Dead Perfect

 

A murdered woman…

When the body of a young woman is found in a local park, DC Maggie Jamieson knows she’s dealing with no ordinary killer. The murder victim has been disfigured; her outfit changed to resemble someone else. Someone Maggie knows all too well…her close friend Dr Kate Moloney.

A determined detective…

Maggie is determined to keep her friend safe, but with Kate already struggling with a threatening stalker, Maggie now fears Kate’s life is in real danger. Who else would want to harm Kate and why else would the killer be turning his victims into exact replicas – his living dolls? 

Can Maggie find the depraved killer? Or will Kate become his next living doll?

About the author

 

Noelle Holten is an award-winning blogger at www.crimebookjunkie.co.uk. She is the PR & Social Media Manager for Bookouture, a leading digital publisher in the UK, and worked as a Senior Probation Officer for eighteen years, covering a variety of risk cases as well as working in a multi agency setting. She has three Hons BA’s – Philosophy, Sociology (Crime & Deviance) and Community Justice – and a Masters in Criminology. Noelle’s hobbies include reading, attending as many book festivals as she can afford and sharing the booklove via her blog.

Dead Inside – her debut novel with One More Chapter/Harper Collins UK is an international kindle bestseller and the start of a new series featuring DC Maggie Jamieson.

Connect with Noelle on Social Media here:

Subscribe to Newsletter: http://ow.ly/cgww50BkBtt 

Twitter: (@nholten40) https://twitter.com/nholten40 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/noelleholtenauthor/ 

Blog FB page: https://www.facebook.com/crimebookjunkie/ 

Instagram: @author_noelleholten

Website: https://www.crimebookjunkie.co.uk   

Bookbub Author page : https://bit.ly/2LkT4LB 

My Review

This is definitely the creepiest of the three books so far. When a body is found in a park wearing clothes similar to those worn by Maggie's friend Kate, the hunt begins to catch the killer before he gets to Kate. this is a great psychological profile of the mind of a serial killer and his search for a 'living doll'. Noelle puts her background in the probation service to good use making for authentic detail but it is the warped mind of a killer that will stay with you. Hauntingly realistic but makes for a nail-biting read.

Christmas with the Teashop Girls

 

 A feel-good festive saga from bestselling author of The Woolworths Girls 

Christmas with the Teashop Girls 

ELAINE EVEREST 

To be published on 15th October by Pan Macmillan, 

price £7.99 as paperback original 

PRAISE FOR ELAINE EVEREST 

“A warm, tender tale of friendship” Milly Johnson 

“Warm characters and moving tales” Sunday Express 

“A charming, warm-hearted read” Take A Break 

“Heartwarming… a must-read” Woman’s Own 

“A warm tale of friendship” My Weekly 

“A guaranteed cockle-warmer” Yours 

ABOUT CHRISTMAS WITH THE TEASHOP GIRLS 

The friends return in a moving story of love, bravery and hope set in 1940 – a guaranteed winter warmer full of festive spirit. Bestseller Elaine Everest is the author of the much-loved Woolworths Girls saga series. 

It’s late 1940 and the war feels closer to home than ever for Rose Neville and her staff at the Lyon’s Teashop in Margate. The worry of rationing hangs overhead as the Nippies do their best to provide a happy smile and a hot cup of tea for their customers. When a bombing raid targets the Kent coastline, Lyon’s is badly hit, throwing the future of the cafe into jeopardy. 

The light in Rose’s life is her dashing fiancé Captain Ben Hargreaves and she’s busy planning their Christmas Eve wedding. But she must also plan to take two new stepdaughters into her life and get on the right side of her wealthy mother-in-law, Lady Diana. Is Rose ready to become a mother? 

When Rose’s half-sister Eileen makes contact, it seems that Rose’s dreams of having a sibling are coming true at long last. But her friends begin to suspect that she’s hiding something… As the wedding draws near, the bombings intensify, putting everything and everyone Rose loves in danger. Only one thing is for sure: it will be a Christmas she never forgets . . . 

ABOUT ELAINE EVEREST: 

Elaine Everest is from North West Kent and she grew up listening to stories of the war years in her home town of Erith, which features in her bestselling Woolworths Girls series. A former journalist, and author of nonfiction books for dog owners, Elaine has written over sixty short stories for the women's magazine market. When she isn't writing, Elaine runs The Write Place creative writing school in Hextable, Kent. She lives with her husband, Michael and sheepdog Henry. You can find out more about Elaine on Twitter @ElaineEverest or Facebook /elaine.everest 

Elaine Everest lives in Kent is available for interviews and to write features. 

