#BlogTour Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce @TamoraPierce ‏@prhinternational #partner

Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Arram. Varice. Ozorne. In the first book in the Numair Chronicles, three student mages are bound by fate . . . fated for trouble.

Arram Draper is a boy on the path to becoming one of the realm’s most powerful mages. The youngest student in his class at the Imperial University of Carthak, he has a Gift with unlimited potential for greatness–and for attracting danger. At his side are his two best friends: Varice, a clever girl with an often-overlooked talent, and Ozorne, the “leftover prince” with secret ambitions. Together, these three friends forge a bond that will one day shape kingdoms. And as Ozorne gets closer to the throne and Varice gets closer to Arram’s heart, Arram begins to realize that one day soon he will have to decide where his loyalties truly lie.

In the Numair Chronicles, readers will be rewarded with the never-before-told story of how Numair Salmalín came to Tortall. Newcomers will discover an unforgettable fantasy adventure where a kingdom’s future rests on the shoulders of a talented young man with a knack for making vicious enemies.

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If you have read the Immortals series by Tamara Pierce is Numair Salmalín is a familiar name. In her new series, The Numair Chronicles do we get to know Numair Salmalín before he became a famous mage. When he was still Attam Draper.

Tempests and Slaughter is the first new book in a new series by Tamara Pierce, and when I got the chance to read this book couldn't I turn it down. And, I'm glad that I decided to go for the book because Pierce has written a fabulous YA fantasy book that can be read by young and old. The book is almost 500 pages thick, but it's never a dull moment. I have to admit that I got some Harry Potter vibes reading this book, two boys and one girl studying magic? However, storywise are they pretty different. However, I do think HP fans will love this book.

I found the story to be interesting straight through. When the book starts is Arram almost eleven years old and the story will progress until he's fourteen so one gets to follow him as he grows older (of course together with his trusted friends Varice and Ozorne) and reading about him becoming more and more powerful. Even as a teen is he a great mage that just needs to learn to harness his power.

There is a lot of events in this book and I particularly liked the latter part of the book, when Arram has to help the wounded gladiators. Gladiator games are a big thing in this book, and Arram has a hard time dealing with that since he is against slavery and the barbarity of gladiator games.

I found this the first book to be an excellent start of a new series and both new and old fans of Tamara Pierce will love it!

I want to thank Random House for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!

ISBN-10: 0375847111

ISBN-13: 978-0375847110

A playlist to go with the book!

Elysium - Gladiator OST

Liberi Fatali - Nobuo Uematsu

Dragonborn - Soule

Slaves to Rome  - Gladiator OST

One Final Effort - Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori
We Belong to the Sea  - Aqua

Cape horn - Sarah Brightman

A Salty Dog - Sarah Brightman

Untold Legends - Salvatori

The Might of Rome - Gladiator OST

Descent - Main Theme by Morris
Never Forget - Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori

#ReleaseSpotlight Death of an Honest Man M. C. Beaton @GrandCentralPub #Giveaway

M.C. Beaton
HARDCOVER BOOK - 1455558311 / 9781455558315
ELECTRONIC BOOK - 1455558338 / 9781455558339
Available in the U.S. Feb. 20, 2018

DESCRIPTION

Sergeant Hamish Macbeth--Scotland's most quick-witted but unambitious policeman--returns in M.C. Beaton's new mystery in her New York Times bestselling series.

DEATH OF AN HONEST MAN

Nobody loves an honest man, or that was what police sergeant Hamish Macbeth tried to tell newcomer Paul English. Paul had moved to a house in Cnothan, a sour village on Hamish's beat.

He attended church in Lochdubh. He told the minister, Mr. Wellington, that his sermons were boring. He told tweedy Mrs. Wellington that she was too fat and in these days of increasing obesity it was her duty to show a good example. Angela Brody was told her detective stories were pap for the masses and it was time she wrote literature instead. He accused Hamish of having dyed his fiery red hair. He told Jessie Currie--who repeated all the last words of her twin sister--that she needed psychiatric help.

