Book Extract: The Asymmetric Man by Alex Rushton
I’m pleased to be welcoming Alex Rushton to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for The Asymmetric Man.
Embark on a gripping journey of sacrifice and self-discovery in The Asymmetric Man, a thrilling tale set against the tumultuous backdrop of the Vietnam War.
Follow Blake, a young recruit turned undercover agent, as he navigates the treacherous world of espionage, survival and forbidden love.
From war-ravaged Saigon to seemingly impenetrable jungle and the tranquillity of a Buddhist monastery, this riveting novel explores the power of recognising and embracing one’s true calling, no matter the cost.
Alex has shared an extract from The Asymmetric Man today. We hope you enjoy.
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In this extract Blake Carter, undercover MI6 agent in Vietnam in 1967, makes contact with Tranter, who is to supply him with the names and details of Blake’s Viet Cong assassination targets.
Chapter 5
Blake decided it was time to make contact with Tranter, using the recognition protocol described in the file he had found in Coulter’s flat. He was aware of the risk; the file might have been found, decoded and replaced for Blake to find, in which case tonight’s meeting would be a trap. However, he had no choice. To approach Tranter in any other way than the one agreed would only raise his suspicions. Blake entered El Paraiso bar on the first Wednesday in June. As before, it was thick with cigarette smoke and smelling of alcohol. Blake stood at the bar. He had a drink and surveyed the area, again evaluating possible escape routes. He immediately recognised Tranter from Coulter’s description, a portly, balding man in a crumpled soiled white suit, with a cigarette between his fingers. The only other people were a few locals, absorbed in conversation. It seemed like as good a time as any. Blake took a deep breath and seized the moment.
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Book Extract: A Christmas Carol with Grandfather Time by Rose English
I’m pleased to be welcoming Rose English to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her book, A Christmas Carol with Grandfather Time. It’s been illustrated by Pablo Rodriguez.
A modern lyrical re-telling of the Charles Dickens classic for children of all ages. Young Ebenezer hates sharing and is not very caring. Can a magical clock and a ghost puppy help him mend his ways?
#SharingIsCaring
**At least £1 from every book purchased will go towards donating a book to each child in Hereford County Hospital over the Christmas Season 2023**
Rose has shared an extract with us today. We hope you enjoy and consider buying the book for the young book lover in your life.
by Book Extract: To Kill a Consul by Robert M. Kidd
I’m pleased to be welcoming Robert M. Kidd to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for his novel, To Kill a Consul.
217 BC. The Gauls are restless. Where is the wealth, plunder and lands they were promised? Hannibal’s army has become little more than a burden to be fed and quartered … as welcome as a plague of locusts. Assassination plots abound as Hannibal is driven to take desperate measures to evade the assassin’s knife.
If Hannibal is to appease the Gauls he must act fast. The invasion of Italia must not be delayed – his very life depends on it – but as that winter of winters fades into memory he is faced with a stark choice. Should he strike east towards the plains of Umbria and face consul Gnaeus Servilius Geminus’ legions holed up inside the unassailable walls of Ariminum? Or strike westwards into the plunder-rich lands of Etruria?
Consul Gaius Flaminius’ legions guard the western approaches. If any man can fire the bellies of Gauls with loathing it’s Flaminius. But there is one other whose blood runs cold at the mention of the name. Flaminius ordered the brutal murder of Sphax’s parents and Sphax has sworn a sacred oath to seek revenge. Can Hannibal trust the leader of his Numidian cavalry, or will this blood feud cloud his judgement? Sooner or later Sphax will have to face his inner demons.
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Robert has stared an extract with us today. We hope you enjoy.
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Spring 217 BC – For days Hannibal’s invading army have been trekking wearily westwards over the mountain passes of the Apennines with Sphax and his Numidians scouting ahead. Their aim is to reach the flat coastal plain bordering the Tyrrhenian (Mediterranean) sea where thy will turn south for Arretium (modern Arezzo).
But first they have to cross something the army has been dreading for weeks: the Arno marshes. Today, all that’s left of these vast wetlands west of Florence is the Fucecchio Marshlands, north of San Maniato (it’s still Italy’s biggest inland marsh!). In 217 BC it was a vast watery graveyard for unwary travelers!
by Book Extract: The Last Train from Paris by Juliet Greenwood
I’m pleased to be welcoming Juliet Greenwood to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her novel, The Last Train from Paris.
For Iris, each visit to her mother in St Mabon’s Cove, Cornwall has been the same – a serene escape from the city. But today, as she breathes in the salt air on the doorstep of her beloved childhood home, a heavy weight of anticipation settles over her. Iris knows she’s adopted, but any questions about where she came from have always been shut down by her parents, who can’t bear to revisit the past.
Now, Iris can’t stop thinking about what she’s read on the official paperwork: BABY GIRL, FRANCE, 1939 – the year war was declared with Nazi Germany.
When Iris confronts her mother, she hits the same wall of pain and resistance as whenever she mentions the war. That is, until her mother tearfully hands her an old tin of letters, tucked neatly beside a delicate piece of ivory wool.
Retreating to the loft, Iris steels herself to at last learn the truth, however painful it might be. But, as she peels back each layer of history before her, a sensation of dread grows inside her. The past is calling, and its secrets are more intricate and tangled than Iris could ever have imagined.
The year is 1939, and in Paris, France a young woman is about to commit a terrible betrayal…
A beautifully written and addictively compelling historical novel about the terrible choices ordinary people were forced to make in the horrors of World War Two. If you loved The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Alice Network and The Nightingale, you will devour this book.
Juliet has shared an extract from the novel with us today. We hope you enjoy!
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This is from fairly near the beginning of the novel. In France, Sabine has sent one of her twin girls to London with her friend Nora, in a desperate bid to save the baby’s life. Now with her remaining twin, Sabine has refused to go into the heart of Nazi Germany with her ambitious husband Emil, only to find herself having to suddenly flee her ancient family home just outside Paris with her mother and grandmother (Mémé) as the invading German army advances towards them…
Sabine, France, 1940
How do you pack a life in a few minutes? How do you pack for survival, for as long as you might need it? Sabine’s brain froze at the enormity of the task. She could see from the pallor of her mother’s face that she felt the same.
First things first.
by Book Extract: Out of Sight by Anna Legat
Please help me to welcome Anna Legat to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her novel, Out of Sight.
On the morning after his thirtieth wedding anniversary Stewart Harding is found dead. He was an arrogant and thoroughly unpleasant man and there is no shortage of suspects, but all of them have firm alibis. In any case, everything points towards it being an opportunistic killing linked to a robbery.
Newly promoted DI Mark Webber is assigned as the SIO with Gillian Marsh overseeing the investigation. However, when her mother dies, she takes leave of absence and lets Webber continue on his own.
Webber is making good progress until his colleague – and secret lover – DC Erin Macfadyen disappears without trace. Webber’s world falls apart.
DCI Marsh cuts her bereavement leave short to take over the investigation into Stewart Harding’s death and to track down her missing officer.
There is no doubt that she will find Harding’s killer, but will she find Erin and are the two cases connected?
Anna has shared an extract from her novel, Out of Sight today. We hope you enjoy.
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Webber glowed like a firefly. He reciprocated Erin’s soppy look, his eyebrow magnanimously elevated. How he fancied himself the god-father figure, the sod! These days he even looked like Marlon Brando’s version of Corleone with threads of grey highlights in his swept-back hair. It suited him, like the DI label. It would go with his expensive taste in clothes. Not to mention that at last he had been empowered to lead. He would be good at it. Gillian may just delegate some of her newly-acquired responsibilities to him – to let him have a go.
by Book Extract: The Sardinian Story by Francesca Scanacapra
Please join me in welcoming Francesca Scanacapra back to Novel Kicks. She’s here with the blog tour for her novel, The Sardinian Story.
Apennine Mountains, Italy, 1965
Leonora Bacchetti was once a happy child. But at the age of seventeen she has become a wild and rebellious young woman who leaves her parents in despair when she runs away from home with a group of itinerant travellers.
In the eyes of their friends and neighbours in the tight-knit village of Montacciolo, her parents’ good name is ruined.
At first, Leonora keeps in touch with her mother and father, sending letters and postcards from different countries until, very abruptly, her correspondence stops. The girl has vanished.
Vague, unreliable rumours of her fate abound, but newspaper appeals, police and private investigations reveal nothing.
Until, eighteen years later, in the midst of a snowstorm, a stranger from Sardinia knocks on the door of Leonora’s father’s little mountain house.
Now a widower, he has come to terms with never knowing what happened to his daughter. But everything changes when the unexpected visitor claims that he has new information.
The two men quickly bond and gradually begin to piece together the truth about Lenora, provoking deep questions about her life and how they have lived their own – questions about love, loyalty, honesty and what being a family really means.
The Sardinian Story is a novel of exquisite power and deep emotion which will live long in the memories of its readers.
Sit back and enjoy as Francesca shares an extract today.
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This extract is taken from Chapter 1. Dante Bacchetti is going through his daily routine in his tiny house on a mountainside. It’s cold outside and he’s hungry, and he is preparing his meal when he is interrupted by a knock at the door. A visitor at this time is a huge shock…
by Book Extract: Wait For You by Lianne La Borde
I’m pleased to be welcoming Lianne La Borde to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her novel, Wait For You.
Three years after their brutal breakup she shows up on Dylan’s driveway the day he’s moving in with his new fiancée. He doesn’t know why she left him, or why she’s now appeared out of the blue, but he does know he never stopped loving her.
Time heals all, or so they say, but a row about the past ends in a horrific car crash. With his soulmate’s life hanging in the balance, Dylan leaps back in time to the turning points of their relationship.
Given the chance to do things differently, can he make the one change that will save her?
Dylan’s engaged.
He’s moved on, and April vowed he’ll never know the real reason she fled to San Francisco – he’d never forgive her. But now she’s lying in a coma. Stuck in the past, reliving their intense love story and unable to stop him from discovering her secrets.
How did two lovers end up here?
Trapped in a terrifying moment, can they ever find their way back to each other?
Get that drink and find that comfortable chair as Lianne has shared an extract with us today. Enjoy.
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April went quiet, resting her head on my shoulder as we leant on the bridge, breathing in a concoction of exhaust fumes and sea air.
‘I wanted to call you, Dylan,’ she sighed, staring down into the choppy, dark water. ‘More than anything. But I just… couldn’t.’
‘OK, well that question has been killing me for three years, so please, put me out of my misery.’
by Book Extract: The Promise Tree by Elisabeth J. Hobbes
I’m happy to be welcoming Elisabeth J. Hobbes to Novel Kicks. She’s here with the blog tour for her novel, The Promise Tree.
When does a story begin?
For Edwin Hope, it begins with a childhood dare and a forbidden tree. It begins with him falling … in more ways than one.
Called home from his studies by the grandfather who has always hated him, eighteen-year-old Edwin is once again trapped in a house that is colder than the winds whipping across the fields. Seeking sanctuary, he escapes into the untamed beauty of the Peaks and meets a woman who sparks an old memory. A memory of the sycamore that broke him, and the little girl who saved him.
Drusilla has had many acolytes over the centuries but none like Edwin. With the Great War looming and Edwin’s future uncertain, she knows the right thing to do is to set him free from her spell, but can she do so if it means breaking her own heart?
Elisabeth has shared an extract with us today. Enjoy.
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After more than a decade of living with his aunt and uncle in Yorkshire Edwin has been summoned back (unwillingly) to Cheshire by his grandfather to begin learning about the family silk business. His grandfather is not there when he arrives so he goes to visit his parents’ graves in the local churchyard and on the way back he sees the sycamore tree that he had been obsessed with as a child.
There was the sycamore tree that stood alone on the top of the mound. This was the tree he had climbed and from which he had fallen. He remembered now how fascinated he had been by it and his pulse fluttered briefly. He was barely conscious of the decision to detour and walk via the tree before returning to the house through the meadow, but he found himself taking that route. Stanley, the old horse, was standing in the centre of the field, head down and grazing. He lifted his head and regarded Edwin solemnly before turning away and walking down to his stable.
by Book Extract: A Scottish Island Surprise by Holly Wyld
I’m pleased to be welcoming Holly Wyld to Novel Kicks and the blog tour to her book, A Scottish Island Surprise – a Primrose Island Novella.
“Far as I’m aware–” Joe said, dropping his head briefly, the better to compose his features, “–far as I’m aware, Miss, we’ve no rabies in the Hebrides at the moment.”
Rose Mackie has inherited a house on a far-flung Scottish island from her curmudgeon of a father who wanted nothing whatsoever to do with her.
So she lands on Primrose Island with the intention of packing up the old beach house, selling it to the first person who’ll make an offer, and moving firmly on. But Joe Fraser, her late father’s neighbour, has some inconvenient news for her on that front.
Rose prepares for battle – only to find that the longer she spends on Primrose Island, and the more time she spends around Joe in particular, the more she begins to question everything she thought she knew…
Holly has shared an extract with us today. You know what to do – grab that drink, the comfortable chair and enjoy.
