, a bog monster, flying cats and a war to wage, the children must find out who they really are before they can embrace the magic they hold within.

Review to follow.

Promo Post: Intuitive Eating by Lucia Bartoli

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Clink Street Publishing (28 July 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 136 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1915229553
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1915229557

Feel, listen and give yourself permission. Learning how to be guided by your intuition when it comes to eating allows you to fully enjoy food once again. No more diets and no more guilt. Learn how your taught behaviors have a profound effect on how you eat and feel about your body, and learn how to reprogram these behaviors to healthy and empowering ones. With over 40 plant-based recipes inside, this book also includes useful daily meditation exercises, mindful prayers and stunning affirmations. “The reason why I decided to go down the path of Intuitive Eating was because I wanted to change my whole relationship with food. Food, for me anyway, is one of the most enjoyable and natural pleasures on this planet and didn’t want to spend the rest of my life having a bad relationship with such a natural and essential part of life. I wanted to be able to eat foods that I love and enjoy every moment of it, without feeling bad about it afterwards.”

Extract Post: The Crew, by Sadir S. Samir

Blurb

Kings of the Wyld meets Deadpool in this action-packed fantasy adventure set in an Arab-inspired landscape.

Varcade fled to the deserts of Harrah to escape his past as an Educator, a member of an order of zealot warrior-monks that aims to shape the world according to their sacred Teachings by force. Varcade makes his living as a reckless sword-for-hire, caring only about himself, until his self-centered lifestyle is turned on its head when he is contracted to recruit a misfit team of unruly assassins and take out the mighty Bone Lord of Akrab.

But the Bone Lord is aware of the plot and sends her band of Dusters to stop them; individuals who have gained bizarre and lethal magical powers by snorting the pulverised bones of dead gods. Hunted by Educators and Dusters in a city-state where an escalating conflict between the human and demon population threatens to boil over in a civil war, will Varcade and his ragtag crew save Akrab from the cruel Bone Lord, or will they make things even worse?

“The Crew is a rampaging romp of an adventure, as thrilling and hilarious as it is fantastically unique. I loved it.” – Dyrk Ashton, author of The Paternus Trilogy

Buy Links

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BG1CBSRY

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62672715-the-crew?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=XFllluZSRG&rank=1

The Crew Excerpt 1

Before the killing began, Varcade wanted to enjoy a glass of iced milk sweetened with honey. He licked his lips, drumming his fingers on the counter as the bartender poured the drink in a clay cup, then set it before Varcade. “There. Happy now?”

Varcade flipped a copper coin to the woman. “You bet,” he said with a smile before downing it in one swig. He exhaled and wiped the milk from his upper lip. “Alright, with that out of the way, it’s time for me to kill a guy. I’m looking for someone by the name of—”

“You what?” the bartender interrupted. “Kill a man? Here?”

“Yup.” Varcade nodded. “That’s the job I’ve been paid for. Why else would I be somewhere like this? No offence, but we’re in the middle of the desert. You couldn’t have chosen a livelier place for your tavern?”

“Are you bloody stupid?” the woman said. “You can’t come to my establishment and tell me you’re gonna kill someone. I’m trying to make a living here.”

“You do you, and I’ll do me. How ‘bout that?” Varcade turned away from the bartender and leapt on the nearest table, knocking over their drinks and food to the dismay of the patrons sitting around it. Now he had everyone’s attention. Behind him, he heard the bartender shouting something about guards.

“I’m looking for a guy calling himself Frying Pan Pete,” Varcade said. “I’ve been told he likes coming here. Just point me in the right direction and I’ll be gone before you know it.”

The man seated by the table tugged on Varcade’s leg. “You really don’t wanna be messin’ with Frying Pan Pete, man,” he whispered. “Trust me.”

Promo Post: Does Snow Turn A Person White Inside?, by Max Lobe

Publication date: 25th August 2022
Category: Fiction
Print RRP: £11.99
Print ISBN: 978-1-913109-90-5
Paperback: 198 x 129 mm
E-book RRP: £6.99
E-book ISBN: 978-1-913109-96-7

Blurb

The narrator, Mwana, is a young man from Bantuland, living in Geneva. A
graduate from a Swiss university, we first encounter Mwana waiting for a bus in the hills of Lugano gazing at a poster calling for “black sheep” to be sent home. Mwana’s efforts to find work are fruitless until he lands an internship in an NGO campaigning against racial discrimination. The team is busy organising a demonstration against the black sheep poster.

Mwana has one foot in each culture. He sees Swiss society through African eyes, with all its contradictions: its moderation, stunning landscapes and its eccentricities, but also its intolerance and inflexibility. He also casts a critical eye on his native Africa, the weight of its traditions and beliefs. Is belonging nowhere the price Mwana has to pay for these insights?

Sad and playful Does Snow Turn a Person White Inside? is a moving
reflection on the immigrant experience.

Rosemarie’s Note: This was going to be a review, but the book didn’t arrive in time, so promo post instead. The book arrived on Monday, I’m reading it and will review it as soon as possible. I’m about 23% of the way through the book.

I’m disappointed, I was looking forward to sharing this book with you. It’s not the fault of the blog tour organiser, but probably a delay at the publisher’s end. These things happen, unfortunately.