"I speak as I find," he bragged. Voices saying, "I could kill that man," could be heard from Lochdubh to Cnothan.

And someone did.

Now Hamish is faced with a bewildering array of suspects. And he's lost the services of his clumsy policeman, Charlie, who has resigned from the force after Chief Inspector Blair berated Charlie one too many times, and the policeman threw Blair into the loch. Can Hamish find the killer on his own?

Death of an Honest Man by M. C. Beaton

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

M. C. Beaton has won international acclaim for her New York Times bestselling Hamish Macbeth mysteries, and the BBC has aired twenty-four episodes based on the series. Beaton is also the author of the bestselling Agatha Raisin novels, which aired as an eight-episode dramatic series on PBS, starring Ashley Jensen. M. C. Beaton's books have been translated into seventeen languages. She lives in the Cotswolds. For more information, you can visit MCBeaton.com.

WEBSITE: http://www.mcbeaton.com/us/
TWITTER: @mc_beaton
FACEBOOK: @MCBeatonAuthor

  

PRAISE FOR M.C. BEATON:

“Satisfying for both established and new Macbeth fans.”
---Booklist

“Longing for escape? Tired of waiting for Brigadoon to materialize? Time for a trip to Lochdubh, the scenic, if somnolent, village in the Scottish Highlands where M.C. Beaton sets her beguiling whodunits featuring Constable Hamish Macbeth.”
---New York Times Book Review

“Hamish Macbeth is that most unusual character, one to whom the reader returns because of his charming flaws. May he never get promoted.”
---New York Journal of Books

“With residents and a constable so authentic, it won’t be long before tourists will be seeking Lockdubh and believing in the reality of Hamish Macbeth as surely as they believed in Sherlock Holmes.”
---Denver Rocky Mountain News

“Macbeth is the sort of character who slyly grows on you.”
---Chicago Sun-Times

“Beaton keeps this lighthearted series fresh.”
---Publisher’s Weekly

#Wishlist Historical Fiction set in Spain

I started to watch Marocco Love in Times of War and that got me interested to read historical fiction set in Spain. Well, it should make me interested in books set in Marocco, but since the series is Spanish did I become more curious about the early 20-century history of Spain. Although this list contains a bit of a mishmash of hisfic.

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The bestselling author of The Paris Wife returns to the subject of Ernest Hemingway in a novel about his passionate, stormy marriage to Martha Gellhorn—a fiercely independent, ambitious young woman who would become one of the greatest war correspondents of the twentieth century

In 1937, twenty-eight-year-old Martha travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War, and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in devastating conflict. She also finds herself unexpectedly—and uncontrollably—falling in love with Hemingway, a man already on his way to becoming a legend. In the shadow of the impending Second World War, and set against the tumultuous backdrops of Madrid, Finland, China, Key West, and especially Cuba, where Martha and Ernest make their home, their relationship and professional careers ignite. But when Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, For Whom the Bell Tolls, they are no longer equals, and Martha must make a choice: surrender to the confining demands of being a famous man’s wife, or risk losing Ernest by forging a path as her own woman and writer. It is a dilemma that will force her to break his heart, and her own.

Inspired by Velázquez’s baroque masterpiece, Las Meninas, The Queen’s Prophet is an imagined account of the dwarfess Maribarbola of Spain (featured prominently in Velázquez’s painting) and her struggle for survival and self-determination at a time when dwarfs were kept by aristocracy as pets, prophets, and good luck charms.

When the Countess of Walther dies at her German estate, her loyal dwarfess Maria-Barbara is forced to work as a prophet for a traveling magician, who betrays her by selling her to the Queen of Spain. At the royal court in Madrid, Mari finds herself in a bizarre, enchanted world, a society culturally splendid but intellectually isolated. There she becomes Maribarbola, prophet to the Queen, and, her survival at stake, endeavors to outsmart the Spaniards.