The Teashop Girls is published by Pan Macmillan on 15th October price £7.99 as paperback original. For further information, review copies and interview requests, please contact Bethan James at ed public relations on Bethan@edpr.co.uk 

My Review

Lovely to catch up with the Teashop girls and find out the latest happenings as we head towards Christmas 1940. i love Lady Diana who, despite her title,  is quite down-to-earth and a great character. just to balance things out we are introduced to Rose's half-sister, Eileen but is she all she seems? All the threads are cleverly brought together so that as 1940 draws to a close, this is one Christmas to remember. An engaging read perfect for the run up to the festive season.

The Christmas Swap

 

The Christmas Swap

Christmas is coming and best friends Chloe, Jules, and Lucy are needing change… so swapping homes for the holidays could be the perfect present for all of them!

Australian Chloe spends her Christmas in a sleepy village in Oxfordshire, England. She is totally star-struck when she discovers who lives across the road.

Lucy, who has jetted off to snowy Colorado for her dream-come-true white Christmas, is taken into the fold of Jules’s loud and brash family, discovering more about herself in a few short days than she has in years.

And Jules leaves the cold climes of Colorado to spend her Christmas on a beach with Chloe’s friends in Melbourne, finding that time away is just what she needed.

The only thing better than one Christmas romance is three, and this wonderful festive novel is perfect for fans of Sarah Morgan, Holly Martin and Karen Swan.

 

Purchase Links 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-Swap-Sandy-Barker/dp/0008390045

https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-christmas-swap

https://books.apple.com/gb/book/the-christmas-swap/id1522992097

https://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/fiction-poetry/the-christmas-swap,sandy-barker-9780008390044

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-christmas-swap/sandy-barker/9780008390044

 

Author Bio – 

Sandy Barker is a writer, traveller and hopeful romantic with a lengthy bucket list. She loves exploring new places, outdoor adventures, and eating and drinking like a local when she travels, and many of her travel adventures have found homes in her novels. She’s also an avid reader, film buff, wine lover and coffee snob.

Social Media Links – 

https://twitter.com/sandybarker

https://www.facebook.com/sandybarkerauthor

https://www.instagram.com/sandybarkerauthor

https://sandybarker.com/

 My Review

What a lovely idea for Jules, Lucy and chloe to swap homes for Christmas. This means plenty of scope for romance in England, Australia and the US, and of course three very different Christmasses. It really does feel like three stories in one as the romances overlap and obstacles emerge. However, it may mean putting love before friendship and breaking up the happy trio who have always been there for each other. A great festive story, or three, for putting you in a Christmas mood - very enjoyable.

Paris time capsule

The parcel arrived on an ordinary morning in the mailbox of her New York apartment, postmarked Paris. It was wrapped in brown paper and tied with a silk ribbon. Little did she know that the old brass key and letter it contained were about to turn her life upside down…

1940, Paris. Life is getting desperate for young Isabelle de Florian. Alone with her best friend in her Paris apartment, Isabelle knows that they must seek safety or die. For months she has been playing a dangerous game of secrets with the Nazis, trying to keep the people she loves safe. At last, she secures passage out of the city, packs her best jewels into a small suitcase and steps into the treacherous night…

New York, 2015. Photographer Cat Jordan is shocked when she receives a letter informing her that she is the sole heir of the estate of Isabelle de Florian. She was a friend of Cat’s enigmatic grandmother, who both lived in France until the Nazi occupation forced them to flee. The letter offers few details but is clear on one point: Cat must come to Paris in person.

When she arrives, Cat is enchanted by Isabelle’s beautiful apartment. But why did she leave it to a stranger? Determined to find the truth, Cat investigates her grandmother and Isabelle’s escape from Paris, and discovers that Isabelle was hunted by the Nazis in 1940. But as Cat searches through the dusty letters in the apartment, will the secret she finds change everything she knows about Isabelle and herself?

From bestselling author Ella Carey comes an utterly spellbinding novel about wartime secrets. Paris Time Capsule shows that pulling on the tiniest thread of a life can unravel everything you thought you knew, and change your world forever.

This book was first published in 2015.  

Author Bio:

Ella Carey is the international bestselling author of The Things We Don’t Say, Secret Shores, From a Paris Balcony, The House by the Lake, and Paris Time Capsule. Her books have been published in over fourteen languages, in twelve countries, and have been shortlisted for ARRA awards. A Francophile who has long been fascinated by secret histories set in Europe’s entrancing past, Ella has degrees in music, nineteenth-century women’s fiction, and modern European history. She lives in Melbourne with her two children and two Italian greyhounds who are constantly mistaken for whippets.

Ella loves to connect with her readers regularly through her facebook page and on her website.

http://www.ellacarey.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ellacareyauthor/

https://twitter.com/Ella_Carey

Buy Links:

Amazon: https://bit.ly/3cFcPL7

Apple: https://apple.co/338FnbG

Kobo: https://bit.ly/35fT6jv

Google: https://bit.ly/3hlg9fj

My Review

I remember in 2010 reading about the discovery of a Parisian apartment untouched by time and thinking what a fabulous backstory there must be. Well, that story has been written and what a story! I was entranced from the word go about how the discovery impacts on the lives of Cat in the USA and Loic in France and although this is pure fiction, never once did I suspend belief. 

