Month: October 2016

Blog Tour: Q&A with Karen Maitland, author of The Plague Charmer

Posted October 31, 2016 by Charlotte in Blog Tour, Guest Post / 0 Comments

Today I am delighted to be part of the Blog Tour for The Plague Charmer by Karen Maitland. I’ve loved every book That Karen has written, so reading The Plague Charmer is no different. This is a compelling read and I loved the historical mixed with fantasy. Below Karen answers some of my questions. Also a little extra treat check out this Plague Symptom Checker and see which Plague you have… Q&A: Can you in five words describe your book to those who haven’t read it? ‘Charmer more deadly than plague.’ When researching, did you find some interesting facts about this era, that don’t make it into the novel? Can you give some examples? The novel is set at the time of the second plague, which killed many more men than women, so there were many widows left trying to run farms and manors. At that time a widow could inherit all her husband’s lands and property, but only if she lived in chastely and stayed single. If she wanted to remarry and keep the land, she had to pay a fine equivalent to […]

Review: Little Black Dress by Emily Raymond & James Patterson

Posted October 28, 2016 by Charlotte in Reviews / 0 Comments

Little Black Dress by James Patterson, Emily Raymond Published by BookShots on July 28, 2016 Genres: Fiction, Novella, Romance Pages: 144 Format: Paperback Source: Publisher Buy on Amazon Goodreads James Patterson’s BookShots. Short, fast-paced, high-impact entertainment. Can a little black dress change everything in her life? Magazine editor Jane Avery spends her nights alone with Netflix and Oreos – until the Dress turns her loose. Suddenly she’s surrendering to dark desires, and New York City has become her erotic playground. But what began as a fantasy will go too far… and her next conquest could be her last. I wanted to really love Little Black Dress, but I ended up feeling like that was some sort of 50 Shades gone flat. EVERYONE IS GOOD-LOOKING AND EVERYONE IS ATTRACTED TO JANE. I know that is a story but pur-lease can we get a shot of reality? Other Bookshot books feel like a story is being told even in such a short format. But here I left like it was just aimless bed-hopping with no real conclusion. Except to say never let a stranger handcuff you to a radiator. […]

Review: The Devil’s Feast by M.J. Carter

Posted October 26, 2016 by Charlotte in Reviews / 1 Comment

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.The Devil’s Feast by M.J. Carter Series: The Blake and Avery Mystery #3 Published by Fig Tree (Penguin Books UK) on October 27, 2016 Genres: Fiction, Historical, Mystery, Thriller Pages: 368 Format: Hardback Source: Publisher Buy on Amazon Goodreads For lovers of Sherlock, Shardlake and Ripper Street. A hugely enjoyable heart-pounding Victorian thriller- murder, a celebrity chef and a great detective double-act. London, 1842. There has been a mysterious and horrible death at the Reform, London’s newest and grandest gentleman’s club. A death the club is desperate to hush up. Captain William Avery is persuaded to investigate, and soon discovers a web of rivalries and hatreds, both personal and political, simmering behind the club’s handsome façade-and in particular concerning its resident genius, Alexis Soyer, ‘the Napoleon of food’, a chef whose culinary brilliance is matched only by his talent for self-publicity. But Avery is distracted, for where his mentor and partner-in-crime Jeremiah […]

Blog Tour / Guest Post: ‘Blood, sweat and tears – how I moved from fact to fiction’ by MJ Carter, author of The Devil’s Feast

Posted October 24, 2016 by Charlotte in Blog Tour, Guest Post / 4 Comments

Today I am delighted to be part of the Blog Tour for The Devil’s Feast by MJ Carter. Below MJ Carter talks about how she came to write thrillers and it just proves no matter what you never have to stick to one genre! ‘How I moved from fact to fiction’ by MJ Carter It was some time in 2010 that I actually thought I was ready to start writing fiction. My second book had come out, a massive tome about the First World War, which took me over six years and nearly finished me off. I wasn’t ready to submerge myself again, I wanted to write something which didn’t involve me fact-checking every half-sentence. I’d been toying with the idea of a detective, a lone working-class, self-educated sceptic for years. I knew exactly where I wanted to put him: in the 1840s, the first years of Queen Victoria’s reign, a fascinating, tumultuous decade of massive change, from horses to railways, from letters to telegraph and lot more besides. I had a whole series of stories for him in my head. The […]

Review: Christmas Under a Starlit Sky by Holly Martin

Posted October 19, 2016 by Charlotte in Reviews / 0 Comments

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.Christmas Under a Starlit Sky by Holly Martin Series: A Town Called Christmas #2 Published by Bookouture on October 19, 2016 Pages: 304 Format: E-Arc Source: Netgalley Buy on Amazon Goodreads Step inside a beautiful winter wonderland where love, laughter and cosy nights by the fire will make this Christmas one to remember. Neve Whitaker loves managing the Stardust Lake hotel. She gets to work alongside her wonderful family and she’s spending Christmas on the most enchanting, snow-covered island in Scotland. So why is her heart so heavy this festive season? It might have something to do with the gorgeous actor Oakley Rey, the man she finished with before he left for California and the man she loves more than anything. With Oakley’s career in Hollywood soaring, Neve is convinced she’d only hold him back. She had to end it with him – at least that’s what she keeps telling herself. But […]

Escapades of a Bookworm

Books, Films and Random Thoughts

esbookworm