Blog Tours · Reviews

BLOG TOUR REVIEW!!! Seahurst by S. A. Harris

Evie Meyer and her son Alfie flee from her abusive partner Seth to spend New Year with her half-brother Luke at their late father’s summer home on the Suffolk Coast, only to find Seahurst abandoned and Luke missing.

Evie searches for her brother, filled with a deepening dread that something is very wrong at Seahurst and their father’s death may not have been suicide after all.

As Seahurst’s ancient and sinister secrets unfurl around her, Evie fears the souls of the dead will soon claim another terrible revenge.

Seahurst, S A Harris’s follow-up to the deliciously dark Haverscroft is another sinister slice of contemporary gothic set against the backdrop of the wide-open winter skies of the Suffolk coast.

Having left her abusive partner Seth back in Totonto, Evie Meyer is hoping that a New Year’s break at the clifftop summer home built by her late father might provide a sanctuary for her and her son, Alfie. When she arrives at Seahurst, however, she finds the door open, the property semi-abandoned, and her half-brother Luke missing.

As Evie reacquaints herself with old friends, she is continually reminded of Seahurst’s dark history. Nestled in the shadows of a crumbling monastery, the house is beset by strange smell, odd noises, and fleeting glimpses of something dark and foreboding. And as the search for Luke gathers pace, Evie can’t help but be reminded of their father’s apparent suicide, and her mother’s reluctance to have anything to do wit the place. Although several thousand miles from Seth, Seahurst is far from the sanctuary that Evie imagined and might even prove deadly.

As with Haverscroft, the star of Seahurst is the setting. Lashed by winter storms and situated in an isolated clifftop position, Seahurst has all the menace and gloom needed in a haunted house. S A Harris is fantastic at conveying a sense of place and, as the story progresses, you’ll find yourself jumping at even the faintest of bumps in the night.

I was slightly less convinced by the characters. Although Evie grew on me as the book progressed, I found her somewhat insipid at the start of the novel, especially in comparison to some of the (many) side-characters. This is possibly because there are quite a few characters introduced within the first couple of chapters and, although their personal stories and struggles are interesting, I found myself struggling at times to work out the connections between them all, or how they factored into Evie’s life and her backstory. This did become easier as the book progressed and S A Harris does an excellent job of wrapping up all the various strands by the end of the story but even I can’t help feeling that there were a couple of subplots that, although interesting, were not entirely necessary.

I also found some of the decisions taken by Evie – and several of the other characters – slightly nonsensical at times. If I was expecting my brother to meet me at the airport then, when he failed to show, turned up at his house to find the door open and my brother nowhere to be found, I’d probably at least consider phoning the police!

That all said, I do think S A Harris does a good job of portraying Evie’s vulnerability. Seth’s abuse has isolated Evie from her family and her friends, so it makes sense that she doesn’t always feel that she can rely upon them to help her, and that she would believe them when they tell her that Luke has been prone to wandering off unannounced recently.

Evie’s relationship with Alfie is also really well portrayed. Alfie comes across as a typical teenager, fiercely protective of his mum but also testing boundaries in their relationship. Evie, meanwhile, is understandably hyper-focused upon protecting her son from the dangers – both physical and supernatural – that surround them, and is also pre-occupied with hiding the truth about her past from Alfie, whilst also hiding the truth about her present from her old friends.

As in Haverscroft, S A Harris does a fantastic job of weaving the supernatural into a contemporary setting, offering plenty of strange occurrences and sinister warning signs without ever tipping the balance into melodrama. For those who like their spooks a little more subtle, the tension ratchets up as the book progresses so that, by the final pages, you’re on the edge-of-your-seat waiting to find out how Evie and Alfie will navigate the various dangers and challenges they face.

Although there were times when I felt that Seahurst could have been a little more streamlined in its storytelling, I found it just as enjoyable and page-turning a read as its predecessor. Whilst there is a lot going on in the book, the chills are still nicely integrated, the suspense expertly managed, and the atmosphere adeptly conveyed. The additional exploration of relationship dynamics and emotional turmoil, although complex, does add a parallel level of tension to proceedings, whilst the links between past evils and present threats are well drawn. Overall Seahurst is a worthy successor to Harris’s debut and marks her out as a go-to writer for anyone who enjoys contemporary ghost stories and thrilling chill-fests.

Seahurst by S. A. Harris is published by Salt Publishing and is available now from all good booksellers and online retailers including Hive, Waterstones, Bookshop.org, and Wordery.

If you can, please support a local indie bookshop by ordering from them either in person or online! Some of my favourites include Booka Bookshop, The Big Green BookshopSam Read BooksellersBook-ishScarthin Books, and Berts Books

My thanks go to the publisher for providing a copy of the book in return for an honest and unbiased review and Helen Richardson from Helen Richardson PR for organising and inviting me onto this blog tour. The tour continues until 31 May 2023 so please do check out the other stops for more reviews and content!