Ella Carey skilfully weaves the lives of Isabelle and Cat's grandmother with a mysterious secret history that Cat has to unravel. The story telling is first class, the historical backstory impeccably researched and the characters so real it's hard to believe they don't exist. I found myself thinking about them long after i finished the book.

The winter we met

 

The Winter We Met

When charming, mysterious Nik sits next to Jess on a plane home from a Christmas toy trade fair, she never could have imagined the impact he'd have on her life. As they touch down in London, Jess is hesitant to let Nik walk away, and before she knows it, she's invited him to visit.

As the two take in the delights of the toy store where she works, Jess gets an upsetting phone call. Willow Court, her grandmother's care home, is to close before Christmas. Jess is determined to find the perfect new home for her Gran – and throw the best Christmas party Willow Court has ever seen!

But time is running out with the closure looming and Jess becomes increasingly drawn to enigmatic Nik who joins forces with her and best friend Oliver to realise those plans.

Will a chance encounter on an aeroplane bring love to Jess's life or is this Christmas miracle too good to be true?

Purchase Link - getbook.at/WinterWeMet

Author Bio – 

Samantha Tonge lives in Manchester UK and studied German and French at university. She has worked abroad, including a stint at Disneyland Paris, and has travelled widely.
When not writing she loves family time, reading and baking. Samantha has sold many dozens of short stories to women's magazines.

In 2013, she landed a publishing deal for romantic comedy fiction with HQDigital at HarperCollins and in 2014 her bestselling debut, Doubting Abbey, was shortlisted for the Festival of Romantic Fiction Best Ebook Award.
In 2015 her summer novel, Game of Scones, hit #5 in the UK Kindle chart and won the Love Stories Awards Best Romantic Ebook category.
In 2019 she was shortlisted for the RNA’s Romantic Comedy Award.
In 2020 she won the RNA’s Jackie Collins Romantic Thriller Award with her novel Knowing You, from publisher Canelo.

 

Social Media Links –  Twitter: @SamTongeWriter

Instagram: @samanthatongeauthor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SamanthaTongeAuthor/

My Review

More than anything I enjoyed the portrayal of the residents in the care home as real people rather than stereotypes. Against this backdrop, we see charasmatic Nik winning the residents over but is there more to him than meets the eye? After all, Jess met the Australian on a flight and knows litle about him. Will her flatmate's concerns prove to be unfounded or not? As the events play out during the preparations for a residents' Christmas party before the home closes, we wonder if there will be a happy ending, as someone may be left very disappointed if Nik turns out to be a conman. Lovely, Christmassy feel in this gentle read.

Log Fires & Toffee Apple Cake at the Little Duck Pond Cafe

 Log Fires & Toffee Apple Cake at the Little Duck Pond Café

Get set for a wonderful celebration of autumn with all your favourite characters at the Little Duck Pond Cafe!

An autumn fair is coming to Sunnybrook, much to the delight of the villagers. But for Madison, whose personal life seems to be spinning out of control, a roller-coaster is the last thing she needs – especially when it’s her emotions at stake.
Can she convince the delectable Jack that their relationship is worth another shot? Or has their romance ground to a permanent halt like a faulty big wheel? Will she solve the mystery of the missing name on her birth certificate? Or will her discoveries take her on a journey even bumpier than the dodgem cars? One thing’s for sure. Madison is going to need more than a fairground fortune teller to find the answers to her questions, if she’s going to ‘waltz-er’ into the happiest of sunsets…

Purchase Link -  https://amzn.to/38v98Fz

Author Bio – 

Rosie has been scribbling stories ever since she was little.

Back then, they were rip-roaring adventure tales with a young heroine in perilous danger of falling off a cliff or being tied up by 'the baddies'.

Thankfully, Rosie has moved on somewhat, and now much prefers to write romantic comedies that melt your heart and make you smile, with really not much perilous danger involved at all - unless you count the heroine losing her heart in love.

Her series of novellas is centred around life in a village cafe. The latest, ‘Lucy’s Great Escape', is out now.

Rosie will be revisiting the Little Duck Pond Café with a beautiful story of love and friendship at Christmas time, entitled A Kiss in the Snow, out in October 2020.

Follow Rosie on Twitter - https://twitter.com/Rosie_Green1988

My Review

There are a plethora of summer reads and Christmas books but this one nicely fits the bill as we head into Autumn. Full of beautiful Autumn colour this story is Madison's, as she searches for a connection with her birth father. You can taste the toffee apple cake and feel the heat of the log fire as you read the latest in the series. It really does shed light on why Madison is the way she is. There are plenty of surprises along the way too in this fun, easy-to-read series.