E is for Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin
You can read the blurb at Ian Rankin’s website and purchase directly through his website as well.
I recently bought the hardcover of this title and can’t wait to curl up with it.
Tag Archives: authors
D is for Dead Wood #AtoZChallenge
D is for Dead Wood by Chris Longmuir
Blurb: (from Goodreads) Award winning crime novel set in Dundee, Scotland, A mystery and detective story which is a combination of police procedural, and woman in jeopardy. Book 2 of The Dundee Crime Series, with the popular DS Bill Murphy.
Kara owes money to Dundee gangster Tony and takes to the streets to earn the cash. She narrowly escapes the clutches of a killer on the prowl, but stumbles across the bodies of his other victims. Hunted by the serial killer and the gangsters, Kara goes on the run.
DS Bill Murphy teams up with newcomer, DC Louise Walker in the murder investigation. But Murphy is heading for a breakdown and it is up to Louise to catch the killer.
One of the murder victims is the daughter of Dundee gangster, Tony, and he vows revenge. He is determined to mete out his own kind of justice to the killer.
Who will find the killer first? Tony or the police. And what will happen to Kara? In the end what kind of justice will prevail?
Buy Links
Dundee International Book Prize winner 2009
Chris Longmuir is an award winning novelist. Her previous crime novels have won the Pitlochry Award, and the Dundee International Book Prize.
C is for Cauldstane #AtoZChallenge
C is for Cauldstane by Linda Gillard
I love this cover! And if you’ve seen my posts about “I see faces”, I’m happy to say, I found one here, too!
Blurb: (from Goodreads) When ghostwriter Jenny Ryan is summoned to the Scottish Highlands by Sholto MacNab – retired adventurer and Laird of Cauldstane Castle – she’s prepared for travellers’ tales, but not the MacNabs’ violent and tragic history.
Lust, betrayal and murder have blighted family fortunes for generations, together with an ancient curse. As members of the family confide their sins and their secrets, Jenny learns why Cauldstane’s uncertain future divides father and sons.
But someone resents Jenny’s presence. Someone thinks she’s getting too close to Alec MacNab – swordsmith, widower and heir to Cauldstane. Someone will stop at nothing until Jenny has been driven away. Or driven mad.
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” Especially a dead woman.
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B is for Bagpipes and Bullshot #AtoZChallenge
B is for Bagpipes and Bullshot by Janice Horton
Blurb: (from goodreads) When Innes Buchanan inherits the title of Laird, he is entrusted with the Scottish family estate, the ancestral home, and centuries of noble tradition. Sadly, he also inherits the family bank balance which, after death duty, is crumbling faster than the walls of their ancient castle.
After exhausting even the most unlikely of cash generating alternatives and with bankruptcy on the horizon, Innes stumbles across one last initiative, a research scholarship in Texas to establish a new herd of cattle. With a lifetime of sheep farming and no room for failure, Innes’s luck returns on a chance encounter with Orley MacKenna, a born and raised Texan cowgirl who needs little convincing to leave her past behind. Though a likely couple, the two settle for an unlikely business partnership, and return to Scotland to try and save the Buchanan fortune.
Told with timeless Scottish romanticism and a knowing sense of humour, Bagpipes and Bullshot twists an everyday love story with a whole cast of village eccentrics who integrate seamlessly into a fantastic play on rural life.
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A is for Animal Farm #AtoZChallenge
A is for Animal Farm by George Orwell
Blurb: (from amazon.com): Animal Farm is the most famous by far of all twentieth-century political allegories. Its account of a group of barnyard animals who revolt against their vicious human master, only to submit to a tyranny erected by their own kind, can fairly be said to have become a universal drama. Orwell is one of the very few modern satirists comparable to Jonathan Swift in power, artistry, and moral authority; in animal farm his spare prose and the logic of his dark comedy brilliantly highlight his stark message.
Taking as his starting point the betrayed promise of the Russian Revolution, Orwell lays out a vision that, in its bitter wisdom, gives us the clearest understanding we possess of the possible consequences of our social and political acts.