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The Island Castle – Book 5, Primrose Island Novellas
The spectacular Dornie Castle across the tidal causeway from Primrose Island has a trio of new owners: the Hansen brothers from Norway.
The brothers won the castle in a dubious bet – but unfortunately for the old castle, none of them are remotely serious about becoming its custodians.
Hackles are raising and feathers are ruffling all over the island. But none of that is going to stop Elspeth McGillicuddy from embarking on a match-making frenzy. Because if Elspeth McGillicuddy can find each of these bachelor brothers a romantic match on Primrose Island?
Well, they might very well decide to stick around… mightn’t they?
Extract: Chapter One
The room was sombre and dimly lit and redolent with the masculine scent of leather and cigars.
And tonight, this sombre masculine room – it had been their grandfather’s study – was rendered all the more solemn because their grandfather, Lars Hansen, one of Norway’s wealthiest shipping titans, the founding father of HansenLine International – was dead.
Four men in black suits, their expressions heavy with grief, were seated around a table in the dead man’s study.
The man’s son.
by Book Extract: Under a Gilded Sky by Imogen Martin
I am pleased to be welcoming Imogen Martin to Novel Kicks today and the blog tour for her novel, Under a Gilded Sky.
In this epic and unforgettable love story, set in the wilds of Missouri and the glamour of high society Boston at the dawn of the Gilded Age, one woman’s life changes forever the day that a stranger turns up on her doorstep.
Missouri, February 1874: The last thing struggling homesteader Ginny needs is a scandal on her hands. But when a badly injured drifter arrives at Snow Farm in desperate need of medical attention, Ginny’s kind nature and good upbringing means she has no choice but to treat his wounds and care for him until he’s back on his feet, no matter the danger he might pose.
Ginny’s been running the farm and looking after her fourteen-year-old sister Mary-Lou since their papa died two years ago, each morning pulling on his old leather coat and pushing her feet into stout boots that come up to her knees, before heading out to tend to the cattle. She’s determined to hold onto the one thing that connects them to memories of their parents – whatever the cost. And when their uninvited guest – Lex – is well enough he offers his help, and she surprises herself by accepting it.
But not long after Lex moves on, Ginny realises that her heart has gone with him. And when the farm’s fortunes take a turn for the worse, she faces her hardest test yet. Can she save the only home she’s ever known, and everything she holds dear? And what if doing so means risking a chance at love and happiness she never expected to come her way?
Imogen has shared an extract with us today so you know the drill – coffee/tea, comfortable chair and enjoy.
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Intro:
This is part way through the second chapter. Mary Lou has brought an injured man to their isolated rural homestead. Ginny is concerned that her 14-year-old sister doesn’t understand the danger this man might bring them, given it is just the two of them who live there.
Snow Farm, Missouri—February 1874
Ginny lifted out a screw-top jar and some bandages. “This is comfrey and elder salve. It will take down the swelling.”
The man nodded his approval and Ginny massaged the milky-colored gel into his ankle. The astringent smell filled the room.
“Sir, when d’you last eat?” Mary Lou asked.
He looked up at her, as if remembering there was a second young woman in the room. “Not for a few days.”
“I’ll get you something.” Mary Lou glanced at Ginny for approval to return to the kitchen and Ginny nodded.
by Book Extract: Dating Little Miss Perfect by Cassandra O’Leary
Please join me in welcoming Cassandra O’Leary to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her novel, Dating Little Miss Perfect.
On an anonymous online dating app, LittleMissPerfect meets HotAussie007 and it’s love at first click. In real life, a smart but spiky woman in STEM, research scientist, Dr Eden, meets a laid-back Aussie marketing manager, Finn, at the big pharma company where they both work in California. They’re forced to compete for special projects funding, and both their jobs are on the line.
Eden just wants to win at science and in life. It’s not happening! She can’t stand Finn’s too-cool-for-school, nice guy act, or his delectable forearms that keep invading her space. While Finn is stupidly attracted to Eden, when she’s not telling him off, he isn’t free to pursue her. He’s stuck in the worst position in his professional life, and doesn’t see a clear way out. He can’t tell her the whole truth about what’s going on at work or in his personal life. . . or it could all blow up in his face.
When they realise the truth about their online alter egos, dating is off the table. Can they ignore their inconvenient attraction, and work together to take down their unethical boss? Or will intense rivalry cause their IRL work lives and online love lives to collide and explode like a science experiment gone wrong?
Cassandra has shared an extract with us today so grab that drink, those biscuits, a comfy chair and enjoy.
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The following excerpt is from Chapter Two of Dating Little Miss Perfect, © Copyright Cassandra O’Leary, 2023. Reproduced and shared with permission of the author.
This chapter starts in the hero, Finn’s, point of view. He’s just received the latest in a series of flirty online messages from LittleMissPerfect, an anonymous prospect on the dating app he’s using. They are yet to meet in real life. But it’s his cranky work rival, Dr Eden, who is on his mind. And later, we find out Finn is on Eden’s mind too! They work in a big pharma company in California, and they’re being forced to compete for special projects funding and to collaborate, to a certain extent.
LittleMissPerfect: Where are you taking me on our date, big shot? Downtown?
Finn stared at his phone in the palm of one hand while rubbing the back of his neck with the other. LittleMissPerfect’s opening gambit was a tease. Normally, he’d fire back, saying he’d love to take her downtown. Get down and dirty. But today? Another woman occupied his thoughts like an invading army.
Cupcakes? Doctor Eden bakes cupcakes?
by Book Extract: The Accidental Housemate by Sal Thomas
I am pleased to welcome Sal Thomas to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her novel, The Accidental Housemate.
Cath Beckinsale is in a jam. She’s a single mum of three, with her 40th birthday in sight and a precarious hold on employment. And she can’t quite let go of her late husband Gaz, whose ashes are still in an urn on the kitchen table.
To make ends meet a student lodger seems like the perfect solution – after all, what’s one more child in the house? But when Dan flies in from the US, complete with guitar and chest hair on display, it’s immediately clear that he’s no teenager, but someone who quickly sends life in an unexpected direction.
Sal has shared an extract today. We hope you enjoy it.
(Warning: Language.)
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Widower and mum of three Cath has agreed to take in a student lodger to help make ends meet. Recommended him by a colleague, she spends a tipsy evening with best friend Sindy looking up the American teenager she thinks she’s getting, as well as ogling over a same-name-but-different-state guy. However, a misunderstanding about Kansas vs Arkansas means she’s in for a surprise….
Of course, it’s only the following weekend as I’m on the way to the airport that the full force of what I’ve let myself in for comes rushing at me like a tidal wave of WTAF? I’ve left Jack and Eric at home with Sindy, who assured me that inviting someone I know barely anything about to come and live in my house, without so much as having had a conversation with him, is a great idea. I guess it happens all the time on Airbnb, right? Still, my stomach is doing all manner of odd things as I pull into the car park.
Minutes after I get to the gate a stream of people starts to emerge from the exit, their weary faces lighting up as they spot waiting relatives. I check the photo of Dan I saved to my phone. No sign yet, but he’s probably slowly lolloping his way from the plane, peering through his hair curtains and taking in a brand-new country. As I’m watching it all unfold, a man, I’d say in his mid-thirties, emerges from the exit carrying a large rucksack and a guitar. He’s over six-feet tall and archetypically handsome, a mop of loose brown curls framing an elfin face rescued from femininity by a defined jaw and strong straight brows. His cheeks dimple as he smiles at the striking young air stewardess walking alongside him. I can’t make out what he’s saying, but she is lapping it up as she overtly throws her head back in amusement and lightly touches him on the arm.
by Book Extract and Review: Mysteries at Sea: Peril on the Atlantic by A.M. Howell
I am pleased to be welcoming A.M. Howell to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her latest novel, Peril on the Atlantic, part of the Mysteries at Sea series.
July, 1936. As the Queen Mary sets sail across the Atlantic, Alice can’t wait for the summer of adventure that lies ahead. She’s excited to explore the huge ship, with its shops, animals and even celebrities on board.
As Alice’s sailor father focuses on winning a prestigious race, she witnesses a shocking attack. Alice and her new friend Sonny start to uncover a dark plot to sabotage the race, and as they investigate gold bars, anonymous notes and lost silk gloves, secrets in their own lives come to the surface.
While fog threatens the boat’s journey, and dangerous enemies show themselves, Alice and Sonny are in their own race to solve all the mysteries unfolding. But what they discover might change both their lives forever…
I have reviewed the book bel0w but first, here is an extract from the book. Enjoy.
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A buzz of anticipation and excitement made Alice’s fingers tingle, as she stepped away from the station platform and onto the dock. Grey smoke puffed lazily from the red and black-tipped funnels of the Queen Mary into the hot July air, like three simmering pots preparing to boil. She sucked in a breath of awe. It was the largest vessel she had ever seen, its riveted hull so tall it blotted out the sun. Her father had said that, if the ship was placed vertically from bow to stern, it would even be taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris!
Looking around, Alice saw that the other passengers from the train she had travelled on to Southampton docks had already hurried off to the baggage hall, leaving her alone. She glanced at her watch. Her father had promised to meet her from the train and he was late. As she looked for him, the clamour of noise was like a discordant band as motor cars expelled expectant passengers, and giant cranes with claw-like feet sent packages cocooned in rope nets into the ship’s cavernous hold.
by Book Extract: The Mystery of the Homeless Man by Gina Cheyne
Please join me in welcoming Gina Cheyne to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her novel, The Mystery of the Homeless Man, book three in the SeeMS Detective Agency series.
Why would an airline pilot exchange a world of comfort for life on the streets?
In 2006, Miranda meets an itinerant in the wood, she takes him home. He refuses to stay, desperate to return to the streets. Miranda gives him some money and forgets the incident.
Fifteen years later, the SeeMs Detective Agency is investigating an abandoned house and discovers a homeless man was found there: murdered.
No one knows who the dead man is or how he died, and, with one hundred and fifty unidentified street deaths per year, no one has time to find out.
But, the SeeMs Detectives have both time and a client.
Their investigation takes them into a surprising world of aviation, night-clubs and the homeless.
What they discover threatens one of their team. Can they save their colleague before the homeless man’s killer strikes again?
*****
Gina has shared an extract from The Mystery of the Homeless Man with us today. Enjoy!
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Stevie is interviewing Amy as a possible suspect for the Neil (homeless man) ’s death. This extract is Amy, who is an airline pilot, describing her engagement to Neil and why she broke it off.
‘Poor Neil.’ Amy blew out heavily. ‘OK. He had a lot of charm,’ she added, almost as though she was talking to herself. ‘He did have something, but, you know, once a drunk always a drunk. He was dangerous. He would drive drunk. I’d never do that.’
Her hand automatically moved to the little scar on her hairline. Stevie wondered if she got that from Neil, but Amy was still talking.
by Book Extract: End Game by Liz Mistry
I am so pleased to be welcoming Liz Mistry to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her novel, End Game.
Four dead bodies. One missing person. Let the game begin.
When an anonymous tip-off leads Detective Nikki Parekh and DS Sajid Malik to the sprawling Salinger estate, Nikki’s senses are on high alert. The brutal murder of all four members of the Salinger family has shocked the sleepy Bradford village to the core.
A mother, father, daughter, and son. . . all killed in exactly the same way – whilst sat around the coffee table, playing a game of monopoly.
But Nikki notices that there are five pieces on the board. One of the players is missing… Did they manage to escape the killer, or was the killer part of the game?
Liz has shared an extract today so grab that drink, find that comfy chair and enjoy!
(warning: language.)
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Prologue
Then: Marnie
It is the hottest day of the summer yet. That shimmering heat idling just above the grass. Even in my shorts and strappy T-shirt, just looking at it makes me feel sticky and tired. I want to laze under the massive spreading oak tree with my colouring books. Just sit quietly, with my own thoughts. Starting high school after the summer holidays preys on my mind. Such a big step. Such a massive change. I’ll be leaving my friends behind because, despite my arguments, they’ve decided the local comprehensive school isn’t good enough for me. I don’t get it. If it’s good enough for my friends then why isn’t it good enough for me? Do Mum and Dad think I deserve more than Alice or Fiona? That feels wrong to me.
Anyway, this was day five of my war against the parents. I’d tried arguing, I’d tried pleading and nothing had worked. Today I was trying silence. The only problem is my annoying little sister Jilly. Why can’t she just find something to do that doesn’t involve annoying me? God she is soooo lame. Sooooo annoying. There she is trundling out the back door, a plastic bag filled with picnic stuff hanging off her wrist and a smile as wide as one of those arches on the viaduct we’d visited the other week. I edge my way round the foot of the tree till I am out of view of the kitchen window and tuck my legs out of sight.
‘Marnie. Marnie. I know you’re there. I saw you crawl behind the tree. I’ve brought snacks.’
Aw shut up, Jilly. The heat is making me mardy and Jilly always brings out the worst in me. She’s always there. If she isn’t harping on at me about something, she’s following me and my pals around like a stupid collie dog desperate for a pat. I hate her sometimes. Sometimes I really, really hate her.