Mari's wits and loyalties are tested as she becomes embroiled in palace intrigue alongside the politically embattled Queen. When Mari's carefully schemed prophecies dazzle all of Spain, she and the Queen climb to dizzying heights of power, a place as intoxicating as it is dangerous. But even as Mari survives and thrives at the Spanish court, the loss of identity she suffers from living a lie makes her question whether she is really surviving at all.

New York Times bestselling author Maria Dueñas returns with The Vineyard, a magnificent story “destined to become a classic” (Armando Lucas Correa, bestselling author of The German Girl) about ambition, heartbreak, and desire set in Mexico, Cuba, and Spain in the 1860s—perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Kristin Hannah.

Mauro Larrea’s fortune, the result of years of hardship and toil, comes crashing down on the heels of a calamitous event. Drowning in debt and uncertainty, he gambles the last of his money on daring ploy that wins him a neglected house and a vineyard in Spain, an ocean away. He journeys to Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia with every intention of selling the property and returning to Mexio—until Soledad Montalvo, the wife of a London wine merchant, bursts into his life, determined to regain the property which was her family’s legacy. With his plans derailed, Larrea glimpses an opportunity in the flourishing sherry trade and finds himself increasingly drawn to the rich, intoxicating culture of his new surroundings. As his feelings for Soledad ripen into a consuming passion, he vows to restore the vineyard to its former glory, setting the stage for a future he never could have imagined.

Moving from the turbulent young Mexican republic to flourishing city of Havana, and onward to the fertile vineyards of Jerez as the wine trade with England is transforming the Andalusian city, María Dueñas’s new novel spans the New World and the Old. Her tale of family intrigue vividly conjures the noise and grit of silver mines, the sophistication of the Mexican capital, and the earthier lure of ancient vineyards and magnificent cities whose splendor has faded. Here is an “evocative, tender, and lush” (Diana Gabaldon, #1 New York Times bestselling author) story of courage in the face of adversity and of a destiny forever altered by the force of passion.

An international bestseller perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Tatiana de Rosnay—a sensuously written story of lost love, family secrets, and the art of creating a perfect perfume

High in the hills of Valencia, a forgotten house guards its secrets. Untouched since Franco's forces tore through Spain in 1936, the whitewashed walls have crumbled, and the garden, laden with orange blossom, grows wild. Emma Temple is the first to unlock its doors in seventy years. Emma is London's leading perfumier, but her blessed life has taken a difficult turn. Emma's free-spirited mother, Liberty, who taught her the art of fragrance making, has just passed away. At the same time, Emma has separated from her long-time lover and business partner, Joe, whose baby she happens to be carrying.

While Joe is in New York trying to sell his majority share in their company, Emma, guided by a series of letters and a key bequeathed to her in Liberty's will, decides to leave her job and travel to Valencia, to the house her mother mysteriously purchased just before her death. Emma makes it her mission to restore the place to its former glory. But for her aging grandmother, Freya, a British nurse who stayed in Valencia during Spain's devastating civil war, Emma's new home evokes memories of a terrible secret, a part of her family's past that until now has managed to stay hidden. With two beautifully interwoven narratives and a lush, atmospheric setting, The Perfume Garden is a dramatic, emotional debut that readers won't soon forget.

From the author of The Creation of Eve, “an intoxicating tale of love, betrayal and redemption,”* comes a novel of passion and madness, royal intrigue and marital betrayal, set during the Golden Age of Spain.

Juana of Castile, third child of the Spanish monarchs Isabel and Fernando, grows up with no hope of inheriting her parents’ crowns, but as a princess knows her duty: to further her family’s ambitions through marriage. When she weds the Duke of Burgundy, a young man so beautiful that he is known as Philippe the Handsome, she dares to hope that she might have both love and crowns. He is caring, charming, and attracted to her—seemingly a perfect husband.

But when Queen Isabel dies, the crowns of Spain unexpectedly pass down to Juana, leaving her husband and her father hungering for the throne. Rumors fly that the young Queen has gone mad, driven insane by possessiveness. Locked away in a palace and unseen by her people for the next forty-six years, Juana of Castile begins one of the most controversial reigns in Spanish history, one that earned her the title of Juana the Mad.