You buy Animal Farm at amazon.com
Her One True Love by Rachel Brimble #Victorianromance #giveaway #guestpost
Her One True Love
by
Rachel Brimble
Genre: Victorian romance
Release Date: March 15th 2016
Publisher: eKensington/Lyrical Press
She Can’t Forget Him…
Jane Charlotte Danes has loved the squire of her idyllic country town for as long as she can remember. He is good, kind, and alluring beyond words… and he chose to marry another. Tired of dwelling on her futile longings, Jane plans a move to Bath, where she dreams of a new beginning. But the man who has so imprisoned her heart is only a few steps behind…
He Can’t Let Her Go…
Until now, Matthew Cleaves has endeavoured to meet the responsibilities of his position with dignity and good spirits–including his dutiful marriage. But when his wife leaves him for another man, Matthew is at last free to pursue his one true love. Only one vital question remains: will the captivating, stubborn, beautiful Jane allow him the challenge, and the pleasure, of winning her back?
BUY LINKS
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The Highs & Lows of writing in different genres – Contemporary Romance & Victorian Romance
I often get asked how I divide my time between contemporary and historical novel writing and in an ideal world, I like to alternate the two sub-genres to keep my writing fresh and interesting. For the reader and me!
I began my career writing contemporary because I’d always been told to ‘write what you know’. I have devoured romantic suspense for as long as I can remember and so my first two novels with The Wild Rose Press were romantic suspense. I then wrote a romantic comedy. Throughout writing and promoting these books, I began to wonder whether I could attempt an historical…. after all, I didn’t ‘know’ how to abduct or murder anyone as the characters did in my first two books . ☺
Like most (if not all) writers I read voraciously and reading historical work, whether novels or biographies, is amongst my favorite choices. I love history! I am drawn to British Royal history especially, but also love the social and industrial changes of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. As I was, and still am, intimidated by including real people and events in my work, I decided my first attempt would be Victorian and focus entirely on fictional characters and their emotions.
Emotion is key in romance. Love, hate, revenge, loss, joy and tenacity would have been felt in the same way in the late 1800s as they would today. So with this thought at the forefront of my mind, I dove straight in and wrote The Arrival of Lily Curtis (The Wild Rose Press). It sold a lot more copies than my previous contemporary work so that gave me the confidence to continue.
The main ‘highs’ for me writing in the two genres is the diversity in setting and premise – the life problems or goals women face today are profoundly different than they were in the past…even if the emotional challenges are the same. These different shifts and changes of what women want gives a whole range of ideas of where to start with a story and how to tackle it.
The main ‘lows’ for me is managing to finish one genre before I have to work on the other. More often than not, I am writing one book, editing another and promoting another, which means I have to jump from contemporary to historical a lot throughout the year. As much as I love the challenge, it can be difficult when I am totally immersed in a contemporary or historical and then forced to stop in order to meet a deadline for a book of the other genre.
Having said that, I wouldn’t change my current work status for the world – as long as publishers and agents still want me to write both contemporary and historical, I will. Long may it continue!
ABOUT RACHEL BRIMBLE
Rachel lives with her husband and two teenage daughters in a small town near Bath in the UK. Since 2013, she has had five books published by Harlequin Superromance (Templeton Cove Stories) and recently signed a contract for three more.
She also has four Victorian romances with eKensington/Lyrical and hoping to sign a new contract for further historical romances shortly.
When she isn’t writing, you’ll find Rachel with her head in a book or walking the beautiful English countryside with her family.
AUTHOR LINKS
Facebook: Facebook
Facebook Street Team – Rachel’s Readers
Twitter: Twitter
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1806411.Rachel_Brimble
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GIVEAWAY
£15/$25 Amazon gift voucher
One Starry Night by Tilly Tennant #chicklit #giveaway
One Starry Night
by
Tilly Tennant
Genre: Chick lit
Release Date: 30th March 2016
Publisher: Lawsome Books
One Starry Night is the fourth and final part of the Once Upon a Winter series:
They say the darkest hour is just before the dawn, and Hannah has never really understood the true meaning of that until now. With Gina’s husband misbehaving, bad news for Mitchell that only Hannah can break and Ross under attack, things seem to be falling apart around her, and how is she supposed to be the rock everyone else needs when she can’t even get her own life in order? It’s going to take a special kind of courage to see this dawn break, but when it does it might just be all the brighter for it. The trouble is, Hannah’s not sure she can be that strong…
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ABOUT TILLY TENNANT
Tilly Tennant was born in Dorset, the oldest of four children, but now lives in Staffordshire with a family of her own. After years of dismal and disastrous jobs, including paper plate stacking, shop girl, newspaper promotions and waitressing (she never could carry a bowl of soup without spilling a bit), she decided to indulge her passion for the written word by embarking on a degree in English and creative writing, graduating in 2009 with first class honours. She wrote her first novel in 2007 during her first summer break at university and has not stopped writing since. She also works as a freelance fiction editor, and considers herself very lucky that this enables her to read many wonderful books before the rest of the world gets them.
