Earl Grey and Shallow Graves by Victoria Tait – Spotlight & Blog Tour

When I signed up for this blog tour, I had planned to grab a cup of Earl Grey tea and read the book. This did not happen. Neither the Earl Grey tea drink nor the reading.

So, I’m shining a spotlight on this exciting cozy mystery by Victoria Tait, an author whose books I’ve long wanted to read.

Like several other books and blog tours I’ve signed up for, I’ll be reading this mystery over the summer and sharing my review then.

For now, here’s what you need to know about Earl Grey and Shallow Graves: A British Cozy Murder Mystery with a Female Sleuth.

 

About the book

Earl Grey and Shallow Graves: A British Cozy Murder Mystery with a Female Sleuth

Book 1 in the Waterwheel Cafe Mystery series

Author: Victoria Tait

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Setting – England

Publisher: Kanga Press

Publication date: 19 May 2023

Number of Pages: 240 pages

Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BXQL5YS5

 

Book synopsis:

A 30-year-old skeleton. A missing girl. Can a community police officer read the tea leaves or will a deadly secret remain buried forever?

Sergeant Keya Varma is delighted with her new part-time role as the Cotswolds’ Rural Engagement Officer. She’s also fulfilling her dream of opening a small neighbourhood café. But she gets herself into a stew with renovation works when builders unearth a young girl’s remains.

While Keya and her police colleagues gain ground reviewing the unsolved disappearance of a local girl, her brief taste of success turns to dust when a friend is found dead at her tea shop. Confusion over identities threatens to bury the investigation and our junior police officer is worried that justice won’t be served.

Can Keya dig into the mystery and uncover the real culprit?

 

Earl Grey and Shallow Graves is the first book in The Waterwheel Café series. If you’ve enjoyed the Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery series, then you’ll love meeting some of your favourite characters and making new friends in Victoria Tait’s intriguing British cozy mystery.

 

About the Victoria Tait

Victoria Tait

I was born and raised in Yorkshire, UK, and never expected to travel the world. I’ve drawn on my experiences following my military husband to write cozy murder mystery books with vivid and evocative settings. My determined female sleuths are joined by colourful but realistic teams of helpers, and you’ll experience surprises, humour, and sometimes, a tug on your heartstrings.

I hope you enjoyed Keya’s first book.  Why not join her and her friends as they solve more mysteries in my Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery series, also based in the Cotswolds.

Visit https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TMJFL7L

Do you like tea, cakes and books? Then why not join our TeaCozy Club for regular news and updates, and receive your free book gift at  www.victoriatait.com  

Who doesn’t like tea, cake, and a slice of murder?

Connect with Victoria Tait via her Website, BookBub, Instagram, Pinterest, and Goodreads.

  

Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani – Spotlight & Blog Tour

Today, I’m featuring a spotlight for Intisar Khanani, an author I’ve been following for some time on Twitter and whose book I’ve longed to read.

I had hoped to read Sunbolt and publish the review as part of this blog tour but I’ve not been able to read much lately (aside from work).

Sunbolt came in 3rd in the Book Blogger Novel of the Year Award 2022 (BBNYA 2022). More on BBNYA below. 

So, today, I’m shining a spotlight on Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani and I plan to read the book during the summer (along with a dozen others!).

It's worth mentioning that just before this blog tour, Sunbolt got a new cover. I'm still a BIIIIG fan of the old cover. It drew me in. So, in this post I'll be sharing both book covers. 

 

Here’s a bit about the book:

Book title: Sunbolt

Book 1 in the Sunbolt Chronicles

Author: Intisar Khanani

Publisher: Purple Monkey Press

Length: 152 Pages

Genre: Fantasy

Age Category: Middle Young Adult

Publication date: 17 June 2013

 

Synopsis:

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

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

Add Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani on Goodreads.

 

About the Author

Intisar Khanani grew up a nomad and world traveler. She has lived in five different states as well as in Jeddah, on the coast of the Red Sea.

Intisar used to write grants and develop projects to address community health and infant mortality with the Cincinnati Health Department, which was as close as she could get to saving the world.

Now she focuses her time on her two passions: raising her family and writing fantasy.

She is the author of The Sunbolt Chronicles, and the Dauntless Path novels, beginning with Thorn.

 

Grab the book via Amazon Canada, Amazon US, or Amazon UK.

 

About BBNYA

The Book Blogger Novel of the Year Award (BBNYA) is an annual competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner. 

If you’re an author and would like to learn more about the BBNYA competition, visit their official website or you can visit the official website or follow them on Twitter.

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

 

Inheriting Her Ghosts by S.H. Cooper – Book Review

I got the opportunity to read Inheriting Her Ghosts by S.H. Cooper as part of the Book Blogger Novel of the Year Award (BBNYA) 2022.

It came in 5th place among the 10 finalists.

This review was supposed to go up earlier in May but life gets in the way… so, here it is.

 

Book title: Inheriting Her Ghosts

Publisher: Sleepless Sanctuary Publishing

Length: 120 Pages

Genre: Horror, Adult 

Publication date: 9 July 2021

Book Synopsis:

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

When Eudora Fellowes learns she's the sole heir of her estranged great-aunt's seaside manor, she believes it will be the peaceful escape she's longed for.

What awaits, however, is a dark legacy shrouded in half a century of secrets, and it doesn't take long before Eudora realizes she's not the only one to call High Hearth home.

Add Inheriting Her Ghosts by S.H. Cooper on Goodreads.

 

Book Review of Inheriting Her Ghosts by S.H. Cooper

Inheriting Her Ghosts is my first read for S.H. Cooper and certainly not my last. It’s a horror novella of with a sort-of well-known premise. A woman inherits a mansion in the middle of nowhere but what she finds there isn’t what she expected.

The book opens with a strong and powerful statement:

“The house inherited me as much as I did it. We were alike, this house and I. Both filled with bones that creaked and dark hallways where memories lingered still.”

Eudora Fellows, 43, inherits her estranged great-aunt’s seaside manor, named High Hearth. She hopes it’ll be a peaceful escape from society. So, she packs up some of her belongings and takes her large dogs and heads for High Hearth.

But when she arrives there, she discovers that the people in town believe it’s haunted. They despise the house and its former resident, Eudora’s great-aunt.

Despite the fairly-traditional premise, Cooper draws you in with her writing. Her words flow on the page and you can’t put it down even if you’re not deep in the action.

“I awakened something in this house, and the more I sought to understand it, the more it resisted, resented, and in its anger, it took power.”

Though it takes a while for Cooper to get into the ‘action’ in Inheriting Her Ghosts, you still enjoy Eudora’s reflections, her descriptiveness. The book just flows…

“There is a darkness in High Hearth, one that has trapped the dead, and it stems from her.”

One of the things I liked about Inheriting Her Ghosts is that the main character isn’t the usual teen or mother, but a 43-year-old woman with a cynical, strong character.

“At forty-three, I was an oddity…there were expectations, and I’d failed to meet them all...I’d never much cared for the male species. Or, more accurately, the human species as a whole.”

There are many memorable quotes and lines in Inheriting Her Ghosts. I’ve mentioned a fair number in this review, but believe me, there are many more!

“Late was the hour of our arrival. High Hearth stood as a grand silhouette against the sky, its spires and peaks piercing upward and mall the more imposing by the night. The sight of it sent waves of cold washing down my neck, but they did not, could not, run deep enough to extinguish the firestorm within.”

 

Overall rating for Inheriting Her Ghosts by S.H. Cooper: 5 stars.

About the Author

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

In addition to short story collections and novels, she is also the writer for the horror comedy podcast, Calling Darkness.

When she’s not writing, she’s thinking about writing, talking about writing, or sleeping (wherein she dreams about writing). She is kept up and running through the tireless efforts of her extremely supportive family and coffee.

Connect with S.H. Cooper via her website, Twitter, and Facebook.

 

About BBNYA

BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner.  

If you are an author and wish to learn more about the BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website http://www.bbnya.com or Twitter.

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

Find Inheriting Her Ghosts via Amazon Canada, Amazon US, and Amazon UK.