Check out my friend's Wishlists

Layered Pages

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The Maiden’s Court

Flashlight Commentary

#BookReview Mothers and Other Strangers by Gina Sorell @ginasorell @FreshFiction #FFreview @prospkbks

Mothers and Other Strangers by Gina Sorell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"My father proposed to my mother at gunpoint when she was nineteen, and knowing that she was already pregnant with a dead man’s child, she accepted."

Thus begins this riveting story of a woman's quest to understand her recently deceased mother, a glamorous, cruel narcissist who left her only child, Elsie, an inheritance of debts and mysteries. While coping with threats that she suspects are coming from the cult-like spiritual program her mother belonged to, Elsie works to unravel the message her dying mother left for her, a quest that ultimately takes her to the South African family homestead she never knew existed.

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To be honest, I thought MOTHERS AND OTHER STRANGERS was a thriller. At least that is the feeling I got from the book's blurb. The first thing the blurb says about the book is: "My father proposed to my mother at gunpoint when she was nineteen, and knowing that she was already pregnant with a dead man's child, she accepted." Wow, that is what I call a captivating line. I just had to read this book! Alas, this book is not a thriller. It's about a woman finding herself, learning more about the past, and finding peace.

READ THE WHOLE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!

#BookReview The Lightkeeper's Daughters by Jean E. Pendziwol @JeanPendziwol @FreshFiction #FFreview @HarperCollins

The Lightkeeper's Daughters by Jean E. Pendziwol
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Though her mind is still sharp, Elizabeth's eyes have failed. No longer able to linger over her beloved books or gaze at the paintings that move her spirit, she fills the void with music and memories of her family—a past that suddenly becomes all too present when her late father's journals are found amid the ruins of an old shipwreck.

With the help of Morgan, a delinquent teenager performing community service, Elizabeth goes through the diaries, a journey through time that brings the two women closer together. Entry by entry, these unlikely friends are drawn deep into a world far removed from their own—to Porphyry Island on Lake Superior, where Elizabeth’s father manned the lighthouse seventy years before.

As the words on these musty pages come alive, Elizabeth and Morgan begin to realize that their fates are connected to the isolated island in ways they never dreamed. While the discovery of Morgan's connection sheds light onto her own family mysteries, the faded pages of the journals hold more questions than answers for Elizabeth, and threaten the very core of who she is.

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THE LIGHTKEEPER'S DAUGHTERS is a book that I felt from the beginning was just my kind of book. I love books with dual storylines. Also, I was quite taken with the cover and blurb.

THE LIGHTKEEPER'S DAUGHTERS is about two twin sisters that were born at the beginning of the 20th-century to a lightkeeper and his wife on an isolated island. There, they grew up with their two older brothers. Several events, when they were older, would permanently change their lives and, in the end, make them move away from the island. Now one of the sisters, Elizabeth, is back and living in a nursing home.

READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!

#BookReview The Painted Queen by Elizabeth Peters @FreshFiction #FFreview @WmMorrowBooks

The Painted Queen by Elizabeth Peters
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Egypt, 1912—Amelia Peabody and her dashing archeologist husband, Radcliffe Emerson, are once again in danger as they search for a priceless, stolen bust of legendary Queen Nefertiti and Amelia finds herself the target of assassins in this long-awaited, eagerly anticipated final installment of Elizabeth Peters’s bestselling, beloved mystery series

Arriving in Cairo for another thrilling excavation season, Amelia Peabody is relaxing in a well-earned bubble bath in her elegant hotel suite in Cairo, when a man with knife protruding from his back staggers into the bath chamber and utters a single word—“Murder”—before collapsing on the tiled floor, dead. Among the few possessions he carried was a sheet of paper with Amelia’s name and room number, and a curious piece of pasteboard the size of a calling card bearing one word: “Judas.” Most peculiarly, the stranger was wearing a gold-rimmed monocle in his left eye.

It quickly becomes apparent that someone saved Amelia from a would-be assassin—someone who is keeping a careful eye on the intrepid Englishwoman. Discovering a terse note clearly meant for EmersonWhere were you?”—pushed under their door, there can be only one answer: the brilliant master of disguise, Sethos.

But neither assassins nor the Genius of Crime will deter Amelia as she and Emerson head to the excavation site at Armana, where they will witness the discovery of one of the most precious Egyptian artifacts: the iconic Nefertiti bust. In 1345 B.C. the sculptor Thutmose crafted the piece in tribute to the great beauty of this queen who was also the chief consort of Pharaoh Akhenaten and stepmother to King Tutankhamun.

For Amelia, this excavation season will prove to be unforgettable. Throughout her journey, a parade of men in monocles will die under suspicious circumstances, fascinating new relics will be unearthed, a diabolical mystery will be solved, and a brilliant criminal will offer his final challenge . . . and perhaps be unmasked at last.

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I was thrilled for the chance to read THE PAINTED QUEEN. Before I started to read this book I didn't know that this is the last book in the Amelia Peabody series. Elizabeth Peters never finished it before she died and her good friend, Joan Hess, took over and spent three years working with it before it was released. I have to admit that reading about Elizabeth Peters made me a bit sad about the fact that she never got to finish this book. She was a wonderful person who was a dedicated author who loved writing.

READ THE WHOLE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!

#BookReview Indigo by Charlaine Harris @FreshFiction #FFreview @StMartinsPress

Indigo by Charlaine Harris
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Investigative reporter Nora Hesper spends her nights cloaked in shadows. As Indigo, she's become an urban myth, a brutal vigilante who can forge darkness into weapons and travel across the city by slipping from one patch of shadow to another. Her primary focus both as Nora and as Indigo has become a murderous criminal cult called the Children of Phonos. Children are being murdered in New York, and Nora is determined to make it stop, even if that means Indigo must eliminate every member. But in the aftermath of a bloody battle, a dying cultist makes claims that cause Indigo to question her own origin and memories.

Nora's parents were killed when she was nineteen years old. She took the life insurance money and went off to explore the world, leading to her becoming a student of meditation and strange magic in a mountaintop monastery in Nepal...a history that many would realize sounds suspiciously like the origins of several comic book characters. As Nora starts to pick apart her memory, it begins to unravel. Her parents are dead, but the rest is a series of lies. Where did she get the power inside her?

In a brilliant collaboration by New York Times and critically acclaimed coauthors Charlaine Harris, Christopher Golden, Kelley Armstrong, Jonathan Maberry, Kat Richardson, Seanan McGuire, Tim Lebbon, Cherie Priest, James Moore, and Mark Morris join forces to bring you a crime-solving novel like you've never read before.

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INDIGO is a book about reporter Nora Hester who has a secret identity as Indigo. Indigo is a vigilante that uses shadows to travel and fight evil by making weapons out of shadows. She primarily fights the members of Children of Phonos. When children are being killed in New York, Nora is sure that the cult is behind the killings and as Indigo she launches a brutal attack on them. But Nora is starting to fall apart, she isn't sure about her identity anymore. Are her memories really her own? Where did she get her powers from? She decided to try to figure out who she really is...

READ THE WHOLE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!

L.A.P. it Marketing #Spotlight on MARY - Tudor Princess by Tony Riches @tonyriches @lapitmarketing

From the author of the international best-selling Tudor Trilogy, the true story of the Tudor dynasty continues with the daughter of King Henry VII, sister to King Henry VIII. Mary Tudor watches her elder brother become King of England and wonders what the future holds for her.

Born into great privilege, Mary has beauty and intelligence beyond her years and is the most marriageable princess in Europe. Henry plans to use her marriage to build a powerful alliance against his enemies. Will she dare risk his anger by marrying for love?

Meticulously researched and based on actual events, this ‘sequel’ follows Mary’s story from book three of the Tudor Trilogy and is set during the reign of King Henry VIII.

Excerpt from Chapter Six – Spring 1514

The elderly Archbishop of Canterbury, William Warham, stumbled with the words of a Latin address at Mary’s wedding ceremony, on a warm August day at Greenwich Palace, earning a scowl from Henry. She’d renounced her compact with Charles. Taking it upon herself to announce that he had treated her poorly, she asked Henry’s forgiveness, which he reluctantly granted.

Mary glanced at the Duke of Longueville, standing in for King Louis and dressed, like her, in cloth of gold and purple satin. She could see why Jane was so attracted to him. Suave and handsome, he’d been released from the Tower to become the ambassador of France and joined Henry’s privileged inner circle.

The duke returned her glance, a twinkle of amusement in his eye, no doubt in anticipation of the intimate moment they were soon to share. Catherine’s well-intended warning of what was to come simply heightened her nerves and the prospect filled her with dread.

A polite clearing of the throat broke through her reverie. It was time to repeat her vows, in French as rehearsed the previous day. She spoke clearly and with as much sincerity as she could, for this was not the time to suggest she was anything other than a willing bride for so great a king.

The duke took her right hand in his and smiled as he placed a gold ring on her fourth finger, then kissed her. The heavy ring was a little loose and she made a mental note to have a goldsmith improve the size. The kiss surprised her with its tenderness and the sensation of it lingered.

Mary glanced at the watching crowd of guests and saw a satisfied expression on the face of Thomas Wolsey. Behind him, standing well back, was Charles Brandon. Their eyes met for the briefest moment before she turned her attention back to the ceremony.

Queen Catherine, proud to be pregnant for the fourth time, gave Mary a nod of approval. She had been right. A new peace treaty was already declared with France, and the reparation of a million gold crowns more than compensated for the expense of Mary’s dowry.

At last the dreaded time came and she was led to the richly decorated bedchamber, followed by the guests who were to act as witnesses. Bishops and foreign ambassadors, knights and nobles, and even a scarlet-capped papal envoy thronged to watch the strange ritual.

She allowed her ladies to undress her, unplaiting and combing her long hair so it flowed over her shoulders, a sign of her purity. Standing in her white satin nightdress, she crossed her hands protectively over her breasts, then summoned all her strength of will and let her arms fall to her side. Mary did her best to stand straight and proud, despite the many eyes upon her.

Her handmaidens led her to the bed where she lay, eyes closed, trying to focus on repeating the words of her chosen prayer, Deus in adiutorium meum intende Domine ad adiuvandum me festina. O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me.

She opened her eyes in time to see the handsome Duke of Longueville place his bared leg against hers. The symbolic act of intimate contact drew a raucous cheer from some of Henry’s lusty nobles and a blush to Mary’s face. There would be no going back now her marriage was consummated before so many witnesses.

She closed her eyes again. No man had ever touched her like that before and she sensed her life would never be the same again. Mary continued her repeated psalm, Confundantur et revereantur qui quaerunt animam meam. Let them be confounded and ashamed that seek my soul.

An image drifted into her consciousness. The face of Charles Brandon after she’d said her wedding vows. The special bond shared between them should have meant at least a smile of acknowledgement. Instead all she’d seen in his eyes was a bleak, empty look of deep sadness.

Mary saw no sign of Brandon at the High Mass in the palace chapel, the lavish banquet or the dancing which followed. Even the sight of her brother’s boisterous and increasingly drunken dancing failed to amuse her.

About the Author:

Tony Riches is a full-time author of best-selling historical fiction. He lives in Pembrokeshire, West Wales and is a specialist in the fifteenth century, with a particular interest in the Wars of the Roses and the lives of the early Tudors. For more information about Tony’s other books please visit his website and his popular blog, The Writing Desk and find him on Facebook and Twitter, See links below.

Links:

Amazon Uk

Amazon US

 Amazon AU

Website

The Wiritng Desk Blog

Amazon Author Page

Twitter @tonyriches

Author Facebook Page

Goodreads Author Page

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