Reviews on The Shelf are free, honest, and unbiased and I don’t use affiliate links on my posts. However, if you enjoy the blog, please consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi!

Blog Tours · Reviews

BLOG TOUR REVIEW!!! Perilous Times by Thomas D. Lee

Being reborn as an immortal defender of the realm gets awfully damn tiring over the years—or at least that’s what Sir Kay’s thinking as he claws his way up from beneath the earth, yet again.

Kay fought at Hastings, and at Waterloo, and in both World Wars. After a thousand years, he thought he was used to dealing with a crisis. But now he finds himself in a strange new world where oceans have risen, armies have been privatized, and half of Britain’s been sold to the Chinese. The dragon that’s running amok, that he can handle. The rest? He’s not so sure.

Mariam’s devoted her life to fighting what’s wrong with her country. But she’s just one ordinary person, up against a hopelessly broken system. So when she meets Kay, a figure straight out of legend, she dares to hope that the world’s finally found the saviour it needs.

As the two quest through this strange land swarming with gangs, mercenaries, and talking squirrels, they realize that other ancient evils are afoot. Lancelot is back too–at the beck and call of immortal beings with a sinister agenda. And if their plans can’t be stopped, a dragon will be the least of the planet’s worries.

In perilous times like these, the realm doesn’t just need a knight. It needs a true leader.

Luckily, Excalibur lies within reach–and Kay’s starting to suspect that the hero fit to carry it is close at hand.

As someone currently writing a PhD on Arthurian Literature, the current resurgence of King Arthur in popular culture makes my little heart very happy indeed. Between Perilous Times, Thomas D. Lee’s lively mix of contemporary satire and surprisingly poignant eco-novel, and Sophie Keetch’s forthcoming feminist retelling Morgan is my Name, 2023 promises to be a good year for fans of all things Round Table.

Perilous Times opens with Kay, long-suffering brother to King Arthur and Steward of the Round Table, clawing himself up from beneath his magically enchanted oak tree to rescue England from yet another peril. Unusually, however, there’s no one there to greet him this time. Not even shadowy government agent Marlowe has deigned to make an appearance. There is, however, a young woman called Miriam who appears to be running away from some armed – and extremely dangerous – guards at a nearby facility, which is enough peril for Kay to be getting on with.

Miriam, it turns out, is a climate activist (or ‘eco-terrorist’ as Marlowe and his fellow governmental agents would put it). Along with her friends from FETA, she’s actively campaigning against the various mega-corporations and governmental agencies whose greed has resulted in what might just be a hopelessly broken Britain. When she meets Kay, Miriam dares to hope that this might be a sign that the tides are turning. But, with Lancelot rampaging across Britain at the behest of shadowy, immortal masters, is the return of the Knights of the Round Table really the solution to all of the country’s problems?

There’s more than a touch of Good Omens about Perilous Times, with its biting send-up of neoliberal capitalism, governmental bureaucracy, and shadowy ‘plans’. I almost expected Merlin to say that the whole thing was ‘ineffable’ at times. There’s also some (slightly gentler) ribbing of liberal ideologies and Arthurian tropes, with some interesting takes on well-known characters such as Merlin and Nimue.

That said, Perilous Times was, for me, a slightly harsher book in many respects. The novel is strident in its condemnation of the way in which corporate greed and governmental corruption can damage both people and planet and, whilst I agreed with many of the sentiments expressed, I did find its somewhat binary in its depictions of various groups at times. The activists within FETA, for example, are depicted as the ‘good guys’ despite sanctioning violent direct action (and being largely ineffectual), whilst the villains are two-dimensional bad guys who combine corporate greed with private displays of xenophobia, racism, misogyny, and homophobia. Given that the messaging of the novel is so relevant and important, it was disappointing to see so complex and nuanced a subject portrayed in this manner.

The main characters were, fortunately, considerably more rounded. Kay is, for the most part, likeable and engaging and Lee conveys the sense of a man who is both forward-thinking but also out-of-time very well. Given that Kay is a figure who, in many Arthurian texts, has something as a bad rep (he’s usually portrayed as either a bit of a bore, somewhat arrogant or, on occasion, both), it was interesting to see a take on that character that fully conveyed the responsibilities – and limitations – of the role of Steward, and that explored Kay’s status as Arthur’s brother.

It took me a little longer to warm to Miriam but, as the novel progressed, I did find myself rooting for her and felt that her character developed in some interesting and unexpected ways. I also really loved the way in which the novel played with expectations about the central Arthurian characters: Lancelot, Merlin, Nimue, and even Arthur himself. Lee often subverts our expectations about these ‘heroes’, showing them to be no less flawed than the average human, for all their immortality.