‘I know today’s your “not speaking to anyone day”, but you still got to eat, Marn. I’ve got ice lollies.’
by Book Extract: The Starlight Stables Gang by Esme Higgs and Jo Cotterill
I am so happy be welcoming Esme Higgs and Jo Cotterill to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for The Starlight Stables Gang – book one in a brand new series.
Summer has always loved horses but she never thought she’d be able to learn how to ride them – not with money being so tight at home. Then she discovers the Starlight Stables where she meets a new gang of friends and learns how to ride in return for helping-out with the horses. It’s a dream come true!
Summer falls in love with life at the stables and especially with Luna, a beautiful dapple-grey pony. But one day, Summer arrives at the stables to find that Luna has been stolen in the night. It’s up to the Starlight Stables Gang to follow the clues and rescue Luna before it’s too late!
Full of fun, friendship and and mystery, this is the first book in the brand-new Starlight Stables Gang series. Beautifully illustrated by Hannah George.
*****
I’ve reviewed the novel below but first, Esme and Jo have shared an extract from The Starlight Stables Gang with us today. Enjoy.
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I start to wash my hands, scanning the row of basins. I can’t see two girls talking to each other about horses. Have they already gone? My heart is beating fast. I wonder if I should dash out into the corridor to search for them. And then I get a grip of myself. For goodness’ sake, Summer! What would you do, anyway? Throw yourself on them and sob, ‘I love horses too, can I come rind ride yours?’
And then, while I’m standing there, soap on my hands, paralysed with indecision and embarrassment — a couple of girls are looking at me weirdly — I hear the second voice again. ‘Jessie? You still in here?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Me too.’
They giggle. And then two cubicle doors open at the same time and the girls come out, and I know instantly which one is Jessie because I’ve seen her in assembly. She has long black hair and she sometimes wears lip gloss, which is totally illegal in school but I think she gets away with it.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but my heart sinks a little because Jessie looks exactly like the kind of girl who would have her own pony.
The other girl is short and stocky and has a cloud of orange hair. I don’t know her name. My school is so big. ‘Are you going there again after school today?’ she asks Jessie as they come over to the basins and plonk down their bags.
by Book Extract: Mrs Bambi Knows by Chris Mason
I am pleased to be welcoming Chris Mason to Novel Kicks. He’s here with the blog tour for his novel, Mrs Bambi Knows.
In a small town in Oregon, everyone wants to kill the local advice columnist, Mrs Bambi. If only they knew who she was.
Mrs Bambi’s advice is so snarky that people have long since stopped asking for it. Instead she eavesdrops on conversations and writes the letters herself. The readers would lynch her, but no one knows who she is.
In fact, Mrs. Bambi is not a woman. The column is written by Richard, a quiet widower with a young daughter.
The uneventful part of Richard’s life is nearly over: he begins dating Pam, a well-known realtor and a sports addict. When people begin to learn the identity of Mrs. Bambi, Richard is threatened and humiliated in public. Despite the pleas of his editor, his friends, and Pam, he refuses to stop writing the column.
The only thing that can prevent disaster is for the town to finally learn the whole truth about Richard, which is much larger than the simple mystery of Mrs. Bambi.
Set in 1995, Chris Mason’s skillful storytelling brings a tale of humour and romance – and not a little peril – charmingly to life in the mind of the reader.
Chris has shared an extract today. Enjoy!
*****beginning of extract*****
The advice (agony aunt) column in a small town newspaper is written by a widower using the alias Mrs. Bambi. Because no one will ask him for advice anymore, he eavesdrops on peoples’ conversations and writes the questions and the answers himself. Every chapter in the book begins with one of the advice columns. Here’s an example.
Dear Mrs. Bambi:
My mother is sick, but not as sick as she thinks she is. She’s an incurable hypochondriac, and I think it’s going to kill me.
Last week her vision went blurry. She called me at one in the morning, hours after I’d gone to bed, to tell me she had an eye tumor. I drove over and cleaned her glasses for her.
by Book Extract: Agent Pangolin by AC Bradburn
I am pleased to be welcoming AC Bradburn to Novel Kicks. They are here with their novel, Agent Pangolin.
Sunda is a pangolin on a mission. Her family has been taken by poachers, she’s been ripped away from her beloved Sumatran rainforest and now the beautiful nature reserve that she calls home in London is about to be destroyed by humans. But there’s no way she’s going to let that happen.
Sunda becomes an animal secret agent for the mysterious ‘Web of Light’ and discovers an ancient legend that could help save her home.
Can she solve the mystery of the shiny moon before it’s too late? With beautiful illustrations by Julia Vasileva, this is a magical story of courage, friendship and justice for the natural world.
AC Bradburn has shared an extract today. Enjoy.
*****beginning of extract*****
THUD!
A ginormous paw bashed Sunda’s back. She was drenched with fear.
THUD!
And again, THUD!
She recited the pangolin mantra: curl up, hold firm, don’t relax for one second. That was the pangolin way – at the first sign of danger, roll into a protective ball and wait for the threat to pass. Wincing as the paw struck yet again, she kept her long tail firmly clasped around her head. Her tough, chestnut brown scales gave her the perfect suit of armour. Then the snuffling began – probing, teasing, searching for a way in, first with claws, then with teeth. She held her breath. Eventually a slobbery tongue wrapped around her scales and propelled her across the forest floor. She came to rest at the foot of a giant meranti tree, perched on one of its roots like a stranded soursop.
The tiger cub came at her again, lolloping over the crisp, dry leaves. It grunted, so close that Sunda could feel its steamy breath. A slimy globule of saliva oozed down over her scales and onto the ground. She hadn’t managed to get a proper look but it seemed like a young one, hopefully too small to break her defences. But the cub’s parents couldn’t be far away and the thought of a fully-grown Sumatran tiger sent a fresh burst of terror through her scales.
by Book Extract: The Contraband Killings by Lucienne Boyce
I am pleased to be welcoming Lucienne Boyce to Novel Kicks. She’s here with the blog tour for The Contraband Killings: A Dan Foster Mystery.
Principal Officer Dan Foster of the Bow Street Runners is sent to collect smuggler Watcyn Jones from Beaumaris Gaol on Anglesey, and bring him back to London for trial at the Old Bailey. As if having to travel to the wilds of North Wales isn’t bad enough, Dan is saddled with an inexperienced constable as his interpreter and assistant. At least it’s a routine assignment and shouldn’t take more than a few days.
But when the prison escort is ambushed and Watcyn Jones escapes, a straightforward transfer turns into a desperate manhunt. And as Jones’s enemies start to die, the chase becomes more urgent than ever. Dan’s search for the killer brings him up against a ruthless smuggling gang – and his chances of getting off the island alive begin to look far from promising.
Lucienne has shared an extract with us today. Enjoy.
*****beginning of extract*****
Between 1793 and 1815 Britain was at war with revolutionary France. Faced with the very real threat of invasion as the French amassed ships and troops at key Channel ports, the government called on men to join local militias such as the Loyal Anglesea Volunteers. But the government’s enemies were not only pressing on them from the outside: there was also the enemy within, in the form of radical societies set up to campaign for political reform. Many of these groups supported the French and some were even prepared to take up arms with the revolutionary forces when they landed on British shores.
Anyone who voiced radical opinions was an object of suspicion, especially if they were spotted near military or naval installations. So when Dan Foster and his assistant, constable Goronwy Evans, hear Sampson Kirby a young English tourist, spouting anti-monarchical sentiments, and he is later seen apparently signalling to ships out at sea, they begin to wonder what he’s up to. One night they follow Kirby to the Parys Mountain copper mine, which supplies the Navy with copper sheaths to protect its ships’ hulls from the destructive attacks of marine worms and barnacles.
They followed Kirby to the outskirts of the town, where he paused and adjusted his load before setting off into the dusk. Ahead of them rose the outline of Parys Mountain. The barren landscape on either side of the dusty, rutted track was indistinct, no more than vague shapes in the darkness. No lights shone in the buildings at the top of the mountain, and the open cast was a vast, silent pit of darkness. Sulphurous smoke still belched from the kilns, but no men hammered and no rock tumbled. The wind hissed over the lifeless ground, the ropes on the windlasses creaked, and water gurgled.
by Book Excerpt: Sherlock Holmes & the Singular Affair by M. K. Wiseman
I am pleased to be welcoming M. K. Wiseman to Novel Kicks. She’s here with the book birthday blitz for her book, Sherlock Holmes & the Singular Affair.
Before Baker Street, there was Montague.
Before partnership with a former army doctor recently returned from Afghanistan, Sherlock Holmes had but the quiet company of his own great intellect. Solitary he might be but, living as he did for the thrill of the chase, it was enough.
For a little while, at the least, it was enough.
That is, until a client arrives at his door with a desperate plea and an invitation into a world of societal scandal and stage door dandies. Thrust deep in an all-consuming role and charged with the safe-keeping of another, Holmes must own to his limits or risk danger to others besides himself in this the case of the aluminium crutch.
M.K. Wiseman has shared an extract from Sherlock Holmes & the Singular Affair with us today. Enjoy!
*****beginning of extract*****
Having undertaken Miss Eudora Frances Clarke’s missing man case, Sherlock Holmes does a bit of research and formulates a disguise by which he will get close to the man in question.
Chapter 6:
An overcast late-afternoon sky witnessed me leaving my rooms. Quick strides took me around the corner and up the steps of the Museum. Though the esteemed institution had never availed itself of my services—that great case was, yet, in my future—there were several present amongst the warders who knew me by sight and reputation. Thus, though in fact I carried within my pocket my pass for admission, mine was a face which could pass unchallenged when gaining entrance into that great house of culture.
Divested of coat and cane, I hunted about the large, domed room for a seat—not an easy task at such a late hour—and then took myself to the perimeter to select the materials by which I might fill my time and satisfy my brain. Not all of my aims were satiated by easy and accessible reference, however, and I was forced to make a request from one of the attendants. Passing him my form, I returned to my seat and amused myself by discerning various details of my fellow bookworms while pretending to read.
by Book Extract: The Automobile Assassination by MJ Porter
I am pleased to be welcoming MJ Porter back to Novel Kicks.
A 1940s mystery
Erdington, September 1944
As events in Europe begin to turn in favour of the Allies, Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station is once more prevailed upon to solve a seemingly impossible case.
Called to the local mortuary where a man’s body lies, shockingly bent double and lacking any form of identification, Mason and O’Rourke find themselves at Castle Bromwich aerodrome seeking answers that seem out of reach to them. The men and women of the royal air force stationed there are their prime suspects. Or are they? Was the man a spy, killed on the orders of some higher authority, or is the place his body was found irrelevant? And why do none of the men and women at the aerodrome recognise the dead man?
Mason, fearing a repeat of the cold case that dogged his career for two decades and that he’s only just solved, is determined to do all he can to uncover the identity of the dead man, and to find out why he was killed and abandoned in such a bizarre way, even as Smythe demands he spends his time solving the counterfeiting case that is leaving local shopkeepers out of pocket.
Join Mason and O’Rourke as they once more attempt to solve the impossible in 1940s Erdington.
MJ Porter has shared an extract from The Automobile Assassination. Enjoy!
*****beginning of extract*****
In which Detective Inspector Mason and Sergeant O’Rourke encounter one of the Automobile Association’s sentry boxes.
In front of them, Mason could see old Watling Street coming into view as they travelled along Sutton Road. He caught a first glimpse of the unmistakable Automobile Association telephone box. Even it had been repainted in less lurid colours than usual because of the war effort. All the same, the road sign placed above the box was a monstrous thing as it sat atop the sentry box, decked out in camouflage green and black stripes. It drew the eye easily enough.
To the bottom, the set of double signs directed the motorcar driver, bus or motorcycle rider towards Fazeley or Hints. The higher-up signs led the traveller towards Tamworth or Lichfield, depending on which way you wanted to travel.
The signs were the same green as the telephone box was edged in, with the writing in black on them and the distance given in miles. He smirked on seeing it. He well remembered when he was a much younger man, and the signs had been more simplistic, simply highlighting the ancient milestones used for so many decades, if not centuries, and often written on what was little more than lumps of handy stone.
by Book Extract: When The Rainbow Turns Black by Peter J. Venison
I am pleased to be welcoming Peter J. Venison to Novel Kicks. He’s here with the blog tour for his book, When The Rainbow Turns Black.
This is the epic story of four young men, born in obscurity in South Africa at the height of Apartheid. Two are white; two are black. All four achieve fame in their lifetime. It is also the story of the women in their lives, with mixed race marriage, love and deception, set against a background of huge political and social change.
Expectations are high for the new Rainbow State, but will they be met amongst the corruption and greed that is endemic? Can our four find their way in the new South Africa or will they be derailed and overcome by events beyond their control or even by their own passion? Their journey through the world of international sport, show business and politics is riddled with twists and turns as they battle to prosper in the ever changing place they call home. Can our four young men survive and prosper in the post Apartheid era or will their futures and that of their country turn black?
This is a rollercoaster ride that will keep you strapped to your seats from its humble beginning to its surprising end.
Peter has shared an extract with us today. We hope you enjoy it.