Hopelessly Devoted to Holden Finn was her debut novel; published in 2014 it was an Amazon bestseller in both the UK and Australia. It was followed by Mishaps and Mistletoe and The Man Who Can’t Be Moved. Find out more about Tilly and how to join her mailing list for news and exclusives at www.tillytennant.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TillyTennant/?ref=hl
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TillyTenWriter
website: www.tillytennant.com
GIVEAWAY
£10 (or equivalent) Amazon Gift Card
Broken Faces by D M Carr #historicalromance #excerpt #giveaway
Broken Faces
by
D M Carr
Genre: Historical Romance
Release Date: 15 December 2015
Publisher: Green Shutter Books
Freddie Chevalier, a wealthy farmer’s son, suffers a life-changing disfigurement in the Great War. He’s in love with his best friend’s fiancé and is determined not to miss out on the excitement of the Great War. Soon his life changes from one of idyllic days spent with his friends, Charles, Meredith and Lexi, staying at the Baldwyn’s ancestral home in Shropshire and working on his father’s farm in Jersey, to one of horror, pain and betrayal.
It doesn’t take long for Freddie to discover that the life he enjoyed before the war has vanished and that he is going to have to find a way to live with the consequences of the choices he and Charles have made.
Broken Faces beat 7000 other entrants to be a runner-up in the Good Housekeeping Magazine Novel Writing Competition (2012) they described DM Carr as as ‘one to watch’, They also added, ‘In Deborah Carr’s Downton-esque tale, Broken Faces, a soldier suffers a life-changing injury in the Great War’. The book also received a special commendation in that year’s Harry Bowling Prize.
EXCERPT
Prologue
1918
As the weight of the plaster of Paris slowly increased on his face, he tried to steady his breathing and not give in to claustrophobia. It would be worth it in the end. He concentrated on the gentle American accent of the woman clasping his hand. She had a kind face. Her lack of shock when he’d been unmasked was admirable. Or was it simply she had grown used to seeing men such as he? They told him she was a sculptor. Someone overheard her say she saw beauty in the men she helped and that those men with missing noses and shattered faces were like the sculptures she created.
All he could think about, apart from the suffocating pressure on his nose and mouth, was a poem he’d heard someone recounting back at Les Invalides. Was it by Yeats? He wasn’t sure. He recalled it was about Easter in 1916, but not referring to the Front, even so the words still resonated. How did it go? He couldn’t quite remember. He was now one of the gueules cassées. One of the broken faces and his life would never be the same again.
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ABOUT D.M. CARR
D.M. Carr lives in Jersey with her husband and three noisy but adorable rescue dogs. She writes romances for Accent Press under the pseudonym Georgina Troy. Broken Faces is her debut novel in her own name.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/D-M-Carr-568839916628666/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DebsCarr
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3807857-deborah-dm-carr
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deborahcarr9/
Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/117042212386862550212/
Website: https://deborahcarrblog.wordpress.com/broken-faces-by-d-m-carr/
Blog: http://debcarrs-daydreams.blogspot.com/
GIVEAWAY
£25 or equivalent Amazon gift voucher
Natalie’s Getting Married by Rosa Temple #coverreveal #chicklit
Natalie’s Getting Married
by
Rosa Temple
Career minded, Natalie Spencer, had never been in love. She could never understand what all the fuss was about. But when she met Jackson Humphries during Fresher’s Week at University, that all changed.
Utterly infatuated, Natalie quickly discovers the meaning of love and, before she knows it, she’s heading up the aisle – for the first time, that is.
This is a tale about four wedding dresses, a runaway groom and a girl who got so carried away, she couldn’t see true love staring her right in the face.
Are we ready for the reveal???