Whilst there were times when I felt that the various issues dealt with in the novel (which, in addition to climate change, include politics, gender, racial, and LGBTQ++ equality, and the polarisation of contemporary life and culture) was smothering the story, the ending does wrap up the various strands convincingly and, as the story picked up pace, I became more involved with the characters themselves and their individual storylines, rather than the overarching messaging. There is also plenty of book to cover everything, with the novel checking in at a chunky 560 pages!

Overall, Perilous Times is an engaging, playful and highly relevant take on Arthurian mythology, which combines a gentle send-up of mythological narrative figures and tropes with some a hard-hitting satire of extreme capitalism and governmental corruption. This definitely won’t be a book for everyone but, if you’re interested in a fantastical romp that has Pratchett-esque vibes, a strong social conscience, and a hefty dose of dark comedy, then this is definitely a debut novel worth adding to your ‘to read’ pile!

Perilous Times by Thomas D. Lee is published by Orbit and is available now from all good booksellers and online retailers including Hive, Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Wordery.

If you can, please support a local indie bookshop by ordering from them either in person or online! Some of my favourites include Booka Bookshop, The Big Green BookshopSam Read BooksellersBook-ishScarthin Books, and Berts Books

My thanks go to the publisher for providing a copy of the book in return for an honest and unbiased review and Tracy Fenton from Compulsive Readers for organising and inviting me onto this blog tour. The tour continues until 13 June 2023 so please do check out the other stops for more reviews and content!

Reviews on The Shelf are free, honest, and unbiased and I don’t use affiliate links on my posts. However, if you enjoy the blog, please consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi!

BBNYA · Spotlight

BBNYA FINALIST SPOTLIGHT!!! The Goddess of Nothing at All by Cat Rector

I’m delighted to be back on another blog tour for The Write Reads today and to be spotlighting another of our fabulous BBNYA 2022 finalists. Today I’m spotlighting our 2nd-placed finalist The Goddess of Nothing At All by Cat Rector, a queer dark-fantasy Norse myth retelling that I absolutely loved!

The cover of The Goddess of Nothing at All features a dark-haired woman wearing Nordic clothing holding a rune-covered bowl in both hands.

About the Book

Perhaps you know the myths. 

Furious, benevolent Gods.

A tree that binds nine realms.

A hammer stronger than any weapon.

And someday, the end of everything.

But few have heard of me. 

Looking back, it’s easy to know what choices I might have made differently. At least it feels that way. I might have given up on my title. Told my father he was useless, king of Gods or no, and left Asgard. Made a life somewhere else. 

Maybe I would never have let Loki cross my path. Never have fallen in love. 

But there’s no going back. 

We were happy once. 

And the price for that happiness was the end of everything.

About the Author

Cat Rector grew up in a small Nova Scotian town and could often be found simultaneously reading a book and fighting off muskrats while walking home from school. She devours stories in all their forms, loves messy, morally grey characters, and writes about the horrors that we inflict on each other.

After spending nearly a decade living abroad, she returned to Canada with her spouse to resume her war against the muskrats. When she’s not writing, you can find her playing video games, spending time with loved ones, or staring at her To Be Read pile like it’s going to read itself. 

Epilogues for Lost Gods is the sequel to her debut novel, The Goddess of Nothing At All.

Find Out More!

You can find out more about Cat and her work via her website, and by following her on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram (@Cat_Rector)

If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official.

BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.

The Goddess of Nothing at All by Cat Rector is available to purchase from Amazon via their UK, US, and Canadian storefronts.

My thanks go to The Write Reads and BBNYA for organising and inviting me onto this blog tour! Follow the hashtags #BBNYA #BBNYA2022 for more reviews and spotlights.

Reviews and features on The Shelf are free, honest, and unbiased and I don’t use affiliate links on my posts. However, if you enjoy the blog, please consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi!

Spotlight

NEW BOOK SPOTLIGHT!! The Guest by Emma Cline

Today my bookish spotlight is shining on a brand new release. From the author of The Girls and Daddy, The Guest is the second novel from critically acclaimed author Emma Cline and is out TODAY from Vintage.

I’ve not finished the book just yet but, from what I’ve read so far, it’s a sinister yet stylish examination of the darkness that can lurk underneath even the most beautiful of facades. Written in precise and exacting prose, this is already garnering praise from reviewers and is set to be one of the most compulsive literary novels of the summer.

The cover of The Guest features a lit-up swimming pool at night, with a ladder descending into the pool.

About the Book

Summer is coming to a close on Long Island, and Alex is no longer welcome…

One misstep at a dinner party and the older man she’s been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city. With few resources, but a gift for navigating the desires of others, Alex stays on the island. She drifts like a ghost through the gated driveways and sun-blasted dunes of a rarefied world, trailing destruction in her wake.