*****beginning of extract*****
It is January, 1970. Two little boys are starting school for the first time. They both live in Randburg, a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. They are both white. One of them, Gerhadus, is quite nervous; the other, Lance, can’t wait. Randburg is a large suburb, covering several square miles and the two boys live in different areas, each with their own primary school. Gerhadus is attending the General Christian De Wet primary in Triomph and Lance, the Laeskool Jim Fourie in Crosby. They will both be taught primarily in the Afrikaans language, since their districts are heavily populated with Afrikaners, but, because English is the other official language in the country, they will also have lessons in English. They will be taught to neither speak nor write any of the other eleven languages in common use in the land of their birth; these are the languages of the native Africans, who make up 80% of the population.
by Book Extract: The Placeholder by Lynda Wolters
I am pleased to be welcoming Lynda Wolters to Novel Kicks. She’s here with the blog tour for her novel, The Placeholder.
THE PLACEHOLDER, a mash-up of Thelma and Louise besties meet Eat, Pray, Love and Me Before You.
Middle-aged Serenade Kincaid has lost everything: her stepchildren, her house, half her earnings, her sports car, and her husband, all to a decades younger–and more fertile–woman.
Sera now drinks boxed wine from a plastic cup as she attempts to start over from her new home, a seedy motel, as she kills time scrolling dating apps in search of a semi-decent-not-mass-murderer-please-just-spend-time-with-me port in the storm.
As Sera discontentedly leapfrogs through men, her snarky, meddling boss and sometimes-best friend, Carolyn, encourages her to focus more on finding a friend with benefits, just until Prince Charming comes along, of course. Zac fits the bill.
He’s a self-proclaimed “unsuitable boyfriend” who looks to have jumped straight from the pages of a romance novel. Zac also insists he, too is only looking for some fun, which is perfect for Sera.
Cue the booty calls. And wow, are they hitting the spot. But just when Sera is starting to figure herself out, get her life back on track and think she may have found someone, life takes a sharp left. And all fun and games come to a screeching halt.
Now, Sera, Zac, and Carolyn must race against time to disentangle their web of lies and deceit before it’s too late.
The Placeholder is an unconventional, unforgettable, unputdownable story of loss and love.
Lynda has shared an extract with us today. Enjoy!
*****beginning of extract*****
I never had a sister, but I did have a best friend, and oh, did we get ourselves into some tricky situations; but we always had each other’s backs. Decades later, I still have that BFF, and while we live a thousand miles apart, we still have each other’s backs. While writing the friendship scenes in The Placeholder between Sera and Carolyn, I drew on my relationship and how crazy and daring, and trusting a good relationship is; I hope the same comes through in this fun, somewhat crazy scene where Carolyn is driving Sera’s sporty Barracuda to see Sera’s mom. Here’s the scene:
The drive north is otherwise uneventful. We rock out to seventies disco when my head and ears can handle the noise, with an occasional Etta James and requisite Pat Benatar – because no girls’ trip is complete without “Heartbreaker.”
“Detour,” I call out. “Take old Highway 7. I want to show you something.”
Carolyn follows my directions, keeping to the posted speed.
“Faster,” I blurt. We are at the bottom of a hill where the intersecting road sign reads, Greencreek 6 miles. “Go faster.”
“I’m driving at the speed limit.”
“Just do it.”
I see Carolyn push the peddle down slightly.
“Faster.”
by Book Extract: Just One Day – Autumn by Susan Buchanan
I am pleased to be welcoming Susan Buchanan back to Novel Kicks. She’s here with the blog tour for her book, Just One Day – Autumn.
Pregnant Louisa is just getting back on track when life throws her another curveball. Now, it’s not a case of how she’ll get through her to-do lists but how she’ll manage being a mum again.
No one seems to understand. How will she run her company, be partner in a new venture, look after her three kids and handle a newborn? And why does everyone think this will be easy? Except her.
All Louisa wants is to be a good mum, a good wife and have a bit of time left for herself, but sometimes that’s too big an ask. Can she find the support she needs, or will she forever be pulled in too many directions, always at the mercy of her to-do lists?
Susan has shared an extract from Just One Day – Autumn. Enjoy.
*****beginning of extract*****
Louisa and her family are at the Ferniehall scarecrow festival. She has just bumped into her landlord who needs to meet with her urgently.
I try to put Benedict to the back of my mind so as not to spoil the kids’ enjoyment of the day. Aria plays pin the carrot on the scarecrow and is the closest so wins a hand-knitted scarecrow as a prize. Hugo plays ten-pin scarecrow bowling and comes second, so he wins a voucher to spend at several of the other stalls, and Gen, with a little gentle coaxing creates a scarecrow rap and performs it on the makeshift stage and wins. The fact only three people participated in the ‘talent show’ doesn’t matter. She wins iTunes vouchers and is delighted.
‘I’m hungry,’ Hugo announces.
‘Hugo, you’ve been eating all day long. Grazing constantly. How can you be hungry?’ I ask, incredulous even though I know what he’s like.
‘I’m a growing boy, Mother,’ he says in a withering tone.
Honestly. ‘Fine. There’s a hot dog stand at the back. Do you want one?’
by Book Extract: The Girl of Lost Petals and Possibilities by Laura Briggs
I am so happy to be welcoming Laura Briggs back to Novel Kicks. She’s here with her novel, The Girl of Lost Petals and Possibilities.
On holiday in Egypt with Sidney and Dean, young writer Maisie is—in her mind—on top of the world. Her long-labored manuscript is finally going to be published, she and Sidney are deeply in love, and the future looks bright on every level.
In one moment, however, it all changes. Tragedy leads to overwhelming loss that Maisie can’t even begin to process. As the world itself turns upside down, there’s no solace for Maisie from the growing sense that her wonderful future is finished.
No dream about to come true. No certainties of new chances in life.
No Sidney.
Even if the first two did not break her, the last one is determined to. It’s up to Maisie to find her strength and determination to find a new future, even if—unthinkably—it may be nothing like the one she dreamed of.
Laura has shared an extract from The Girl of Lost Petals and Possibilities with us today. Enjoy.
*****beginning of extract*****
Thanks so much to Laura for this chance to have my book featured on Novel Kicks. Titled The Girl of Lost Petals and Possibilities it continues the adventures of Maisie Clark, the aspiring young novelist who finds inspiration working at a quirky Cornish hotel. The scene below finds Maisie dealing with the aftermath of a terrible accident that has left her fiance Sidney facing a long road to recovery. With Sidney’s wealthy but distant mother determined to seek rehabilitation for him in London, Maisie must try to convince herself—and their mutual friend Dean—that it’s the only option, despite the hardships it will bring.
At Dean’s cottage, Callum switched on the lights and the stove’s eye beneath the teakettle, while Dean wheeled himself closer to the stereo. I put the tin containing Mrs. Graves’s biscuits on the table, a future snack for the birds in Dean’s garden. With my back still to Dean, I gathered my courage and spoke.
“Dean, you should know. Adele is taking Sidney home with her when he’s released,” I said, quietly. “She told me so a few days ago.”
It only took a second for what I said to sink in. “What?” Dean’s voice sharpened. He stopped studying the records laid out by the stereo and wheeled to face me. “Did you tell her that notion was ridiculous?”
by Book Extract: Altered Helix by Stephanie Hansen
I’m happy to be welcoming Stephanie Hansen to Novel Kicks. She’s here with the blog tour for her novel, Altered Helix
I didn’t want to take the traditional path. First, I wasn’t ready for college. Second, I was going to live with my best friend, Tiff, and work at the Haunted House. Third, did I mention the hot guy Josh that works there too?
The most exciting thing about Austria’s new job, at a local haunted house, was the fact that the toughest looking people screamed the loudest. But when she meets the boy without a home, Josh, Austria’s life takes intriguing and eventful turns. Up until now, Josh has managed to hang with his Street crowd, but they’re in danger, and so is Austria, the girl Josh recently fell for. The group finds themselves joining forces with previously considered enemies who also now find themselves in danger.
Deeply compassionate and full of twists, Altered Helix captures the struggle of polarized people that must work together for the greater good.
Stephanie has shared an extract from Altered Helix today. Enjoy.
*****beginning of extract*****
The following extract is after our protagonist, Austria, has spent a night “homeless” and survived as scary incident. It’s begins with Ethan walking her away from danger and to safety.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“Yeah, I just had to get out of there. The rage I felt was uncontrollable. What a jerk. I wanted to punch him again. Punch him over and over until no one would recognize his face.”
“Josh, it’s okay. We’re out here. Try to calm down.”
“Do you know what he would have done to you if I didn’t get there in time?”
“Um, yeah, but do we really have to talk about it?”
The dark black sky is turning to a navy blue.
“Want to see one of the beauties of being a street kid?”
“I don’t know how much more I can take, Josh. I guess I’m not built for living this way.”
“This will be safe.”
He holds my hand as we walk to the park on 31st Street. He takes me to a tree at the top of a hill. We climb it. He folds his hands and gives me a step up. We sit on a sturdy branch. He points to the east. The sky’s now be-coming lighter. There’s a harmonious mixture of blue, orange, and red. The sun peeks out above the horizon. It’s breathtaking. I curl into Josh’s lap. He strokes my hair.
“What do you think?”
“I think it’s gorgeous.”
“Not as gorgeous as you.”
I look up at him. He kisses me with a deep passion. I twist to face him more. Heat courses through my body as we kiss, erasing the hurt and fear. I feel like we’re the only two people in this world, and this sunrise is meant for just us. When we come up for air, his eyes are dilated al-most completely. They quickly change in the light, and I can see the blue again. He smiles and gives me a peck kiss.
“Happiest morning ever,” he says.
I smile and embrace him. I’m amazed by how his emotion has changed. Maybe that’s something you pick up when looking for a home on a daily basis.
How am I experiencing such polar opposites of emotion in such a short time?
“We should probably get back, so the others don’t worry.”
“Oh, they’ll be fine.” I hold onto him tighter.
“Austria.”
“Josh?”
He exhales and smiles.
“Okay.”
He helps me get down, and we walk back to the apartment. I hear a ruckus before entering. People are all yelling at one another as we walk in.
by Book Extract: True Courage by Kathryn Barrett
Please join me in welcoming Kathryn Barrett to Novel Kicks. She’s here with the blog tour for her novel, True Courage.
Some days it was hell being leader of the free world.
The Washington press calls him the “accidental president.” As a Medal of Honor recipient and national hero, Adam Dybik agreed to run for president during the country’s deepest crisis.
Now that things have stabilized, he’s got problems at home: his 14-year-old daughter Katie keeps ditching her Secret Service protection and reminding him he’s the world’s worst father. And on top of that, he’s begun hearing the voices of dead presidents. Either he’s going mad, or the White House is haunted.
As the new head of Katie’s Secret Service detail, Ellie Brody is trying to live up to the high expectations of her father, former agent Frank Brody. But her new job puts her in direct danger of succumbing to the president’s charm.
Can these two find love in the White House, under the most intense media scrutiny—and the watchful eye of Lyndon Johnson?
Kathryn has kindly shared an extract with us today. Enjoy.
*****beginning of extract*****
This scene is from Chapter 5 and is set at Camp David, the presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains, where Adam makes up for his poor performance at golf by sinking a basketball:
The crisis in Idaho averted, Adam rode Golf Cart One to Leatherwood, where a basketball game was in progress: White House staff vs. Secret Service, and it looked like his team was getting whipped.
He’d been telling his staff to get more exercise, but most of them were more interested in writing policy papers about Latin American economies than in manhandling an elliptical machine. He’d made it a point to hire the best and the brightest, regardless of political party, but now he wished he’d given a thought to hiring the tallest and fittest.
He heard Ellie’s voice. “That’s another three!” she called out. Though she wasn’t very tall, she was hustling up and down the court so fast he had to check to make sure she wasn’t wearing rollerblades.
He waded into the fray. “Hand it over, punk,” he told the six-foot-three agent dribbling the ball. After snatching the ball, Adam raced to the end of the court. Ignoring the defender in front of him, he tossed it neatly into the rim.
He wished Larry were there to see how easily he’d managed that hole-in-one.
He spun around and high-fived his speechwriter, Melissa. “Okay, team, let’s win this one for the Gipper!”
“The who?” he heard his scheduler ask the congressional liaison.
Presidential prestige was put aside on the basketball court. Adam took his share of ribbing. But unlike golf, he was no newcomer to this game. When he’d started out in the prosecutor’s office in Chicago, he’d regularly played pick-up games at the local gym. Ten years earlier, he’d been quicker, meaner.
Now, at forty-five, he had to rely on his wits.
by Book Extract: The Belle of Belgrave Square by Mimi Matthews
I am so pleased to be welcoming Mimi Matthews to Novel Kicks today. She’s here with the blog tour for her novel, The Belle of Belgrave Square.
A London heiress rides out to the wilds of the English countryside to honor a marriage of convenience with a mysterious and reclusive stranger.
Tall, dark, and dour, the notorious Captain Jasper Blunt was once hailed a military hero, but tales abound of his bastard children and his haunted estate in Yorkshire. What he requires now is a rich wife to ornament his isolated ruin, and he has his sights set on the enchanting Julia Wychwood.