Author Biography:

Max Lobe was born in Douala, Cameroon. At eighteen he moved to Switzerland, where he earned a BA in communication and journalism
and a master’s in public policy and administration. In 2017, his novel Confidences won the Ahmadou Kourouma Prize. Other books by the
author include 39 Rue de Berne and A Long Way From Douala published by Small Axes in 2021. Max Lobe lives in Geneva.

Extract from ‘The Hostage of Rome’, by Robert M. Kidd – Giveaway!

The Hostage of Rome

217 BC. Rome has been savaged, beaten and is in retreat. Yet, in that winter of winters, her garrisons cling on behind the walls of Placentia and Cremona, thanks to her sea-born supplies. If he could be freed, a hostage of Rome may yet hold the key to launching a fleet of pirates that could sweep Rome from the seas. For that hostage is none other than Corinna’s son Cleon, rival heir to the throne of Illyria, held in Brundisium, four hundred miles south of the Rubicon.

But Hannibal is set on a greater prize! Macedon is the great power in Greece, feared even by Rome. Its young king, Philip, is being compared with his illustrious ancestor, Alexander the Great. An alliance with Macedon would surely sound the death knell for Rome.

Given Hannibal’s blessing, Sphax, Idwal and Corinna face an epic journey against impossible odds. Navigating the length of the Padus, past legionary garrisons and hostile Gauls, they must then risk the perils of the storm-torn Adria in the depths of the winter. If the gods favour them and they reach the lands of the pirate queen, only then will their real trials begin.

Purchase Links

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hostage-Rome-Histories-Sphax-Book-ebook/dp/B09X3L8WLB/

US – https://www.amazon.com/Hostage-Rome-Histories-Sphax-Book-ebook/dp/B09X3L8WLB/

Publication Day Blitz: The Last Gifts of the Universe, by Rory August

Buy Link: https://amzn.to/3tAeJXk

Blurb

A dying universe.

When the Home worlds finally achieved the technology to venture out into the stars, they found a graveyard of dead civilizations, a sea of lifeless gray planets and their ruins. What befell them is unknown. All Home knows is that they are the last civilization left in the universe, and whatever came for the others will come for them next.

A search for answers.

Scout is an Archivist tasked with scouring the dead worlds of the cosmos for their last gifts: interesting technology, cultural rituals—anything left behind that might be useful to the Home worlds and their survival. During an excavation on a lifeless planet, Scout unearths something unbelievable: a surviving message from an alien who witnessed the world-ending entity thousands of years ago.

A past unraveled.

Blyreena was once a friend, a soul mate, and a respected leader of her people, the Stelhari. At the end of her world, she was the last one left. She survived to give one last message, one final hope to the future: instructions on how to save the universe.

An adventure at the end of a trillion lifetimes.

With the fate of everything at stake, Scout must overcome the dangers of the Stelhari’s ruined civilization while following Blyreena’s leads to collect its artifacts. If Scout can’t deliver these groundbreaking discoveries back to the Archivists, Home might not only be the last civilization to exist, but the last to finally fall.

Author Bio

Rory August is a speculative fiction writer, animal lover, nature walker, and all around nerd. When they aren’t writing stories about lonely voyages through space, you can find them playing video games, the guitar, or a myriad of TTRPGs. They live in woodsy New England with their cat and husband. The Last Gifts of the Universe is their debut novel.

You can find out more about Rory and their upcoming works by visiting www.roryaugust.com

Author illustration by Camila del Aguilla. You can find more of her work by visiting www.camiladelaguilla.com

Promo Post: A Plethora of Phantoms, by Penny Hampson

A Plethora of Phantoms

What makes Freddie shiver? Is it the spooky happenings in his family’s stately home? Or is it Marcus, the handsome antique dealer who Freddie thinks he can’t have?

Freddie Lanyon has it all: a loving family, a privileged background, and a stately home filled with antiques. What his family don’t know is that Freddie is desperately unhappy.

Troubled by spirits that only he can see, Freddie Lanyon, the heir to Lanyon Park, is also in denial about his sexuality. It takes a meeting with handsome and psychic antique dealer, Marcus Spender, to convince Freddie that he might need to change.

When Freddie’s latest purchase of an antique dressing case triggers fresh poltergeist activity, he is awakened each night by an anguished spirit seeking help. Contacting the previous owner of the dressing case leads Freddie and Marcus on a journey to Cornwall, but what starts out as a straightforward quest soon turns into a challenge to their growing relationship.

Will Freddie’s restless spectral visitor be finally laid to rest? And will Freddie find the courage to be true to himself at last?

Purchase Link – http://mybook.to/plethoraofphantoms

Author Bio – Some time ago Penny Hampson decided to follow her passion for history by studying with the Open University. She graduated with honours and went on to complete a post-graduate degree.

Penny then landed her dream role, working in an environment where she was surrounded by rare books and historical manuscripts. Flash forward nineteen years, and the opportunity came along to indulge her other main passion – writing. Penny joined the New Writers’ Scheme of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and three years later published her debut novel, A Gentleman’s Promise, a historical mystery/romance. Other books in the same genre soon followed.

But never happy in a rut, Penny also writes contemporary suspense with paranormal and romantic elements. Her first book in this genre is The Unquiet Spirit, published by Darkstroke.

Penny lives with her family in Oxfordshire, and when she is not writing, she enjoys reading, walking, swimming, and the odd gin and tonic (not all at the same time).

For more on Penny’s writing, visit her blog: https://pennyhampson.co.uk/blog/

Twitter: @penny_hampson

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pennyhampsonauthor