Taut, sensual and impossible to look away from, The Guest captures the latent heat and potential danger of a summer that could go either way for a young woman teetering on the edge.

About the Author

Emma Cline is an American writer and novelist, originally from California. She published her first novel, The Girls in 2016, to positive reviews. The book was shortlisted for the John Leonard Award from the National Book Critics Circle and the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. Her stories have been published in The New Yorker, Tin House, Granta and The Paris Review. In 2017 Cline was named one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists.

Find Out More!

You can find out more about Emma and her work on her website.

The Guest by Emma Cline is published by Vintage and is available now from all good booksellers and online retailers including Hive, Waterstones, Bookshop.org, and Wordery. My thanks go to the publisher for providing a copy of the book.

If you can, please support a local indie bookshop by ordering from them either in person or online! Some of my favourites include Booka Bookshop, The Big Green BookshopSam Read BooksellersBook-ishScarthin Books, and Berts Books

Reviews on The Shelf are free, honest, and unbiased and I don’t use affiliate links on my posts. However, if you enjoy the blog, please consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi!

Blog Tours · Reviews

BLOG TOUR REVIEW!!! If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come by Jen St. Jude

Image Description: The cover of If Tomorrow Doesn't Come features two young women facing each other and holding hands. In the background, a meteor trail blazes against a fiery sky.

Avery Byrne has secrets. She’s queer; she’s in love with her best friend, Cass; and she’s suffering from undiagnosed clinical depression. But on the morning Avery plans to jump into the river near her college campus, the world discovers there are only nine days left to an asteroid is headed for Earth, and no one can stop it.

Trying to spare her family and Cass additional pain, Avery does her best to make it through just nine more days. As time runs out and secrets slowly come to light, Avery would do anything to save the ones she loves. But most importantly, she learns to save herself. Speak her truth. Seek the support she needs. Find hope again in the tomorrows she has left.

So, first things first, you’re going to have to bear with me for this review. Given that I am still an utter mess after finishing If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come, there is a very good chance that whatever I write will be a gushing word salad of barely legible praise interrupted by the occasional sob. If you want to head straight to the meat of the review it’s this: read this book, it will probably break you in many ways but it is brilliant. If you’re prepared to eat your blogging greens, however, get comfy because here comes the salad…

If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come opens with college freshman Avery Byrne planning to end her own life. Just before she throws herself into the freezing waters of the local river, however, she gets a call from her best friend Cass to tell her that an asteroid has been spotted heading for earth. In nine days, it’ll hit, and life on the planet – if anyone even survives – will change forever.

As you can probably tell from that opening, If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come doesn’t pull its punches. Indeed, the book opens with a content warning that the book features a central character with undiagnosed clinical depression and that it contains discussions of suicide, mental health, and homophobia. Whilst there are no graphic scenes of this content actually happening, the story and plot do revolve around and exploration of these themes. There’s also a scene involving a home invasion and some references to physical violence.

That all probably makes If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come sound like something of a grim read but, despite the heaviness of both the themes and the situation, it’s also a novel filled with love, friendship, joy, and happiness. Although Avery and Cass’s journey is far from an easy one, seeing them learn to open up and trust each other with the innermost wishes, desires, and hurts is both heart-breaking and romantic. I also loved the way that the book explored the messy complexities of family. Avery’s parents are devout Roman Catholics and, whilst they love and support her in many ways, the book doesn’t shy away from the fact that her sexuality is considered sinful by many of the people in the church around her, or the isolation that can result from feeling emotionally cut off from important support networks as a result.

Indeed, the supporting characters are all fantastic. Avery’s college roommate Aisha – who ends up hitching a ride back to Avery’s house when she can’t get home to Nigeria – is wonderfully layered and has a heart-warming subplot of her own. It was also wonderful to see an Ace character represented on the page without that being the be-all and end-all of their personality. I also really liked Dr Talley, Avery’s college professor (who, along with his dog Scout, also ends up hitching a ride with her) who, although not always the most outwardly empathetic, ends up giving Avery some guidance that she very much needs to hear.

Avery herself is a so fully-formed as a character it almost hurt to read how sad she was at times. I suspect a lot of readers will identify with her in one way or another. As a former ‘gifted and talented’ kid with neurodiversity and a mental health condition, I certainly saw elements of myself in Avery’s intense desire to please and impossibly high expectations of herself. The flashbacks to her childhood and high school years were really interesting and I loved the way that they demonstrated that there isn’t any one thing that ’causes’ depression. Or, indeed, a ’cause’ at all. You can have a loving family and wonderful friends; excel at school; and be a star on the soccer field but you can still suffer from depression and mental illness. And whilst the novel is never so glib as to suggest a ‘cure’ for Avery’s depression, I loved the way that it shows her shift in focus from reasons not to live onto things to live for.