For Julia, an incurable romantic cursed with a crippling social anxiety, navigating a London ballroom is absolute torture. The only time Julia feels any degree of confidence is when she’s on her horse. Unfortunately, a young lady can’t spend the whole of her life in the saddle, so Julia makes an impetuous decision to take her future by the reins—she proposes to Captain Blunt.
In exchange for her dowry and her hand, Jasper must promise to grant her freedom to do as she pleases. To ride—and to read—as much as she likes without masculine interference. He readily agrees to her conditions, with one provision of his own: Julia is forbidden from going into the tower rooms of his estate and snooping around his affairs. But the more she learns of the beastly former hero, the more intrigued she becomes…
Mimi has shared an extract from her novel with us today. Enjoy.
*****beginning of extract*****
“That must be quite a book to hold your attention in all this din.”
Julia’s head jerked up. Her heart lurched.
Captain Blunt stood, silhouetted, at the entrance to the anteroom, his broad shoulders nearly spanning the doorframe. His scarred face was shadowed in the gaslight, making him appear even more sinister than he usually did—something she hadn’t thought possible.
He wasn’t old enough to be her father. Indeed, he couldn’t be much above thirty.
“What is it?” he asked.
Julia hastily closed her book. She cleared her throat. “It’s, um, Lady Audley’s Secret.”
“Ah. I see.” He advanced into the room. Slowly. Deliberately. As if he was approaching a wild horse that might shy away from him.
Julia rather felt like one.
Her heartbeat quickened as he drew closer. She instinctively shrank back against the silk-papered wall behind her, wishing she could disappear.
No such luck.
She was well and truly caught. And it was her own fault. She was the one who had chosen to hide in this particular corner. There would be no escaping him now.
He came to a halt in front of her. “Don’t be afraid.”
Don’t be afraid? He could say that when he was looming over her like a great beast in a fairy tale?
“I won’t spoil it,” he said.
by Book Extract: Sunny Skies and Summer Kisses by Eliza J. Scott
I am so happy to be welcoming Eliza J. Scott back to Novel Kicks. She’s here with the blog tour for her novel, Sunny Skies and Summer Kisses.
No matter how hard you fight it, love will always find a way…
Ever since she was a little girl, dance teacher Anoushka Cartwright has dreamed of opening her own dance studio near her home on her beloved North Yorkshire Moors. And when she gets the chance to do just that she can hardly believe her luck!
Life is sweet. Or it would be if it wasn’t for her relationship with Damon which has been growing increasingly toxic, much to her family’s concern. Critical of her dreams he can’t understand why she won’t move to the city of York and live with him. He refuses to accept their relationship is floundering until the day Anoushka breaks up with him.
Popular indie/folk singer, Gabe Dublin, hails from Southern Ireland. He’s been head-over-heels in love with Anoushka ever since he first set eyes on her at a wedding two years earlier. She’s the reason he keeps returning to the area, staying with his friends, Lady Caroline Hammondely and her husband Sim, at Danskelfe Castle. Gabe and Anoushka have become good friends, but she’s always made it clear they could never be anything more, which is tearing Gabe’s heart in two. He knows he won’t be able to love anyone else the way he loves Anoushka.
Her family and friends can see how perfect they are for each other but Anoushka is adamant, after her experience with Damon, she has no room for a man in her life. She makes a pact with herself to focus all of her attention on her dance school. And she intends to keep it. The only thing is, it’s not as easy as it seems.
When an unexpected situation throws them together, Anoushka’s feelings are exposed for the world to see. The question is, will she act on them or will she stay true to her promise to herself?
Join Anoushka and Gabe – and all the other Life on the Moors Characters – for the latest heartwarming visit to the characterful village of Lytell Stangdale in the heart of the North Yorkshire Moors.
*****
Eliza has shared an extract with us today. Grab that coffee and a comfortable chair and enjoy.
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Here’s an extract from Chapter Seven where Anoushka Cartwright bumps into Gabe Dublin and his bouncy Labrador while walking on Great Stangdale Moor.
In the distance, Anoushka spotted a lone walker heading towards her, a black Labrador trotting along jauntily beside him. Her heart gave a sudden lilt. She’d recognise those broad shoulders and that easy lope anywhere: Gabe Dublin.
Before long, he was standing in front of her. ‘Well, hello there, Noushka. It’s good to see you again, though aren’t you heading in the wrong direction?’ He flashed his trademark smile. ‘Thought you were headed over to Middleton,’ he said as Bob pulled on his lead, eager to get to her.
‘Change of plan,’ she said, smiling back, bending to fuss Bob whose tail was wagging so hard you could beat eggs with it.
Ah, sure.’ Gabe nodded, his smile faltering as his eyes ran over her face, taking in the tell-tale signs she’d been crying. ‘And are you okay?’ he asked softly.
She nodded. ‘I’m fine, thanks.’ She didn’t feel ready to tell him about Damon. ‘Just fancied some fresh air, I’ve got a few things I need to straighten out in my mind.’
by Book Extract: The Last Girl to Die by Helen Fields
Please join me in welcoming Helen Fields to Novel Kicks. She’s here with the blog tour for her book, The Last Girl to Die.
In search of a new life, seventeen-year-old Adriana Clark’s family moves to the ancient, ocean-battered Isle of Mull, far off the coast of Scotland. Then she goes missing. Faced with hostile locals and indifferent police, her desperate parents turn to private investigator Sadie Levesque.
Sadie is the best at what she does. But when she finds Adriana’s body in a cliffside cave, a seaweed crown carefully arranged on her head, she knows she’s dealing with something she’s never encountered before.
The deeper she digs into the island’s secrets, the closer danger creeps – and the more urgent her quest to find the killer grows. Because what if Adriana is not the last girl to die?
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Helen has shared an extract with us today so grab that coffee and the comfy chair and enjoy!
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Addie. First with two ds then just one. With a y on the end, then with ie. Then I checked out Brandon Clark. I didn’t feel good about it, but now I had two jobs to do. The first was to figure out who killed Adriana.
The second was to make absolutely sure the police didn’t reach the conclusion that her twin brother was responsible for her death. School was in session in California. I had three piles of paper in front of me that I’d been avoiding looking at all day, no email from Rob Clark regarding Adriana’s cell phone data, and there were too many loose ends. Like the printer. As a general rule, I sit on my concerns about my clients the way you learn to sit on your hand when you’re trying to give up biting your nails. That was why I hadn’t taken the blank medical records form I’d printed off at Tackle & Trade up to the Clarks’ house yet. It was also why I hadn’t yet crossreferenced the form they’d filled in for Nate Carlisle with the one they’d filled in for me. I guess I knew it was going to be a rabbit hole, and that I’d end up doing something stupid like phoning all the high schools in Carlsbad and asking their librarian to go through the yearbooks to locate the Clark twins. But I never could let a thing go. My mother always swore it’d be the death of me.
by Book Extract: Bodies Brains & Bogies by Paul Ian Cross PhD
Join me in welcoming Paul Ian Cross PhD to Novel Kicks. He’s here with the blog tour for his book, Bodies, Brains & Bogies.
This fantastic title from Paul Ian Cross, the writer of How to Vanquish a Virus, takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of everything that’s disgusting, unusual and amazing about the human body. Find out everything about poo, pus and bogies, while learning a whole lot about how our bodies work hard in hundreds of fascinating ways to keep us alive.
With tons of hilarious and informative illustrations, it includes lashings of Paul Ian Cross’s trademark laugh-out-loud humour, in-depth knowledge and infectious optimism. It’s the perfect funny, accessible way to discover everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the human body, but were too grossed-out to ask!
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Paul Ian Cross PhD has shared an extract today. Enjoy!
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The human body is amazing – a machine that’s been perfected through trial and error.
Take a look at your hand.
Go on! Hold it out in front of you.
Now, wiggle the fingers! Did you know that you’re looking at the outcome of millions of years of evolution!
Whether you’re texting, gaming, or doodling, your hand is what equips you for modern life. The evolution of our THUMBS – yes, those stumps with only two bones – are the reason why modern humans evolved to write music, build cities, fly planes and even travel to the moon.
Your thumbs LITERALLY CHANGED THE WORLD.
by Book Extract: Hidden in the Mists by Christina Courtenay
I am pleased to be welcoming Christina Courtenay to Novel Kicks today. She’s here with the blog tour for her novel, Hidden In The Mists.
A love forged in fire lives on through the ages.
She stared at the man again. Was he real? Her mind returned to the ghostly figure by the shore and to her strange dream. No, he was not a figment of her imagination.
Skye Logan has been struggling to run her remote farm on Scotland’s west coast alone ever since her marriage fell apart. When a handsome stranger turns up looking for work, it seems that her wish for help has been granted.
Rafe Carlisle is searching for peace and somewhere he can forget about the last few years. But echoes of the distant past won’t leave Skye and Rafe alone, and they begin to experience vivid dreams which appear to be linked to the Viking jewellery they each wear.
It seems that the ghosts of the past have secrets . . . and they have something that they want Skye and Rafe to know.
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Christina has shared an extract with us today. Enjoy!
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Skye Logan gripped her mug of tea tightly with both hands, trying to draw the warmth into her very bones, but it wasn’t working. She stared out towards the island of Jura, which could be glimpsed in the distance across the sea, a beautiful sight she’d never tire of looking at. The water between there and the mainland was calm today, below a layer of morning mist that also swathed most of the island. It crept up towards the cottage, its soft swirls stirring restlessly on an unseen breeze. Indoors, here in her cosy kitchen, she was safe and warm, but the chill was lodged deep inside her and not even the wood-burning Rayburn could thaw her out. She was starting to wonder if anything ever would.
It was barely light, but she’d been unable to sleep. She had always been an early riser, yet waking up pre-dawn was taking things a step too far. No point tossing and turning, though, not when she had so many chores always waiting for her attention. If she could just force down a bowl of porridge, she could get a head start.
She was about to turn away from the window when something caught her eye. A shadow came gliding into the little bay that belonged to her property, a rowing boat of some sort, although she couldn’t quite make it out. A shiver of unease slithered down her spine, making the hairs at the back of her neck stand on end.
‘Who on earth . . . ?’
by Book Extract: Just One Day – Summer by Susan Buchanan
Welcome to Susan Buchanan and the blog tour for her novel, Just One Day – Summer.
List-juggling, business-owner mum-of-three Louisa is reeling after a tragedy, as well as learning how to cope after a life-changing revelation. With oil worker husband Ronnie possibly being able to move onshore, she hopes he can help her manage the burden.
But the secrets she keeps are causing her headaches and she’s unsure if her ability to make good decisions has deserted her. All she seems to do is upset those around her.
With Louisa’s to-do list gathering pace at an incredible speed, will she manage to provide a stable home for them all, embrace her new normal as well as rebuild their life from what’s left?
And if she gets what she has always wanted, will it match up to her expectations?
Susan has shared an extract with us today. Enjoy.
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Louisa is furious because Nicky’s ex is trying to keep her from seeing her son whilst she’s in hospital, and she’s not taking it lying down…
‘That’s where you’re wrong, Sebastian. You’re not going to keep Xander from Nicky, and that’s the end of it. Otherwise, I swear to God, I’ll personally see to it that she takes you to court. You were missing from his life for so many years when she had to bring Xander up on her own, whilst you–’ I indicate Brittany ‘–cavorted around behind her back.’
I pause to stop myself losing it with him. ‘Now, you may be making a better job of fatherhood this time around, and certainly I didn’t see you once change Xander’s nappy, but that doesn’t give you the right to give Nicky shit for meeting and moving in with someone else.’
He goes to interrupt, but I hold up a hand. ‘Let’s face it, you were beyond awful to Nicky, and I hope for Brittany’s sake, and your daughter’s, that the leopard really has changed his spots, but you have no right to try to stop Nicky from seeing Xander, or indeed be pissed off at her moving in with Valentin. No right. Do you understand?’
He stares at me, but I clock him keeping an eye on Ronnie out of the corner of his eye.
by Book Extract: Caper Crush by Kathy Strobos
I am delighted to be welcoming Kathy Strobos to Novel Kicks today. She’s here with the blog tour for her novel, Caper Crush.
A feel-good, opposites-attract, slow burn romantic comedy
Somebody stole my painting! The one I need for the career-defining Vertex Art Exhibit. This upcoming art show is my chance to finally be recognized as an artist—after ten years of waitressing and being asked if I still have that “lovely painting hobby.”
I have mere weeks to find my painting or lose my artist dream forever—but it’s going to mean working with William.
William Haruki Matsumura. Good-looking, if you like the Secret Service type. You know, law-abiding, protector of women and children. That’s all fine, but I can never tell what he’s thinking. Which drives me crazy.
He insists on coming along to do “damage control.” As if “accidentally” wandering into certain areas is “breaking and entering.” I may be an emotional artist, but William shouldn’t dismiss my investigative skills yet.
William is definitely my opposite, and, if there’s one takeaway from my parents’ divorce, it’s that opposites might attract, but it doesn’t last. But detecting with William is kind of fun—and fluttery. I definitely can’t trust these feelings, or can I? However this caper ends, I think this may be more than a crush.
Kathy has shared an extract with us today. Enjoy!
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In this excerpt, Miranda is eavesdropping on a conversation between two potential suspects (Edmund and Vinnie). She suspects that one of them stole the paintings. She is outside in the garden, crouched down, listening under an open window. William has left to park the car somewhere else:
My foot tickles. I look down. And shriek. Some huge, slimy, sluglike thing is crawling on my foot. I jump up and shake my foot.
Shit.
I dash around the side of the house—only to bump straight into a hard chest.
William. His hands reach out to steady me, and then he pulls me closer to him.
“What happened?”
“Slug on my foot.”
“I know I heard something.” Vinnie’s voice. Crunch. They are outside. They must be on the footpath leading to the house.
William flattens me against the wall behind a pine tree that’s close enough to the house to hide us. His chest is against mine.
by Book Extract: Twelve Nights by Penny Ingham
I am pleased to be welcoming Penny Ingham to Novel Kicks. She’s here with the blog tour for her novel, Twelve Nights.
The Theatre
London, 1592
When a player is murdered, suspicion falls on the wardrobe mistress, Magdalen Bisset, because everyone knows poison is a woman’s weapon. The scandal-pamphlets vilify her. The coroner is convinced of her guilt.
Magdalen is innocent, although few are willing to help her prove it. Her much-loved grandmother is too old and sick. Will Shakespeare is benignly detached, and her friend Christopher Marlowe is wholly unreliable. Only one man offers his assistance, but dare she trust him when nothing about him rings true?
With just two weeks until the inquest, Magdalen ignores anonymous threats to ‘leave it be’, and delves into the dangerous underworld of a city seething with religious and racial tension. As time runs out, she must risk everything in her search for the true killer – for all other roads lead to the gallows.
Penny has shared an extract from Twelve Nights with us today. Enjoy!
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Thank you so much to Laura at Novel Kicks for letting me share my latest novel with her readers.
Twelve Nights is set in 1592, in the wild and glamourous heart of Elizabethan theatreland. When a player is murdered, suspicion falls on the wardrobe mistress, Magdalen Bisset, because everyone knows poison is a woman’s weapon.
Magdalen is innocent, although few are willing to help her prove it. Her much-loved grandmother is too old and sick. Will Shakespeare is benignly detached, and her friend Christopher Marlowe is wholly unreliable. Only one man offers his assistance – she is drawn to handsome Matthew Hilliard, but dare she trust him when nothing about him rings true?
With just two weeks until the inquest, Magdalen ignores anonymous threats to ‘leave it be’, and delves into the dangerous underworld of a city seething with religious and racial tension. As time runs out, she must risk everything in her search for the true killer – for all other roads lead to the gallows.
Here’s a sneak preview of the first few pages:
“John Wood looked very ill. A rivulet of sweat ran through his face paint, and his hand trembled as he straightened his long blond wig. Magdalen would have liked to ask what ailed him, but her lips were clamped around half a dozen tiny dressmaking pins. She shook her head, a silent plea for him to be still whilst she attached the sleeves to his gown.
A cacophony of frantic voices vied for her attention:
‘Where are my yellow stockings?’
‘Help me fasten my laces!’
‘I can’t find the cushions for Orsino’s palace!’
by Book Extract: Ember by Catherine Yardley
Welcome to Catherine Yardley. She’s here with the blog tour for her novel, Ember.
A family torn apart by their father’s infidelity are forced to confront the past thirty years later. As Natalie’s younger sister, Amanda, prepares for marriage and impending motherhood, her plea for the family to reunite uncovers pent-up tension and animosity. Can they forget the past and become a family again?
Natalie’s life begins to unravel as their father starts to creep back into their lives and family tensions resurface, affecting her relationship with her boyfriend, Rob. Will the couple find their way back to each other, and can a family that has been torn apart ever heal their wounds?
Can you ever walk away from someone you love, or do some fires never die out?
Catherine has shared an extract with us today. Enjoy!
(Warning: Language.)
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Ember is a dual timeline novel about childhood trauma and how we carry it around with us. Natalie had a terrible childhood being a parent to her younger siblings. Her father broke up the family on Christmas day after an affair. It’s thirty years later and her younger sister is getting married and gets pregnant before her. Their father wants back into their lives. But every sibling remembers their childhood differently and Natalie is ganged up on by her siblings and father. She self destructs and leaves her loving boyfriend. Will she heal her wound and get her life back on track? Read Ember to find out.
That Moment
Rob
Watching Natalie drive off, leaving me on the side of the motorway, felt like an out-of-body experience. Had that really happened? Hell, what, had just happened? Looking around and almost expecting to wake up from a dream, it finally hits me and I snap.
‘That’s actually my fucking car!’
Out of all of the grand theft auto in history, this one has to be the most vicious. And original.
It feels like I have been walking along the motorway for days. Car headlights blind me. Everything is grey and dour. I keep going over every single detail about today. What could possibly have triggered such an extreme reaction? I cannot think of one thing I could have said to upset her. Never mind get dumped on the side of a motorway. We had not argued. The entire thing was such bullshit. It was just a pre-wedding get-together in the country. Partly to meet Neil’s family and partly to just have a get-together. Nothing happened. Nothing I can think of anyway.
by Book Extract: The Elephant Girl by Henriette Gyland
I am pleased to be welcoming Henriette Gyland to Novel Kicks today and the blog tour for her novel, The Elephant Girl.
I think I saw you …
It’s been twenty years, and Helen Stephens has come home to stay. And to get revenge on the person who murdered her mother. If only she knew who it was … But nothing is ever black or white, and when she rents a room in a house full of ex-offenders, the events of that fateful day blur even further, leading her to question her resolve and her memory.
Jason Moody, who runs the half-way house, has his own shame. When he uncovers her intent, he begins to suspect that someone close to him could be involved …
A coincidence? Or is there something else going on?
Henriette has shared an extract with us today so grab the tea, biscuits and pull up a comfy chair and enjoy.
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In this scene, after having returned from travelling for a number of years, Helen visits her grandmother, or more precisely, step-grandmother, who explains to her that now she’s twenty-five years old, she’s expected to sit on the board of the family business. Helen was never into the corporate life and is stunned. Even more so when she learns just how wealthy she now is.
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The door opened and Mrs Sanders reappeared. ‘Yes, Mrs Ransome?’
‘Oh, Sanders, now that my granddaughter has arrived would you be so kind and serve elevenses. We’ll have tea and some of that Victoria sponge cake with Fortnum’s strawberry preserve.’
‘But, Mrs Ransome, that’s far too rich for you.’
‘Nonsense, woman. When did a little cake hurt anyone? And I don’t see my granddaughter every day. The child has been to India. Heaven knows what they get to eat there.’
‘Egg and chips,’ Helen remarked.
Mrs Sanders left them again, muttering to herself.
‘Why aren’t you allowed cake?’ Helen asked though she knew the answer.
‘I’m diabetic and under strict orders not to eat anything nice.’ Aggie’s small eyes twinkled behind their folds of flesh. ‘And Mrs Sanders takes her job very seriously. Letitia engaged her.’
by Blog Blitz Extract: A Hotel in Cornwall by Laura Briggs
I am very happy to be welcoming Laura Briggs to Novel Kicks today. She’s here to celebrate her anthology series, A Little Hotel in Cornwall.
Here’s the information for the series, A Hotel in Cornwall.
All eight novellas in the UK bestselling series A LITTLE HOTEL IN CORNWALL are now available in one collection!
Follow aspiring young author Maisie Clark as she stumbles into a role as a maid in the idyllic hotel by the sea, where there’s never a dull moment, from her quest to track down a reclusive English novelist, to her brush with jewel thieves and a whirlwind trip through Paris and London to name a few.
All the while, she finds herself falling for the handsome and enigmatic groundskeeper Sidney Daniels. Could the key to unlocking her dreams be right in front of her?
This collection contains A Little Hotel in Cornwall, A Spirited Girl on Cornish Shores, Sea Holly and Mistletoe Kisses, The Cornish Secret of Summer’s Promise, A Train from Penzance to Paris, A Cornish Daisy’s Kiss, A Stargazy NightSky, and The Cornish Key to Happiness.
We have an extract to share with you today so, without further ado, over to you, Laura.
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Thanks so much to Laura at Novel Kicks for letting me share with her readers about the books in my series anthology A Little Hotel in Cornwall (Books 1-8).
Set at a quirky seaside hotel with an ‘anything can happen’ atmosphere, the series follows the adventures of amateur novelist Maisie Clark, who stumbles into secrets, surprises, and romance while working as a chambermaid at the hotel.
The following extract is from the second book in the series, A Spirited Girl on Cornish Shores.
It finds the hotel hosting an earl’s elaborate (and eccentric) birthday celebration at All Hallows’ Eve, with a guest list that might be at home in an Agatha Christie mystery—including the supposed psychic whose spooky predictions have the other guests on edge.
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“I’m looking forward to seeing your power in practice, Miss Norridge,” said the sculptor Ofong to the psychic. “When did you discover you had the gift?”
“I’ve always known,” she answered. “It was just … with me.” She smiled.
She was seated closest to the earl, except for his assistant, who was helping cut the lamb chops into bite-size pieces. Next to her, the worried daughter, who was fussing about the food and the room’s drafts.
“You knew since childhood, I read somewhere,” said Kate the ghost hunter. “Did anyone besides you recognize it? Family, teacher, school counselor?”
“My mother,” said Natalie. “In truth, the gift belongs to my family. My mother shared it, and so did my grandmother. You could say that I come from a long line of spirit whisperers.”
by Book Extract: Keeping up with the Kershaws by Helen Buckley
A lovely big welcome back to Helen Buckley. She’s here with the blog tour for her novel, Keeping up with the Kershaws.
What do you do when your life becomes more dramatic than reality TV?
As the devoted carer for famous antique expert Harold Kershaw, Karrie Morgan was always happy to keep a professional distance from his four spoilt grown-up children, who rarely made time for their father.
But then a surprise involving Harold’s Will means Karrie is flung headlong into a press scandal, and into the chaotic world of the surviving Kershaws.
With the support of her trusted childhood friend Andrew, mild-mannered Karrie must face down ruthless ice queen Portia, master manipulator Gabriel, Botox fanatic Arabella, and ladies’ man Rafe, star of reality TV show Raised in Richmond … although perhaps not as fake and flashy as he initially seems?
As vicious rumours circulate and Karrie’s past comes back to haunt her, she struggles to know who to trust. Can she keep up with the Kershaws’ schemes?
Helen has shared an extract from Keeping up with the Kershaws with Novel Kicks today. We hope you enjoy.
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In this extract, Karrie is about to face the fury of the four Kershaw siblings, who have found out that she has inherited their father’s millions.
Karrie shuddered with nerves as she paused outside the library, wondering if this was all just some awful nightmare that perhaps she would wake up from. She blinked hard and pinched her hand just to make sure, but she didn’t wake up. It was real and this was really happening, as much as she wished it weren’t. She took a breath, squared her shoulders, and pushed open the door.
The library was once her favourite room in the Kershaw house. The ornate wallpaper was largely obscured by the towering bookcases, made of specially ordered English Cherry, and filled with collectibles and rare books. The room had always smelled of old paper, particles of dust gently floated in the sunlight; a room of knowledge and peace.
by Book Extract: Sign of the Times by Susan Buchanan
I’m pleased to be welcoming Susan Buchanan to Novel Kick today. She is here with the blog tour for her book, Sign of the Times.
Sagittarius – Travel writer Holly heads to Tuscany to research her next book, but when she meets Dario, she knows she’s in trouble. Can she resist temptation? And what do her mixed feelings mean for her future with her fiancé?
Gemini – Player Lucy likes to keep things interesting and has no qualms about being unfaithful to her long-term boyfriend. A cardiology conference to Switzerland changes Lucy, perhaps forever. Has she met her match, and is this feeling love?
Holly is the one who links the twelve signs. Are you ready to meet them all?
A tale of love, family, friendship and the lengths we go to in pursuit of our dreams.
Grab that comfortable chair, a cup of tea/coffee/hot chocolate and enjoy this extract from Sign of the Times that Susan has shared today.
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Czeslawa, her husband and daughter have just moved from a bit of a slum in Edinburgh, to a tiny village about ten miles from Glasgow. This is the first time the whole family has seen the village and they’ve arrived right in the middle of the gala day.
Czeslawa slipped her hand into her husband’s and they followed their daughter through the thronging crowds. There were stalls selling local produce, bring and buy stands, a tombola and face painting. Everything she’d expected a village fair to offer. Angelika ran ahead shouting, ‘Look, Mummy, look, Daddy, they are painting their faces. Look, Mummy, there are carts.’ Wojciech and Czeslawa smiled and made all the appropriate noises to Angelika’s exclamations.
‘Daddy, I want one of those teddies,’ Angelika said, pointing to prizes at a hoopla stall.
‘We need to start talking to her in English,’ Czeslawa said.
‘Then you’ll have to learn English, and I’ll have to improve,’ said her husband, putting his arm around her.
‘Mummy, can I run in the race?’
Wojciech and Czeslawa exchanged a glance, then Czeslawa said, ‘Go on.’
‘On your marks, se-e-et–’ the starter blew his whistle ‘–go!’
‘C’mon, Lika, you can do it!’ her parents shouted, in Polish, which attracted a few stares. She finished second. Two minutes later, she took part in her first awards ceremony. They hadn’t seen inside their new home yet, but their daughter had already won a medal, already a part of the community.
Angelika stared open-mouthed at the young girl with the golden curls, wearing the pretty dress, looking like a bridesmaid at a wedding. The official slipped the sash reading ‘Kings River gala queen’ over her head. An important-looking man, perhaps the local councillor, placed a sparkly tiara on her head and a bouquet of mixed blooms in her hands. The crowd cheered, then the marching band played a few numbers before the crowd dispersed, some parents being dragged to the face-painting stand, others trawling their children to the ever-popular raffle. After a pleasant two hours of wandering around, they decided it was time to go and meet their new home.
‘It’s beautiful,’ said Czeslawa. It was a four-in-a-block terraced house, with a UPVC door, red tiled roof and pebbled walls. The long hall led to a kitchen on the left-hand side after an adequate bathroom, with new-looking three-piece suite. The lounge was at the end of the hall and very spacious, although had no real room for a dining table. The two bedrooms were on the right and she was pleasantly surprised at their size. She would be able to set up a little desk in the corner over there, with a computer. She hugged her husband. Angelika barrelled into her as she returned from racing around the house, eager to explore her new surroundings.
by Book Extract: Falling For The Competition by Jen Smith
I am pleased to be welcoming Jen Smith to Novel Kicks today with the blog tour for her novel, Falling for the Competition.
It’s going to be the best summer ever for ambitious, overachieving Quinn. A huge history buff, not only has she landed her dream job interning in the archives department of the local castle, but her best friend will be working there too.
However, Quinn isn’t the only one to be working in Archives this summer; Quinn’s academic rival, Patrick, is sharing her office in Muniments. They’re competing for the Letter of Recommendation (singular) from the research historian that Quinn needs to get her dream future placement.
Their emotionally-loaded and competitive rivalry turns into a reluctant friendship, as they spend every day working together in silence (and sharing the occasional Twix). Until the Re-Enactors arrive. Between Patrick and Harry – the Golden Knight of the jousting team – Quinn’s carefully planned summer is thrown into complete disarray. Meanwhile, her best friend’s relationship may look perfect on the outside, but Quinn is starting to realise that there’s more going on than there seems.
Although Quinn is determined and single minded about planning every detail of her sparkling future, she comes to discover that the best things in life are the spontaneous ones – and that some people are more important than any Letter of Recommendation (singular) could ever be.
Jen has shared an extract today. Grab a hot drink, a comfy spot on the sofa and enjoy.
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One thing that you need to know about Frankie is that she’s kissed exactly two boys (Nathan and Jack) and has had exactly one boyfriend (Jack). People always make out that she’s had loads of boyfriends and has shagged around a bit. But she hasn’t. People make judgements on what other people wear and it’s not fair. I tell Frankie that those bitches in our year started saying those things because they’re jealous that she does her own thing. So what if she likes to wear short shorts, or massive heels, or pillar box red lipstick, and doesn’t care what other people think?
And also, because Kristy McGovern liked Nathan Peterson in year nine and Nathan Peterson kissed Frankie and not Kristy at Jenna Johnstone’s birthday party.
“Oh yeah, I suppose they are friends.” I hadn’t really thought about Patrick having friends. He is just an academic machine to me. An annoying pomaded academic machine.
“So he’s working in archives too?”
“Yeah,” I nod, taking a bite of my chicken sandwich, and I tell her quickly about how annoying he has been already this morning, telling me what to do, sucking up to Lisa.
Frankie sits up and squints at me through the sunlight, ripping her eyes away from a vehemently arguing couple. “So, what’s your plan then?” She says dramatically.
“What plan? Plan for what?”
by Book Extract: Lady Ludmilla’s Accidental Letter by Sofi Laporte
I am so pleased to be welcoming Sofi Laporte and the blog tour for her novel, Lady Ludmilla’s Accidental Letter.
A resolute spinster. An irresistible rake. One accidental letter… Can love triumph over this hopeless muddle in the middle of the London season?
Lady Ludmilla is mortified. Though the spinster extraordinaire knows it is foolish, she has fallen head-over-heels for the amiable man with whom she’s been secretly corresponding, and that cannot be. When she sets out to uncover his identity, her world shatters. For her best friend Addy turns out to be none other but London’s worst rogue—the man who has ruined her engagement to someone else ten years earlier.
Lord St.Addington is perturbed. The wicked Viscount is developing a marked tendre for a spinster, and that cannot be. She might be mistaking him for someone he is not, or, what is worse, know precisely who he is. As London’s worst hellrake, he has a role to maintain, a charade to play. A depraved heart like his surely can’t be falling in love…least of all with a plain, outspoken spinster.
Determined to discover the truth behind the man she loves, Lu does what she does best: she sits down and writes a letter…
If you crave a humorous romp with witty banter and surprising twists, you will love Sofi Laporte’s charming masquerade.
Sofi has shared an extract today. We hope you enjoy.
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Excerpt from Lady Ludmilla’s Accidental Letter by Sofi Laporte:
When Lady Ludmilla sets out to uncover the identity of the man she loves, her world shatters. For Addy turns out to be none other but London’s worst rakehell, who has already crossed her path and ruined her a long time ago. When she encounters him again, she cannot help but challenge him:
“I dare you.” Lu thought she must be stark raving mad, even as she heard the words herself. “I dare you to kiss the homeliest Windmere woman with your eyes open.” She tilted up her chin defiantly.
His gaze dropped from her eyes to her lips. “Dare accepted.”
by Book Extract: Mrs Morphett’s Macaroons by Patsy Trench
I am pleased to be welcoming Patsy Trench to Novel Kicks today along with the blog tour for her novel, Mrs Morphett’s Macaroons.
London, 1905. A show. A stuttering romance. Two squabbling actresses.
Is it Shakespeare? Is it Vaudeville?
Not quite. It is Mrs Morphett’s Macaroons, a satirical play about suffragettes which its creators – friends and would-be lovers Robbie Robinson and Violet Graham – are preparing to mount in London’s West End.
It is the play rival actresses Merry and Gaye would kill to be in, if only they hadn’t insulted the producer all those years ago.
For Robbie and Violet however the road to West End glory is not smooth. There are backers to be appeased, actors to be tamed and a theatre to be found; and in the midst of it all a budding romance that risks being undermined by professional differences.
Never mix business with pleasure?
Maybe, maybe not.
Patsy has shared an extract with us today so enjoy!
*****beginning of extract*****
Extract from Chapter 24 of ‘Mrs Morphett’s Macaroons’- Mrs Santenoy goes to gaol.
It is 1905. Mrs Santenoy is an elderly suffragist in the early days of the suffrage movement, before Mrs Pankhurst appeared on the scene and when the demand for votes for women were largely peaceful. The protest Mrs Santenoy took part in was perfectly orderly until the police moved in on horseback to disperse it, and a handful of the lady protesters were rounded up and sent to prison for two weeks.
*****
When Mrs Santenoy arrived at Holloway Prison she was in a state of high excitement. For a woman from what society termed ‘a privileged background’, married for nearly forty years, the experience of going to prison was without question the most extraordinary event in the sixty-eight years of her life. Even as she was lined up against a wall with her fellow protestors and given a rudimentary medical examination, Mrs Santenoy still felt the strangest thrill of adventure. She saw herself as an actress in a play, going through the rudiments of being sent to prison without any idea of what lay ahead of her.
On instruction from the prison wardress she was made to undress – ‘Completely?’ – ‘Completely’ – and given some old, stained underclothing, brown woollen stockings and a green serge dress that really was stamped all over with broad arrows. She hunted for but did not find a matching pair of shoes to wear from a huge basket, after which, laden with sheets, a towel, a mug of water and a thick slice of rough bread she was shown to her cell. Even then it all felt quite unreal and startlingly melodramatic. She sank exhausted onto the hard wooden bed and closed her eyes and, surprisingly, slept.
The following day, having requested some reading matter she was given the Bible and an atlas of the world. She embarked on the first with interest and glanced through the second. During the obligatory hour’s exercise in the prison yard she kept her head held high and, as instructed, avoided contact with her fellow prisoners. She managed to keep this up for two whole days without too much pain.
It was around the third day that the excitement faded. It was not until then that she became fully aware of a kind of sour, stale odour seeping through the walls from centuries of poor ventilation and prevailing damp. Her cell was both stuffy and cold. She sensed the presence of something that moved and scuffled. She dare not leave what food she was given on the floor lest her fear of mice and rats became real.
In the exercise yard she observed her fellow detainees with dulled curiosity. Apart from the suffragettes, whom she recognised only vaguely by sight, the women kept their eyes on the ground, and she was struck by the thought that many if not most of them had possibly spent more of their lives in prison than out; that a good half of them were no more than girls, and that there was a kind of resigned doggedness to the way they walked, shoulders slumped, feet dragging, as if tramping mindlessly in a circle was all they knew how to do or would ever do in the future. There were very few outbreaks, or protests; they didn’t seem to have the energy.
by Book Extract: Brown Eyes by Frances Ive
I am pleased to be welcoming Frances Ive to Novel Kicks today with the blog tour for her book, Brown Eyes.
A watchful eye as a marriage falls apart. The phone call, the rows, and the split are all observed by the family Labrador. He knows the habits and senses the moods of his beloved family members. Seeing them unhappy and hurting each other is unbearable. Where did his perfect life go?
Her marriage to Phil in crisis, two children at the challenging teenage stage, and a close friend in peril, Meriel’s world is falling apart. She finds solace in the arms of another man, but is this the answer for her? It is her stubbornness that threatens the family’s future together, until a major loss has a life-changing effect on her. A sliver of hope returns.
Like a fly on the wall, Benji the dog sees it all.
Narrated by both the dog and Meriel, Brown Eyes is a novella (a short read) written by the author of Finding Jo and Give and Take with a Capital G & T.
Frances has shared an extract from Brown Eyes today. We hope you enjoy!
*****beginning of extract*****
Can a marriage be saved?
In many countries including the UK the divorce rate is very high – between one in two or three marriages ends in a split. Sometimes relationships break down because of extreme behaviour, but others are often just lacking communication and appreciation. The route from problems like infidelity to splitting up is sometimes very fast.
For those couples who seek couples counselling it can sometimes be avoided if both partners want it to work. Meriel and Phil were jogging along in their relationship when one of them strayed off the path. Almost immediately they were splitting up and the children and the family Labrador were distraught. Could therapy save their marriage?
Extract from the point of view of Jane, the counsellor. Starting with Phil speaking.
‘I didn’t think it happened quickly. I had liked Meriel for a long time, but she always seemed to be with a boyfriend. I used to wonder how we could get together, and so I just took a risk and rang her. And thank goodness, it worked.’
by Book Extract: The Helsingør Sewing Club by Ella Gyland
Ella Gyland joins me today with the blog tour for her novel, The Helsingør Sewing Club.
Inspired by the incredible true story of how the people of Denmark saved their Jewish neighbours during WW2
Helsingør, Denmark, 1943
In the midst of the German occupation during World War Two, Inger Bredahl joins the underground resistance and risks her life to save members of Denmark’s Jewish community and help them escape to Sweden.
Copenhagen, 2018
Inger’s granddaughter, Cecilie Lund, is mourning her death when a mysterious discovery while cleaning out Inger’s flat leads past and present to intersect. As long-held secrets finally see the light of day, Cecilie learns the story of her grandmother’s courage and bravery, and of the power of friendship, love, and standing for what’s right…even when you have everything to lose.
An inspiring tale of the resilience of the human spirit and the power of community.
Ella has shared an extract from The Helsingør Sewing Club with us today. Enjoy!
*****beginning of extract*****
The main character’s cousin Gudrun has just returned home from having dinner with her fiancé, Niels the fisherman, and his family, where the topic of conversation was whether to smuggle black market goods back from Sweden or not, with Niels strongly against it and his father in favour of it. This scene is from Gudrun’s point of view.
*****
When she returned home, her parents, Inger, and Jens were listening to Radio London in the parlour. She poured herself a cup of coffee from the blue enamel pot on the stove in the kitchen, and joined her family, squeezing onto the settee next to her brother.
Huddled around the radio, they listened to the news that the Russian army had recaptured a port city on the Black Sea from the Germans, and that the recently overthrown Italian dictator, Mussolini, had been restored to power.
Gudrun’s mind wasn’t really on the news. Instead she focused on the coffee substitute she was drinking. She’d almost, but not quite, got used to the taste of it – not like Inger who hated it – but knew Niels’s father had been right when he’d insisted people would pay for anything if they wanted it enough, and had the money.
At my wedding lunch we’re going to have proper coffee, she thought. Another reason for her and Niels to wait.
The calm, quiet mood in her parents’ parlour was interrupted by a sudden rap on the window at the front of the house. Jens quickly switched off the radio, and her mother draped an embroidered tablecloth over it. Listening to the radio wasn’t forbidden, but the Germans took a dim view of broadcasts from the BBC, and it was better to be safe than sorry in case they confiscated it.
Her father turned off the lights and opened the door, with Gudrun and his wife almost right behind him.
by Book Extract: Storytellers by Bjørn Larssen
I am very pleased to be welcoming Bjørn Larssen and the blog tour for his novel, Storytellers.
Would you murder your brothers to keep them from telling the truth about themselves?
On a long, cold Icelandic night in March 1920, Gunnar, a hermit blacksmith, finds himself with an unwanted lodger – Sigurd, an injured stranger who offers a story from the past. But some stories, even those of an old man who can barely walk, are too dangerous to hear. They alter the listeners’ lives forever… by ending them.
Others are keen on changing Gunnar’s life as well. Depending on who gets to tell his story, it might lead towards an unwanted marriage, an intervention, rejoining the Church, letting the elf drive him insane, or succumbing to the demons in his mind. Will he manage to write his own last chapter?
Bjørn Larssen’s award-winning, Amazon #1 best selling novel is an otherworldly, emotive Icelandic saga – a story of love and loneliness, relief and suffering, hatred… and hope.
Bjørn has shared an extract today. Grab that hot drink, a comfortable chair and enjoy.
*****beginning of extract*****
Like most writers, I have certain subjects that are dear to my heart. Three of them are neurodivergence, mental illness (not the same thing), and addiction.
My protagonist, Gunnar, is on the autism spectrum and has a generalised anxiety disorder accompanied by depression, self-medicated with alcohol. He is also living in the year 1920, before the word “depression” came into use at all. He’s an uneducated blacksmith in a society where showing feelings – revealing that you had them – outside your diaries or poems you wrote was impossible. It wasn’t seen as cynical to say there was no time for grief or melancholy. It was simply the truth. There was too much work to be done.
It’s not just the external world that doesn’t understand Gunnar’s different mind. He has no words to express how he feels. All he knows is that he “shouldn’t” be like this, that “normal people” aren’t. During Icelandic prohibition, the only way to acquire alcohol was to visit a doctor and get it “prescribed” – Gunnar’s whisky is, ostentatiously, medication for his non-existent lung problems. A bottle of whisky a week isn’t enough anymore, though, so he makes moonshine… which is, of course, illegal, which makes his anxiety worse. There’s only one way he knows to feel better – he carries a flask wherever he goes.
There was a time in my life when I went through a long period of depression. Everything was grey. I didn’t even remember how to laugh. I was ashamed of admitting it. I “knew” that depression was a made-up thing that the educated members of the middle-class came up with to justify their laziness. Gunnar doesn’t have the words to express that, but if he could, he’d be thinking the same. There was one medication that calmed me down, even sent me into euphoria. It came in bottles.
*****
by Book Extract: A Stranger’s Revenge by K.J. McGillick
A big welcome to K.J. McGillick and the blog tour for her novel, A Stranger’s Revenge.
When art law attorney Abigail Clarke is mistaken for the murdered twin sister she never knew existed, will she be able to outwit a man determined to kill every member of her treacherous family.
Thirty years ago, during a thunderstorm, on an isolated street in South Boston, an unidentified two-year-old girl was discovered, abandoned, shot, barely clinging to life. After a thorough investigation, the case was eventually designated to the cold case files until Abigail Clarke, now an astraphobic art law attorney, is mistaken for the murdered twin sister she never knew existed.
What the FBI Art Crime Division cannot determine is if Abigail is an innocent bystander or a co-conspirator in her sister’s art fraud crimes.
Compelled to uncover all her family’s secrets, nothing prepares Abigail for the disastrous meeting with her murderous brother and crime boss father. Her life is irreversibly changed the more she becomes mired in her family’s treachery. She soon finds herself drawn into a game of cat and mouse by the vengeful killer who methodically plans to execute every member of her family, holding each one of them ultimately responsible for the murder of his own family thirty years ago.
K.J. McGillick has shared an extract with us today. Enjoy.
Warning: Language.
*****beginning of extract*****
March 2021
An explosive streak of white lightning splayed its arthritic fingers across the gray sky, threatening to snatch me through my windows. However, it was the explosive thunder bomb which shook my windows that almost sent me under my desk. Shot and then left for dead when I was two years old, thunderstorms still scared the hell out of me and left me paralyzed with fear. Maura called it astraphobia. I called it self-preservation.
“Abigail Clarke, you are not listening to a word I’m saying,” Maura said, slapping her chair to get my attention. “I could use a little legal help here.”
“Of course, I am listening. I just want to scream at the top of my lungs that Clarisse Taylor is batshit crazy. Can we at least agree that she is a master manipulator well versed in the art of gaslighting? You’ve asked my legal opinion. I can’t help it if it’s not what you want to hear.”
Was it wrong of me to hope right now a bus was plowing into Clarisse, leaving her splattered on some street like roadkill?
“I have to admit that in the last two months, her stories have become more laced with violence.” She sighed.
“There you go. What if this is just an attention-seeking device? I know as a psychiatrist, head games and personality puzzles fill your day. Please don’t think I am minimizing your concern. But maybe this is one of those moments that you can’t see the forest for the trees.”
“No, this time it was different. You had to see her wickedly satisfied expression as she boasted she stabbed him fifteen times.”
As if channeling Clarisse, Maura gritted her teeth and slowly lifted her arm, then plunged an imaginary knife up and down. As her arm arched back, I could not help but visualize the drops of blood, as they must have sprayed across the walls with each fresh assault. The room must have looked like a Jackson Pollock canvas, splattered in various hues of reds and browns as the blood dried. That visual did the trick of interrupting my obsession with the storm.
She suddenly sprang to her feet, almost dazed, glanced at the floor, and then at me.
“And, Abby, she said that the puddle of blood looked like an oil slick. It was so widespread that when she tried to stand, she slipped in it and bashed her head against a table. Slipped… In… His… Blood…”
“Oh, for the love of God, enough.” I raised my hand for her to stop. I had reached my limit.
She dropped back into the chair and took a deep breath.
“Okay, take a minute, and let’s walk through this. Did you see any signs of an injury to her head to corroborate the story?” I asked, determined to debunk this lunatic’s musings.
“Yes. Well… she had a bandage across the corner of her forehead. Whether there was an injury there or it was for show, I don’t know. However, she never came to the office before with even a Band-Aid.”
by Book Extract: That Certain Spark by Isobel Hart
I am very happy to be welcoming Isobel Hart to Novel Kicks today and the blog tour for her book, That Certain Spark.
A one-bedroom apartment with creeping damp.
Depressed cat, complete with litter tray.
Neither was part of Claire’s five-year plan.
Nor, for that matter, was divorce.
Left with a comfort eating habit that’s costing her a small fortune in ice-cream, and panic attacks flooring her in front of the supermarket meals-for-one, Claire turns to her mum and Mindfulness in the hope that one of them can help her find real happiness.
She thinks she’s cracked it… but then her past comes creeping back.
Now she has to work out what really makes her happy or risk a life where Ben & Jerry are the only men who matter.
Isobel has shared an extract with us today. So, grab that blanket and drink of choice and enjoy.
*****beginning of extract*****
Claire has chosen to go on a Power Walk during a stay at a rejuvenating health spa with her mum. It turns out to be a little more arduous than she anticipates.
By the time I get to the top I have tunnel vision, a red mist reducing my ability to see more than my own feet. I want to curl up and sleep in a bush. And maybe die. Death feels preferable to this, right now. “That’s it, you’re doing brilliantly,” Carl says. He’s circling me like a sheepdog, nipping at my ankles every time it looks like I might stop. “You’ve done better than most people. Most the guests turn back when they realise how fast we walk.”
I’d forgotten that was even an option. Why the hell didn’t I turn back?
The other ladies are still chatting. “Do. They. Ever. Stop. Talking?” I gasp in slow stilted words to Carl between attempts to suck air back into my lungs.
He laughs. “No, I’m afraid not.”
by Book Extract: A Nose For Mischief by K.T. Lee
I’m saying a big hello to K.T. Lee. She is here with the blog tour for her latest novel, A Nose for Mischief, book one in the Riverbend K-9s series.
When materials engineer Zoey Butler lands her dream job at Future State Energy, she believes her research in renewable energy will make headlines. Unfortunately for her, she’s right. Zoey is working on her latest experiment when FBI Special Agent Alexis Thompson and her K-9 partner, Waffle, raid Future State and arrest the head of the development for fraud. Zoey helps the FBI find answers in the aftermath, but she soon finds herself jobless and unemployable. Desperate and out of options, she reaches out to Alexis, the one person who knows Zoey was duped like everyone else.
Liam Graham is an FBI special agent and instructor at Riverbend K-9 Academy. When Alexis brings in a new recruit with an unusual background, Liam pairs her up with Tasha, a dog in need of a handler to stay in their competitive program. Zoey is thrilled to put her past behind her and give the mischievous rescue dog her own second chance. However, shortly after she arrives, the FBI realizes the Future State case is far from closed. And Zoey may be the key to solving it.
Zoey offers to go back to Future State to help the FBI end things once and for all. Only this time, she’ll have Liam and Tasha for backup. But, the problems at Future State are more explosive than any of them suspect.
K.T. Lee has shared an extract with us today. Enjoy.
***** beginning of extract *****
When materials engineer Zoey Butler lands her dream job at Future State Energy, she believes her research in renewable energy will make headlines. Unfortunately for her, she’s right. Zoey is working on her latest experiment when FBI Special Agent Alexis Thompson and her K-9 partner, Waffle, raid Future State and arrest the head of the development for fraud. Zoey helps the FBI find answers in the aftermath, but she soon finds herself jobless and unemployable. Desperate and out of options, she reaches out to Alexis, the one person who knows Zoey was duped like everyone else.
Liam Graham is an FBI special agent and instructor at Riverbend K-9 Academy. When Alexis brings in a new recruit with an unusual background, Liam pairs her up with Tasha, a dog in need of a handler to stay in their competitive program. Zoey is thrilled to put her past behind her and give the mischievous rescue dog her own second chance. However, shortly after she arrives, the FBI realizes the Future State case is far from closed. And Zoey may be the key to solving it.
Zoey offers to go back to Future State to help the FBI end things once and for all. Only this time, she’ll have Liam and Tasha for backup. But, the problems at Future State are more explosive than any of them suspect.
This excerpt takes place as Zoey is struggling with her job search.
by Book Extract: Daughter of the Sea by Elisabeth J. Hobbes
I am very happy to be welcoming Elisabeth J. Hobbes to Novel Kicks today and the blog tour for her new novel, Daughter of the Sea.
On a windswept British coastline the tide deposits an unexpected gift…
It was the cry that she first noticed, the plaintive wail that called to her over the crash of winter waves. Wrapped only in a sealskin, the baby girl looks up at Effie and instantly captures her heart. She meant only to temporarily foster the young orphan but when news reaches Effie that her husband has been lost at sea, and months pass without anyone claiming the infant, she embraces her new family – her son Jack and her adopted daughter Morna.
Effie has always been an outcast in her village, the only granddaughter of a woman people whisper is a witch, so she’s used to a solitary existence. But when Midsummer arrives so too does a man claiming to be Morna’s father. There’s no denying Lachlan is the girl’s kin and so Effie is surprised when he asks her to continue looking after his daughter, mysteriously refusing to explain why. She agrees, but when he returns six months hence she pushes him for answers. And Lachlan tells a story she never anticipated … one of selkies, legend, and the power of the sea…
Elisabeth has shared an extract with us today. Enjoy.
****beginning of extract*****
Effie Cropton has been gathering seaweed on the beach at Allendale Head. While there she rescues a basket floating out to sea and discovers a baby girl. She returns to the village and, after a brief conversation with her friend Walter, goes to visit her grandmother and collect her son.
“Effie, is that you?” Alice called from inside the pantry. “Wrap the seaweeds in the damp dishcloth will you?”
Effie did as she was asked, keeping some back for herself. Alice used it for her poultices and ointments. Effie liked to paint it.
“Why are you wearing Walter Danby’s coat?” Alice asked, as she bustled into the kitchen. Her sharp eyes narrowed suspiciously as she looked at Effie. “Your husband is away and I didn’t think you the type to carry on with another man.”
“I’m not carrying on with Walter and you know it,” Effie said indignantly. “I’ve been faithful to John for our whole marriage.”
John Cropton was ten years older than his wife and had been a bachelor longer than many thought he should, given his looks. He was shy and particular in his ways, and it had surprised everyone in the village when he asked Effie to marry him. People were perhaps less surprised at why when Effie’s belly began to swell after too few months of wedded bliss for the numbers to add up.
Whether Effie had trapped John or John had trapped Effie into marriage was the subject of some debate among those who enjoyed speculating. Perhaps neither of them had intended to trap or be trapped, but the end result was the same. The man whom the village had believed would end his days a bachelor found a wife, and Effie had fallen from the middle to the working class.
by Book Club
