Blog Tour Calendar: Two Lives, by A Yi
Tag Archives: blog tour
Review: Chasing Solace, by Karl Drinkwater
Paperback
Published: 7th July 2019
I.S.B.N.: 978-1-911278-14-6
E-book
Published: 15th April 2019
I.S.B.N.: 978-1-911278-13-9
The legendary Lost Ships exist, and they harbour nightmarish horrors. Opal knows. She barely survived her first encounter with one.
Despite escaping, she failed to find what she was looking for: her lost sister. Now Opal must board a second derelict Lost Ship to seek answers, and it’s even more monstrous, a sickening place of death and decay. To make things worse, the military government wants her, dead or alive. Considering their reputation, dead may be better.
To find her sister, Opal will risk everything: her life, her blood, her sanity. There’s always a price to pay. Armed with her wits, an experimental armoured suit, and an amazing AI companion, she might just stand a chance.
CHASING SOLACE by Karl Drinkwater, is now available. Sequel to the sci-fi horror Lost Solace, where a lone woman explores a strange and terrifying spaceship recently returned from somewhere else. Hints of Aliens, Event Horizon, and Pandorum add to the suspense.
Continue reading “Review: Chasing Solace, by Karl Drinkwater”Review: QualityLand, by Marc-Uwe Kling
THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY meets 1984. In the near-future, all decision-making is automated, until one man makes a brazen choice of his own, with global consequences.
Welcome to QualityLand, the best country on Earth. Here, a universal ranking system determines the social advantages and career opportunities of every member of society. An automated matchmaking service knows the best partners for everyone and helps with the break up when your ideal match (frequently) changes. And the foolproof algorithms of the biggest, most successful company in the world, TheShop, know what you want before you do and conveniently deliver to your doorstep before you even order it.
In QualityCity, Peter Jobless is a machine scrapper who can’t quite bring himself to destroy the imperfect machines sent his way, and has become the unwitting leader of a band of robotic misfits hidden in his home and workplace. One day, Peter receives a product from TheShop he absolutely, positively knows he does not want, and which he decides, at great personal cost, to return. The only problem: doing so means proving the perfect algorithm of TheShop wrong, calling into question the very foundations of QualityLand itself.
Hardcover, 352 pages
Published January 7th 2020 by Grand Central Publishing (first published September 22nd 2017)
ISBN:1538732963 (ISBN13: 9781538732960)
My Review
I recieved a copy of this novel from Orion in return for an honest review.
In a world where everything is controlled by algorithms, and a few massive corporations control everything and know everything about you, Peter Jobless is a Level 9 Useless who runs his grandad’s second hand shop. Except repairing anything is illegal and he just has a building full of damaged goods. He keeps getting sent pink dolphin dildoes and doesn’t want them. When a beautiful stranger hi-jacks his car his solution presents itself. Helped by Kiki, the beautiful stranger, and a collection of slightly faulty AI controlled devices including a drone afraid of heights, a sexdroid that can’t get it up and a battle robot that can’t follow orders, he seeks justice. Meanwhile, there’s an election campaign taking place, between a rabidly right-wing ideologue and an android with progressive ideas. Eventually Peter and the new president meet, with explosive results.
I really rather enjoyed this book. It was funny, insightful and the characters were sympathetic, even the despicable ones. The author tackles questions of AI development, consumer and business ethics, nationalism and how we make the world a fairer place with humour and no preaching. It does really seem that logical explanations can’t beat emotions in politics, but John of Us tries.
Must recommend.
Review: Beast, by Matt Wesolowski
Continuing the unique, explosive Six Stories series, based around
six podcasts comes a compulsive, taut and terrifying thriller, and
a bleak and distressing look at modern society’s desperation for
attention. Beast will unveil a darkness from which you may never
return…
In the wake of the ‘Beast from the East ’ cold snap that ravaged
the UK in 2018, a grisly discovery was made in a ruin on the
Northumbrian coast. Twenty-four-year-old vlogger, Elizabeth Barton, had been barricaded inside what locals refer to as ‘The Vampire Tower’, where she was later found frozen to death. Three young men, part of an alleged cult, were convicted of this terrible crime, which they described as a ‘prank gone wrong’.
However, in the small town of Ergarth, questions have been raised
about the nature of Elizabeth Barton’s death and whether the
three convicted youths were even responsible. Elusive online journalist Scott King speaks to six witnesses people who knew both the victim and the three killers – to peer beneath the surface of the case.
He uncovers whispers of a shocking online craze that held the young of Ergarth in its thrall and drove them to escalate a series of pranks in the name of internet fame. He hears of an abattoir on the edge of town, which held more than simple slaughter behind its walls, and the tragic and chilling legend of the Ergarth Vampire…
PUBLICATION DATE: 6 FEBRUARY 2020 | PAPERBACK ORIGINAL | £8.99 | ORENDA BOOKS
Continue reading “Review: Beast, by Matt Wesolowski”Extract Post: Hattie Goes To Hollywood, by Caroline James
Plus, a chance to win a duck!
But first let me tell you about the book.
Hattie Goes to Hollywood
A Cumbrian Village…
Three suicides…
A red-hot summer…
Join super-sleuth Hattie as tempers and temperatures rise in the Cumbrian village of Hollywood. With mischief and shenanigans aplenty, will Hattie discover the truth?
A funny and intriguing mystery – the first in a new series by Caroline James
When recently bereaved Hattie Mulberry inherits her aunt’s dilapidated cottage in the village of Hollywood in Cumbria, she envisages a quiet life. But retired hotelier Hattie is bored and when her neighbour asks her to investigate a suspicious suicide, Hattie’s career takes a new direction and H&H Investigations is born. During the hottest summer for years, Hattie discovers there have been three recent suicides in Hollywood and she determines to find out why. Temperatures rise as she throws herself into village life and, with mischief and shenanigans aplenty, Hattie has her work cut out. But will she establish the truth?
Review: The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, by H.G. Parry
For his entire life, Charley Sutherland has concealed a magical ability he can’t quite control: he can bring characters from books into the real world. His older brother, Rob — a young lawyer with a normal house, a normal fiancee, and an utterly normal life — hopes that this strange family secret will disappear with disuse, and he will be discharged from his life’s duty of protecting Charley and the real world from each other. But then, literary characters start causing trouble in their city, making threats about destroying the world… and for once, it isn’t Charley’s doing.
There’s someone else who shares his powers. It’s up to Charley and a reluctant Rob to stop them, before these characters tear apart the fabric of reality.
Paperback, 480 pages
Published January 23rd 2020 by Orbit (first published July 23rd 2019)
ISBN:0356513777
ISBN13: 9780356513775
My Review
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review, and to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for organising the blog tour. And finally, to the author, for this great read.
Got to be entirely honest, I haven’t finished reading this book yet, because I’ve been terribly ill with a cold. My energy levels have been used on my various support appointments, so I’ve only been reading in short spurts because I can’t focus enough to read for longer. That being said, what I have read, so far, has been very impressive. I will finish it soon, but for now I will review based on my experience so far. I’m halfway through, after some concerted reading this evening (Friday 7th February).
The characters of Rob and Charley Sutherland are brilliantly well-written, they are funny and so realistic in their frustrations with each other and life. Their conversations flow naturally. Millie is an absolute riot, very ‘Enid Blyton-ish’ with her ‘jolly good’s and brisk bossiness getting Heathcliff to behave.
The descriptions are very clear, almost poetic at times. I especially enjoyed the description of Charley’s house and the mysterious lane. I could see them, one a place I’d love to live, with books stacked everywhere, and the other like something from a Dickens tragedy, all cobbles and fog.
I love the idea of ‘reading characters out of the book’, and Charley’s need to experiment potentially getting him into trouble. I was intrigued by the idea that there’s a secret group of characters hiding behind the real world, having escaped from their books. And the mystery of who is reading out villains to attack Charley and Rob really got me. Who is the Summoner? Why does he have David Copperfield in a basement? What has Charlie’s first book of literary criticism got to do with everything? I need to know what happens next, who everyone is and why they’re doing what they are. I’m also scared for Charley and Rob. I also think Rob needs to tell Lydia everything, because that Eric is a scoundrel.
The way the characters change depending on who reads them, the description of the magic of ordinary reading, it all feels so good to read. That doesn’t make sense, sorry. I just utterly love Parry’s writing, it’s so richly descriptive. You don’t need to have read the books she draws on to understand the plot (or not so far at least) because Charley can’t help educating people.
I feel that, if I were well, I’d have curled up with this book and read it in a day or two. It’s not a small book, about 400 pages; even I would have needed a couple of days at my peak. In my current state, it’ll be a bit longer.
So, based on what I’ve read so far, I heartily recommend this book.
Review: Death Deserved, by Jorn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger, translated by Anne Bruce
never shows at the launch of her controversial autobiography,
Always Number One. When celebrity blogger Emma Ramm visits
Nordstrøm’s home later that day, she finds the door unlocked and
signs of a struggle inside. A bib with the number ‘one’ has been
pinned to the TV.
Police officer Alexander Blix is appointed to head up the missingpersons
investigation, but he still bears the emotional scars of
a hostage situation nineteen years earlier, when he killed the
father of a five-year-old girl. Traces of Nordstrøm soon show up at
different locations, but the appearance of the clues appear to be
carefully calculated … evidence of a bigger picture that he’s just
not seeing…
Blix and Ramm soon join forces, determined to find and stop
a merciless killer with a flair for the dramatic, and thirst for
attention.
Trouble is, he’s just got his first taste of it…
PUBLICATION DATE: 6 FEBRUARY 2020 | PAPERBACK ORIGINAL | £8.99 | ORENDA BOOKS
Promo Post: The Telephone Call, by Michael Pakenham
Introducing The Telephone Call by Michael Pakenham. A thriller I’d have been happy to review but my calendar was full. So instead I’m hosting a promo for the book and a chance to win a copy of the paperback. Have a read and see if it grabs you.
The Telephone Call
When Rosemary Sherwood overhears a disturbing conversation between her husband, Harry Sherwood and an unknown caller, she has no idea that her life’s about to change forever. Fleeing to France for fear of her own safety, Harry threatens to kill their son if she ever dares to breathe a word of anything she overheard.
Torn between hiding out in France and re-connecting with her estranged son, Rosemary returns to England twelve years later believing that she and her son are now out of danger…
A web of deceit and lies has been woven over the years to cover up the antics of Harry and his friends, who are no strangers to violence and murder and who will stop at nothing to ensure they aren’t exposed.
Private Detective Daniel Appleman takes on the case, but can he track down these men before they wreak havoc on the Sherwood family?
Giveaway to Win 5 x Paperback copies of The Telephone Call (UK Only)
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/33c69494337/
*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
Purchase Links
Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Telephone-Call-Daniel-Appleman-Thriller/dp/1913208133/
Amazon US – https://www.amazon.com/Telephone-Call-Daniel-Appleman-Thriller/dp/1913208133/
Book Guild: https://www.bookguild.co.uk/bookshop-collection/fiction/thrillers/the-telephone-call/
Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-telephone-call/michael-pakenham/9781913208134
Author Bio –
Michael Pakenham is part of a well-known Irish literary family. Generations of his family lived at Langford Lodge on Loch Neagh outside Belfast. His father was killed in the Second World War and the estate was sold. His mother then took Michael and his sister to Tucson Arizona until the end of the war. On returning to England, his mother bought a farm in Hampshire and Michael has lived in the county ever since. Having served in the Grenadier Guards – the fourth generation to do so – Michael returned to take over his mother’s farming enterprises until he sold his farming interests in 1990 and started his writing career. This will be his eighth book and the second in the Daniel Appleman series. He lives outside Winchester with his wife. He has three children and a string of grandchildren.
Social Media Links –
Website: www.michaelpakenham.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1742594.Michael_Pakenham
Audiobook Review: The Wives, by Tarryn Fisher
You’ve never met the other wives. None of you know each other, and because of this unconventional arrangement, you can see your husband only one day a week. But you love him so much you don’t care. Or at least that’s what you’ve told yourself.
But one day, while you’re doing laundry, you find a scrap of paper in his pocket—an appointment reminder for a woman named Hannah, and you just know it’s another of the wives.
You thought you were fine with your arrangement, but you can’t help yourself: you track her down, and, under false pretenses, you strike up a friendship. Hannah has no idea who you really are. Then, Hannah starts showing up to your coffee dates with telltale bruises, and you realize she’s being abused by her husband. Who, of course, is also your husband. But you’ve never known him to be violent, ever.
Who exactly is your husband, and how far would you go to find the truth? Would you risk your own life?
And who is his mysterious third wife?
Published by: HarperCollins
Published: December 2019
Extract Post: The Black Ditch, by Simon J Lancaster
The Black Ditch
LAURIE STERNE feels like he’s been cut adrift in space. His father has been shot dead, caught in the crossfire of a gangland war that has also claimed his boss’s life. Laurie is a refugee who lost his adoptive mum years before and doesn’t know where he was born, let alone who his birth parents were. But he’s not alone in the world: someone is trying to kill him.
This is London, 2050, a dumping ground for climate refugees and dissidents. Gangs rule, murder goes unpunished and the police make sure you can’t escape.
In his struggle to stay alive, he finds an ally: his former boss’s secret daughter.
But with the killer predicting his every move, is the man without a past being betrayed by the woman who seems to offer him a future?
Purchase Links:
UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07V1HHTJK/
US – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07V1HHTJK/
Continue reading “Extract Post: The Black Ditch, by Simon J Lancaster”
Everything Is Better With Dragons 