I genuinely think that If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come is not only a brilliant book but also a very important one. Whilst lots of fiction – and YA fiction in particular – does a commendable job of tackling mental health, I’ve yet to read anything that encapsulated the themes tackled here in such a nuanced and respectful way. Combined with some fantastic representation, this is a novel that really does cover a lot of thematic ground but manages to do it without anything feeling ‘tacked on’ or undercooked.

If you’ve made it through the word salad then firstly, well done, and secondly, you really need to go and buy this book already. Seriously, I loved it. It made me laugh. It made me cry. It hit me right in all of the feels. If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come isn’t, by any means, an ‘easy’ read – please do pay attention to those trigger warnings I mentioned earlier and consider whether this is the right time for you to read this if you need to – but it’s a beautifully written book that, despite going to some very dark places, is filled with heart and humanity.

If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come by Jen St. Jude is published by Penguin and is available now from all good booksellers and online retailers including Hive, Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Wordery.

My thanks go to the publisher for providing a copy of the book in return for an honest and unbiased review, and to The Write Reads for organising and inviting me onto this blog tour. The tour continues until 19 May 2023 so check out @The_WriteReads or follow the hashtags #TheWriteReads #UltimateBlogTour #IfTomorrowDoesntCome for more reviews and content!

If you can, please support a local indie bookshop by ordering from them either in person or online! Some of my favourites include Booka Bookshop, The Big Green BookshopSam Read BooksellersBook-ishScarthin Books, and Berts Books

Reviews on The Shelf are free, honest, and unbiased and I don’t use affiliate links on my posts. However, if you enjoy the blog, please consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi!

BBNYA · Spotlight

BBNYA FINALIST SPOTLIGHT!!! Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani

’m delighted to be back on another blog tour for The Write Reads today and to be spotlighting another of our fabulous BBNYA 2022 finalists. Today it’s the turn of 3rd placed finalist Intisar Khanani and her YA fantasty novel Sunbolt.

Image Description: The cover of Sunbolt features an intricate interwoven pattern in vibrant oranges and blues.

About the Book

The winding streets and narrow alleys of Karolene hide many secrets, and Hitomi is one of them. Orphaned at a young age, Hitomi has learned to hide her magical aptitude and who her parents really were. Most of all, she must conceal her role in the Shadow League, an underground movement working to undermine the powerful and corrupt Arch Mage Wilhelm Blackflame.

When the League gets word that Blackflame intends to detain—and execute—a leading political family, Hitomi volunteers to help the family escape. But there are more secrets at play than Hitomi’s, and much worse fates than execution. When Hitomi finds herself captured along with her charges, it will take everything she can summon to escape with her life.

About the Author

Intisar Khanani grew up a nomad and world traveler. She has lived in five different states as well as in Jeddah, on the coast of the Red Sea. Intisar used to write grants and develop projects to address community health and infant mortality with the Cincinnati Health Department, which was as close as she could get to saving the world.

Now she focuses her time on her two passions: raising her family and writing fantasy. She is the author of The Sunbolt Chronicles, and the Dauntless Path novels, beginning with Thorn.

Find Out More!

You can find out more about Intisar and her work on her website and by following her on Twitter (@BooksByIntisar).

If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official.

BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.

Sunbolt (Book One of the Sunbolt Chronicles) by Intisar Khanani is published by Purple Monkey Press and is available from Amazon via their UK, US, and Canadian storefronts.

My thanks go to The Write Reads and BBNYA for organising and inviting me onto this blog tour! Follow the hashtags #BBNYA #BBNYA2022 for more reviews and spotlights.

Reviews and features on The Shelf are free, honest, and unbiased and I don’t use affiliate links on my posts. However, if you enjoy the blog, please consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi!

Blog Tours · Reviews

BLOG TOUR!!! Italian Rules by Tom Benjamin

The cover of Italian Rules features an image of a covered cloister-style walkway, with sunlight filtering under the arches.
Image Description: The cover of Italian Rules features an image of a covered cloister-style walkway, with sunlight filtering under the arches.

When Hollywood comes to Bologna, La Dolce Vita turns sweet murder…

A famous Hollywood director arrives in Bologna to remake a cult film and the city’s renown cinema archive decides to mark the occasion with a screening of the original, only to discover it has disappeared.

After English detective Daniel Leicester follows the trail of Love on a Razorblade to an apparent murder-suicide, he begins to suspect there may be more at stake than missing negatives – could the film contain a clue to one of the city’s most enduring mysteries? Together with a star from the forthcoming remake, Daniel moves from the glamour of Venice Lido to the depths of Bologna’s secret tunnel system as a sinister network closes in and he learns some people are ready to kill for the ultimate director’s cut.

