Tansy Bloom: Monster Hunter Press Release

 EMBARGOED UNTIL 00:01 ON THURSDAY 27 JUNE 2024

AUDIBLE RELEASES NEW ORIGINAL, TANSY BLOOM, MONSTER HUNTER, BY DEBUT AUTHOR L.J. WELLER

NARRATED BY TANYA REYNOLDS

Launching exclusively on Audible 27^th June 2024

27 June 2024, London. Audible, a leading provider of spoken word entertainment, has announced Sex Education star Tanya Reynolds will narrate a new and exciting Audible Original title from debut novelist L.J. Weller. 

 

Three months ago, twenty-eight-year-old Tansy Bloom quit monster hunting. Since then, she’s been trying to live a normal life (whatever that means), but ending up single, unemployed, and living on a boat outside her godfather’s pub definitely wasn’t part of the plan. So, when Tansy’s ex-husband – fellow monster hunter Rex Barclay – turns up like a bad penny and asks for her help with his latest investigation, Tansy reluctantly agrees.

 

At first, the job appears to be a straightforward monster hunt – following a spate of large creature sightings, Rex believes a werewolf is on the loose in Norfolk, and he intends to capture it. But Tansy’s not convinced. For one thing, the mysterious black dog Rex is hunting is able to vanish into thin air. For another, everyone who’s encountered the black dog is dying in a series of freak accidents.

 

Bad news for Tansy, who’s just come face-to-face with the creature herself.

 

L.J. Weller, author of Tansy Bloom, Monster Hunter, said: “I’m thrilled to be working with Audible to bring my debut novel to life. From day one, Audible has championed this book with enthusiasm and excitement, and collaborating with the team has been a wonderful experience. I hope everyone enjoys listening to Tansy Bloom, Monster Hunter as much as I enjoyed writing it!”

 

Tanya Reynolds, narrator and actor, said: “Recording audiobooks can be quite challenging, but when you can totally lose yourself in the world that you're reading, it is such a joy, and this was indeed a joy. All the characters were so vibrant on the page and so fun to read, and the story itself is a joyful journey into mythical folklore with a wicked sense of humour. I had so much fun recording this.”

 

Tanya Reynolds landed her first major role as a series regular on the Sky 1 comedy-drama Delicious. She is also well known for playing Lily Iglehart in the Netflix comedy-drama Sex Education where she was a part of the main cast in the first three seasons. Other credits include Outlanders, Death in Paradise, Emma, Dodger, The Baby, I Hate You and The Decameron.

 

Tansy Bloom, Monster Hunter will be available exclusively on Audible from 27^th June and out now from Audible at http://www.audible.co.uk.

 

Alongside Tansy Bloom: Monster Hunter, Audible has released an array of incredible titles this year including The Shouts Beneath by Paige Cowan-Hall, The River Man by R.B. Croft and Iris is More than Okay by Natalie Cooper. Audible Original list has spawned several bestsellers in the fantasy genre recently, including Morgan is My Name by Sophie Keetch and Slayers: A Buffyverse Story by Christopher Golden and Amber Benson.

About L.J. Weller

L. J. Weller is an author of quirky, contemporary fantasy fiction. Originally from London, she now lives in Norfolk with her family and an ever-growing collection of books and jigsaw puzzles. When she’s not busy writing, she can be found attending pub quizzes or feeding the local wildlife (including a cheeky grey heron named Herbert).​

Her debut novel, Tansy Bloom, Monster Hunter, is a Norfolk-set supernatural mystery inspired by her lifelong interest in folktales, ghost stories and urban legends. An Audible Original, it will be released exclusively on Audible and Amazon from 27th June 2024. Find out more at www.ljweller.com.

Audiobook Review - The Familiar

Well, it’s been a while, hasn’t it, dear reader? I didn’t plan to be away for so long. Real life kept getting in the way and the last thing I read (Normal Rules Don’t Apply by Kate Atkinson), I left it so long to write a full-on review on the blog, I wanted to try and see if I could write a review/mini-write up on Instagram.

 
Note to self: if I do this again, MAKE NOTES while you reading using Goodreads and StoryGraph. 
But we’re not here to talk about that, are we? We’re here to talk about The Familiar.

Title and Author: The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

Publisher: Viking/Penguin

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Audiobook Bought

Buy From (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

Set in Spanish Golden Age, we follow Luzia, a scullion. She tries not to be seen, but she uses scraps of magic to make life a little easier. But when her mistress discovers that Luzia can perform  little miracles, she demands that Luzia uses them to better the family’s social position. But what begins as simple amusements for the bored nobility takes a dark turn when  disgraced secretary of the Spanish King, Antonio Pérez, and his familiar, Guillén Santángel, sees her and takes a dark interest in her. 

Luzia seizes the chance to better her self, but as her notoriety grows, the danger of her Jewish blood grows as, if she gets found out, the Inquisition’s wrath will be unspeakable. She has to stay several steps ahead. But the rules are always changing in the Spanish court and not everyone gets out alive.

Audiobook Blog Tour - We Play Games

My first blog tour of 2024! Feels like I’ve not done one of these in a while, and we start with a domestic thriller with a twist. 

Title and Author: We Play Games by Sarah A Denzil

Publisher: Audible

Bought, Gifted or Borrowed: Gifted by Midas Campaigns on behalf of Audible for review in exchange for an honest review/reaction. 

Listen from (Non-Affiliate): Audible 

Ben and Effie have moved to the beautiful yet exclusive Ivy Oaks and they look like there are the perfect couple. Beautiful, wealthy, friendly. But behind the smiles, both Ben and Effie are dark hearted and like to play games. Games that will hurt other people and rip communities apart. And Ivy Oaks seems like the perfect place to do one of their games. 

The couple has two rules: no lies, no ties. But Ben has broken these rules and Effie is beginning to realise that. Soon, not only are the pair scheme and manipulate the people around them, but they are doing it to each other. 

For this game is their final. