Everything Is Better With Dragons

Review: Catch your Breath – The Secret Life of a Sleepless Anaesthetist, By Ed Patrick

I didn’t expect that being an anaesthetist in a pandemic would leave me outside my front door naked, or indeed that I’d be telling this story to readers. Nevertheless, I am excited to shed more light on this and the mysterious world of drugs and coffee.
– Ed Patrick
Catch your Breath is a gut punch of a memoir by a doctor – and comedian – whose job is to keep people alive after putting them to sleep. Ed Patrick is an anaesthetist. Strong drugs for his patients, strong coffee for him.
But it’s not just sleep-giving for this anaesthetist, as he navigates emergencies, patients not breathing for themselves and living with a terrifying sense of responsibility. It’s enough to leave anyone feeling numb especially in the midst of a pandemic.

Hilariously funny, moving and truly insightful, it follows Ed’s journey from bewildered medical student in Aberdeen to unflinching anaesthetist on the NHS frontline. A dose of insight into life on the hospital wards during the pandemic, while injecting hope that we will all get through this.

But don’t worry, there’s plenty of laughing gas to be had.

Blog tour calendar: A Lethal Arrogance, by D.S. Lang

Blog tour calendar: Feeding the Gods, by Elizabeth Harrison

Review: SWOP The Satsuma-Sized Secret, by Lucy Noguera

**Age**: 7-9 years

**Themes**
Friendship
Adventure
Family
Deaf sibling
Sign Language
Acceptance

Blurb

What would you do if you found the world’s smallest dog?

When Ernie and his family leave the countryside to move to the city. Ernie feels like he’ll never settle into their new home.

Yet on his very first night, a surprising new friend introduces himself – Swop is a very tiny dog. A dog that just happens to be the size of a satsuma.

Ernie vows to keep Swop a secret, but Swop has other ideas and he’s determined to make Ernie’s first day at his new school a memorable one!

Blog Tour Calendar: SWOP: The Satsuma Sized Secret, by Lucy Noguera

Extract Post: Mum’s The Word, by Lorraine Turnbull

Mum’s the Word

When Ann-Marie Ross murders her abusive husband and feeds him to the pigs, she thinks she’s got away with murder and secured the future of her Scottish cider farm. But she soon finds herself having to keep more than one deadly secret to protect those closest to her.
As four women embrace their new-found independence, Ann-Marie is tormented by the threat of discovery.
A darkly comic tale of murder, friendship and Love.

Purchase Links

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mums-Word-Lorraine-Turnbull-ebook/dp/B093C6YXJH

US – https://www.amazon.com/Mums-Word-Lorraine-Turnbull-ebook/dp/B093C6YXJH

Extract Post: Rat Island, by John Steele

Rat Island

‘A REAL CONTENDER FOR CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR’ David Peace

‘FANS OF DON WINSLOW WILL LOVE THIS’ Claire McGowan

New York, 1995. Cop Callum Burke arrives in New York from Hong Kong, drafted in as part of an international investigation into organised crime.

With the handover of Hong Kong to China only a couple of years away, gangsters are moving their operations out of the territory and into New York ahead of the looming deadline.

Burke’s experiences with East Asian crime and the Triads’ links to the Irish Mob make him the perfect man to send in undercover.

But as he infiltrates these vast and lethal criminal networks, bodies start to pile up in his wake and his conscience threatens to send him over the edge.

And when Burke’s NYPD handlers push him to continue the investigation at all costs, he may have to cross the line from cop to criminal just to stay alive…

Readers of Don Winslow, Michael Connelly, Steve Cavanagh, Richard Price and John Sandford will love this dark and morally complex novel which presents a searing portrait of mid-1990s New York as you’ve never seen it before.

PRAISE FOR RAT ISLAND AND JOHN STEELE:

‘A nonstop thrill ride… a lyrical, super read filled with plenty of intrigue, action and suspense and sent against an exotic and seldom explored corner of crime fiction’ Gerald Posner

‘RAT ISLAND speeds and thrashes with the dangerous energy of the Manhattan streets which are so vividly recalled’ Gary Donnelly

‘John Steele writes with grit, pace and authenticity’ Claire McGowan

Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B096W8W32T

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096W8W32T

Review: What Lies Buried, by Kerry Daynes

Kerry Daynes, leading forensic psychologist, takes us into the murky world of psychological investigation to uncover what lies buried. Each of her clients is classed as a ‘mentally disordered criminal offender’ whose psychological problems have contributed to them breaking the law.

Whether she is dealing with a young murderer who says he has heard voices telling him to kill, a teacher who daubs children in red paint and threatens to abduct them, or an aspiring serial killer who faints at the sight of blood, Kerry’s quest is to delve beyond the classic question asked of forensic psychologists: ‘Are they mad or are they bad?’

In her new book, Kerry provides an unflinching, enlightening and provocative insight into the minds of her clients, shedding light
on the root causes of their behaviour.

Extract Post: Discerning Grace, by Emma Lombard

Blurb

As the first full-length novel in The White Sails Series, DISCERNING GRACE captures the spirit of an independent woman whose feminine lens blows the ordered patriarchal decks of a 19th century tall ship to smithereens.

Wilful Grace Baxter, will not marry old Lord Silverton with his salivary incontinence and dead-mouse stink. Discovering she is a pawn in an arrangement between slobbery Silverton and her calculating father, Grace is devastated when Silverton reveals his true callous nature.

Refusing this fate, Grace resolves to stow away. Heading to the docks, disguised as a lad to ease her escape, she encounters smooth-talking naval recruiter, Gilly, who lures her aboard HMS Discerning with promises of freedom and exploration in South America.

When Grace’s big mouth lands her bare-bottomed over a cannon for insubordination, her identity is exposed. The captain wants her back in London but his orders, to chart the icy archipelago of Tierra del Fuego, forbid it. Lieutenant Seamus Fitzwilliam gallantly offers to take Grace off the fretting captain’s hands by placing her under his protection.

Grace must now win over the crew she betrayed with her secret, while managing her feelings towards her taciturn protector, whose obstinate chivalry stifles her new-found independence. But when Grace disregards Lieutenant Fitzwilliam’s warnings about the dangers of the unexplored archipelago, it costs a friend his life and she realises she is not as free as she believes.

DISCERNING GRACE is historical women’s fiction that will appeal to fans of Claire Fraser from Outlander and Demelza Poldark from Poldark—in other words, fans of feisty historical

Book Links (Amazon, Goodreads etc.):

Universal Link: https://books2read.com/discerning-grace

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/au/book/discerning-grace/id1554795710

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/au/en/ebook/discerning-grace

Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/discerning-grace-emma-lombard/1138874059?ean=2940165134050

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Emma_Lombard_Discerning_Grace_The_White_Sails_Seri?id=yaYkEAAAQBAJ

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08YKDHD9Y/

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0645105805/

Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0645105805/

Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0645105805/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57177943-discerning-grace

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/discerning-grace-the-white-sails-series-1-by-emma-lombard