Italian Rules is the fourth outing for Tom Benjamin’s Bologna-based private detective Daniel Leicester. If you haven’t read the previous books in the series, however, there’s nothing to stop you diving in with this latest instalment which sees Hollywood glamour turn to murder when a remake threatens to reopen old wounds and long buried secrets.

When Hollywood director Indigo Adler decides to remake Toni Fausto’s cult classic ‘Love on a Razorblade’, Bologna’s renowned cinema archive decides to mark the occasion with a screening of the original. The only problem is that the negatives have disappeared and, when Daniel and his team investigate the trail that leads to them, they find a trail of dead bodies and evidence of what appears to be a professional hit.

As with previous books in the series, the real star of the show is Bologna itself. Tom Benjamin’s knowledge of – and love for – the city leaps off every page and reading the book was like taking a walk through the streets of the city itself. Instantly engaging, the writing sucks you into Daniel’s world and you get the perspective of seeing the city through the eyes of someone who is intimately familiar with it but, having married into the Famiglia Faidate, retains an outsider’s perspective on the city and its culture.

Whilst the mystery of what has happened to ‘Love on a Razorblade’ is self-contained, various members of Daniel’s family firm and wider network make re-appearances and, as a returning reader to the series, it was great to learn a little more about them, I particularly like the relationship between Daniel and his teenage daughter, Rose, who once again plays a key supporting role in this novel when she becomes the assistant to the glamorous actress, Anna Bloom (and erstwhile matchmaker to her father!). It was also nice to learn a little more about the Comandante, the head of the family firm, and the complicated web of Carabinieri and military connections that, eventually, leads Daniel to a long-hidden truth.

The mystery itself is pacy and engaging, with a nice balance between good old-fashioned detective work and more thrilling moments. I was particularly interested in the way in which the case intersects with Italian history and film history, and found the insights into the seedier side of film-making fascinating. The novel also touches upon the legacy of the Second World War and examines the more recent mysteries around the fate of Itavia Flight 870. Benjamin handles these connections with sensitivity, weaving them into the plot without it ever feeling gratuitous. Whilst there is some violence, I didn’t find it gratuitous although readers with a more sensitive disposition should be aware that there are some scenes in which murder and violence are described or referenced.

Offering a compelling, stylishly written mystery, a fantastic setting, and some good old-fashioned detective work, Italian Rules is another immersive addition to the Daniel Leicester series and is sure to delight existing fans of the series. The Hollywood glamour and the inclusion of new character Anna Bloom also makes this an ideal jumping off point for any crime fan looking for a new detective series in their life.

Italian Rules by Tom Benjamin is published by Constable and is available now from all good booksellers and online retailers including Hive, Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Wordery.

If you can, please support a local indie bookshop by ordering from them either in person or online! Some of my favourites include Booka Bookshop, The Big Green BookshopSam Read BooksellersBook-ishScarthin Books, and Berts Books

My thanks go to the publisher for providing a copy of the book in return for an honest and unbiased review and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for organising and inviting me onto this blog tour. The tour continues until 18 May 2023 so please do check out the other stops for more reviews and content!

Reviews on The Shelf are free, honest, and unbiased and I don’t use affiliate links on my posts. However, if you enjoy the blog, please consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi!

Blog Tours · Reviews

BLOG TOUR!!! Straight Expectations by Calum McSwiggan

The cover of Straight Expectations features two versions of the same young blond-haired man: one in a cropped jacket and with a rainbow friendship bracelet, and the other in a football jacket. A rainbow splits the page in half vertically.
Image Description: The cover of Straight Expectations features two versions of the same young blond-haired man: one in a cropped jacket and with a rainbow friendship bracelet, and the other in a football jacket. A rainbow splits the page in half vertically.

Seventeen-year-old Max has always been out, proud and just a little spoiled. Frustrated by the lack of romantic options in his small-town high school, during an argument with his lifelong best friend Dean, Max lashes out and says he wishes he had never been born gay.

Max gets more than he bargained for when he wakes up to find his wish has come true – not only have his feelings for boys vanished, but so has Dean.

With his school life turned upside down and his relationship with his family in tatters, Max sets out on a journey of rediscovery to find a way back to the life he took for granted, and the romance he thought he’d never have.

Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true! In Straight Expectations, the debut novel from YouTuber, blogger, and online radio presenter Calum McSwiggan, seventeen-year-old Max ends up learning the truth of this old adage the hard way.

After being left on read by Oliver, the boy of his dreams, Max says he wishes he had never been born gay. But he gets more than he bargained for when he wakes up the following morning with a considerably less exciting wardrobe and a room filled with posters of scantily-clad ladies. More importantly, his lifelong best friend Dean seems to have completely vanished from their school, boy-of-his-dreams Oliver is just another teammate, and Max finds himself eyeing up his friend Alicia in a distinctly ‘more-than-just-good-friends’ way.

Yet the more he gets to know ‘Straight Max’, the more that Max realises that there are more than a few similarities between his former self and this new identity. And as he finds out more about the world of ‘Straight Max’ – and why Dean isn’t in it – he finds himself questioning his own privilege and learning that, whilst being out and proud is an important part of being Max, maybe it isn’t everything.

Straight Expectations is a cute and fun read that has a decent level of depth underneath the apparently light surface. Max’s voice comes across really well on the page which allowed me to sympathise with him and understand his perspective, even when he was acting like an obnoxious teenager! His friendship with Dean is absolutely delightful and I loved that, even though the book has a romance element, the core of the story is centred around friendship and self-discovery (although the romance, when it does happen, is very cute too and handled with just the right levels of teenage angst and giddiness).

There were one or two moments when some of the characters slip into stereotypes but, for the most part, the book plays with expectations in interesting ways, especially once Max has entered the parallel world of ‘Straight Max’. I also really enjoyed the way that Max – who starts the novel very aware of other people’s privileges and bias (and unafraid of calling them out on it) – becomes gradually aware that he still has his own privileges and assumptions.

Overall, Straight Expectations is a fun and heart-warming read that, although unafraid of tackling more serious issues, remains light-hearted and sweet throughout. This is one of those novels that would make a fantastic film or TV series because it’s really easy to picture the characters – they leap off the page – and ‘see’ the action as you read. Offering both heart and humour, Straight Expectations is an enjoyable and uplifting YA read with thought-provoking and informative undertones.

Straight Expectations by Calum McSwiggan is published by Penguin and is available now from all good booksellers and online retailers including Hive, Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Wordery.

My thanks go to the publisher for providing a copy of the book in return for an honest and unbiased review, and to The Write Reads for organising and inviting me onto this blog tour. The tour continues until 15 May 2023 so check out @The_WriteReads or follow the hashtags #TheWriteReads #UltimateBlogTour #StraightExpectations for more reviews and content!

If you can, please support a local indie bookshop by ordering from them either in person or online! Some of my favourites include Booka Bookshop, The Big Green BookshopSam Read BooksellersBook-ishScarthin Books, and Berts Books

Reviews on The Shelf are free, honest, and unbiased and I don’t use affiliate links on my posts. However, if you enjoy the blog, please consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi!

BBNYA · Spotlight

BBNYA FINALIST SPOTLIGHT!!! Inheriting Her Ghosts by S. H. Cooper

I’m delighted to be back on another blog tour for The Write Reads today and to be spotlighting another of our fabulous BBNYA 2022 finalists. Today it’s the turn of 4th placed finalist S. H. Cooper and her historical horror novel Inheriting Her Ghosts.

The cover of Inheriting Her Ghosts features a young woman in a black Victorian-style dress standing between two enormous wolfhounds.
Image Description: The cover of Inheriting Her Ghosts features a young woman in a black Victorian-style dress standing between two enormous wolfhounds.

About the Book

Inheritance often comes with strings attached, but rarely are they as tangled as those hanging over High Hearth.

When Eudora Fellowes learns she’s the sole heir of her estranged great-aunt’s seaside manor, she believes it will be the peaceful escape she’s longed for. What awaits, however, is a dark legacy shrouded in half a century of secrets, and it doesn’t take long before Eudora realizes she’s not the only one to call High Hearth home.

About the Author

S.H. Cooper is a Florida based, multi-genre author with a focus on horror and fantasy. Her work has been published by Sleepless Sanctuary Publishing, Cemetery Gates Media, and Brigids Gate Press.

In addition to short story collections and novels, she is also the writer for the horror comedy podcast, Calling Darkness. When she’s not writing, she’s thinking about writing, talking about writing, or sleeping (wherein she dreams about writing). She is kept up and running through the tireless efforts of her extremely supportive family and coffee.

Find Out More!

You can find out more about S. H. Cooper and her work by visiting her website, and by following her on Twitter (@MissPippinacious) and Facebook.

If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official.

BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.

Inheriting Her Ghosts by S. H. Cooper is published by Sleepless Sanctuary Publishing and is available from Amazon via their UK, US, and Canadian storefronts.

My thanks go to The Write Reads and BBNYA for organising and inviting me onto this blog tour! Follow the hashtags #BBNYA #BBNYA2022 for more reviews and spotlights.

Reviews and features on The Shelf are free, honest, and unbiased and I don’t use affiliate links on my posts. However, if you enjoy the blog, please consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi!