Genre: Chick Lit/Romantic Comedy
Release Date:
14th March 2016
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ABOUT ROSA TEMPLE
Rosa Temple began writing chick lit and romance novellas out of a love for the old films she watched as a young girl. As a ghost writer, she gained experienced writing romantic novellas both sweet and on the slightly more steamy side. A passion to write self penned novellas in this genre, as opposed to being a ghost writer, gave rise to the completion of Sleeping With Your Best Friend and the soon to be published novel, Natalie’s Getting Married.
Rosa Temple is a Londoner and is married with two sons. She is a reluctant keep fit fanatic and doer of housework and insists that writing keeps her away from such strenuous tasks. Drinking herbal tea and munching biscuits helps her create characters and story lines.
To find out more about Rosa and to catch up on all her musings please join her here on Rosa Temple Writes…
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RosaTempleWriter/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RosaT_Author
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14071311.Rosa_Temple
Google+ : https://plus.google.com/u/0/106532176906011095997/posts
websites: http://rosatemplewrites.blogspot.co.uk/
GIVEAWAY
Ecopy of the Book
The Other Side of Morning by Joanna Lambert #romance #giveaway #booktrailer
The Other Side of Morning
by
Joanna Lambert
Genre: Romance
Release Date: 8 March 2014
Publisher: ThornBerry Publishing
Fashion designer Thérèse D’Alesandro has recently moved into Higher Padbury Manor with daughter Felica and stepson Marco. Joining forces with Ella Benedict’s exclusive functions venue Lawns at Little Court, she is about to open a bridal boutique.
Working in London where he manages his father’s European restaurant chain, Marco has both the looks and charm to guarantee him any woman; any woman, that is, except the one he wants: Ella’s niece Charlotte. Marco knows he should walk away as she’s already involved with rock star Christian Rosetti and is the most rude and argumentative female he has ever encountered, but Charlotte has sparked strong feelings within him; feelings which despite her attitude, he senses she is also experiencing.
Recently returned from abroad and now working for her father’s record company, Lucy Benedict has discovered Christian’s guilty secrets – ones he has been keeping safely hidden from her cousin Charlotte. Determined to cause mischief and at the same time settle her own score with the arrogant star, she sets in motion a chain of events which sees Charlotte eventually beginning a relationship with Marco.
Rossana Caravello, the D’Alesandros’s newly-arrived house guest, is due to inherit the one of Italy’s premier vineyards on her eighteenth birthday. Aware they would make an excellent addition to her husband Gianlucca’s international business portfolio and eager to bring them into his possession, Thérèse sets about engineering a match between Rossana and Marco, determined nothing will stand in her way… including Charlotte.
From rural West Somerset to the glorious rolling landscape of Tuscany and the Italian Lakes THE OTHER SIDE OF MORNING is a story of love, betrayal, deception and ultimate sacrifice.
VIDEO TRAILER
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ABOUT JOANNA LAMBERT
Born and raised in rural Wiltshire, Jo grew up with a love of books and a vivid imagination. As a child she enjoyed creating her own stories and reading them to her friends. College, work and eventually marriage meant writing was kept very much as a hobby. Her career as a board level PA eventually moved into management and it wasn’t until 2009 that she finally realised her long term goal of publishing her first novel – When Tomorrow Comes.
Juggling work and writing, three other connected books – Love Lies and Promises, The Ghost of You and Me and Between Today and Yesterday – followed. They became collectively known as the Little Court Series.
In 2013 she decided to give up full time work to concentrate on her writing. Two books have been written since – The Other Side of Morning, which finally wrapped up the Little Court Series and Summer Moved On, book one of a two-part love story set in South Devon. Although you can find her characters in glamorous locations like Italy, Grand Cayman, Bali and Australia, the core of her writing remains with village life, an environment she knows and loves. When she isn’t writing, she reviews for Hodder and Stoughton, Brook Cottage Books and NetGalley. Jo lives in a village on the eastern edge of Bath with her husband, one small grey feline called Mollie and a green MGB GT. She loves travel, red wine and rock music.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jolambert185?fref=ts
Twitter: Twitter: @jolambertwriter
Goodreads: /thewriterwhoreads
Instagram: taurusgirl185
Google+ Googleplus: google.com/+JoLambert
Website: http://jolambertbooks.com
Blog: http://jolambertwriter.wordpress.com
GIVEAWAY
1st Prize – Paperback (open internationally) x 2
2nd Prize – Ebook x 2