Reviews

REVIEW!!! The Birthday Girl by Sarah Ward

The cover of The Birthday Girl features a building on an isolated island. The weather appears to be stormy and seagulls whirl in the air.
Image Description: The cover of The Birthday Girl features a building on an isolated island. The weather appears to be stormy and seagulls whirl in the air.

Welcome to Eldey, an island with deadly secrets.

Mona is a carefree artist, staying at The Cloister to work on her illustrations.

Beth is the harried mother of a toddler, on the remote Welsh island for a weekend escape with her family.

Charlotte wanted a romantic getaway with her husband, not a trip with his troubled teenage stepdaughter.

One of them is a serial killer who poisoned three of her friends at her eleventh birthday party.

When one of the hotel guests is found dead, it becomes clear to Mallory Dawson – the night manager of the boutique island hotel and former police detective – that The Birthday Girl is among them.

Three guests who fit the profile, but which of them would risk everything to kill again?

Having loved every book that Sarah Ward has written so far, I was so excited when I heard that not only was her latest novel a twisty locked-room (well, locked-island!) mystery but that she was also setting it in Wales AND it would be the first in a new series featuring former police detective Mallory Dawson.

Like it’s real-life counterpart Caldey Island, Eldey is a former religious community situated just off the Pembrokeshire coast. Although the convent has long-since gone, traces of the island’s heritage remain amidst the luxurious surroundings of The Cloister: the boutique hotel that has arisen in the convent’s place. The small chapel and mausoleum in the grounds add a gothic chill to The Cloister’s otherwise carefully crafted opulence, and owner Alex is more than happy to allow his staff to indulge curious guests and day-trippers alike with rumours of ghostly nuns and their past crimes.

When a real-life criminal makes their way to The Cloister, however, the outcome is more than just shadows and rumours. With a dead body in one of the bedrooms and a raging storm isolating the hotel from the mainland, it’s up to the hotel’s night manager, former police detective Mallory Dawson, to keep the remaining guests safe and hunt down a killer. But this murderer has killed before, and she has more than a little in common with the darker side of Eldey’s past. The Birthday Girl killed four of her friends at her own eleventh birthday party. Poison is her speciality so, with no way of bringing in fresh food or water, how many guests will she get to before the storm abates?

As you may have guessed from that summary, The Birthday Girl is a page-turning crime thriller where the question is more than just whodunnit. Mallory knows that Bryony, the eponymous Birthday Girl, is responsible for the deaths on Eldey. But there are three women staying at the hotel who all fit the profile. Because Bryony was only a child herself when she committed her first crimes, no images exist of her and her new identity is subject to a protection order. So how does Mallory go about protecting her guests whilst also investigating them? With the storm providing additional complications – and Mallory’s own health worsening – suspense is the name of the game in this tightly plotted and claustrophobic read.

Sarah Ward has perfectly captured the duality of isolated places such as Eldey. On a summer’s day, there’s no place more tranquil or idyllic than a remote luxury hotel. But add in some late-summer storms and cut the island off from the mainland, and it becomes a much more frightening prospect. I also loved how a slight element of Gothic chill was bought into proceedings by the connections between Bryony’s modus operandi – poison – and this history of the religious community that formerly made The Cloister their home.

Mallory is a likeable and engaging protagonist. Retired from the police on medical grounds, she’s overcoming her own challenges when she takes the role at Eldey. The other characters are also very interesting and we get occasional forays into the perspectives of the three ‘suspects’: Mona, Charlotte, and Beth, as well as into the thoughts of the infamous Birthday Girl herself. Although I found the eventual motivation for this fresh round of killings a little insubstantial, I was so caught up in the characters and the action, that I didn’t really mind!

Page-turning is an adjective often applied to crime thrillers but, in the case of The Birthday Girl, I really couldn’t fly through the pages fast enough. This is the perfect novel to settle down with over a weekend or whilst on holiday (especially if you’re headed out to somewhere remote!) and another fantastic read from Sarah Ward. I’m delighted that this is the first in a new series featuring Mallory and set in and around Pembrokeshire. It will be interesting to see whether any other characters return for book two – there’s definitely one or two that I’d like to spend more time with – and where life will take Mallory after the events on Eldey.

The Birthday Girl by Sarah Ward is published by Canelo and is available now from all good booksellers and online retailers including Hive, Waterstones, Bookshop.org, and Wordery. My thanks go the publisher of the book and to NetGalley UK for providing an ecopy in return for an honest and unbiased review.

If you can, please support a local indie bookshop by ordering from them either in person or online! Some of my favourites include Booka Bookshop, The Big Green BookshopSam Read BooksellersBook-ishScarthin Books, and Berts Books

Reviews on The Shelf are free, honest, and unbiased and I don’t use affiliate links on my posts. However, if you enjoy the blog, please consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi!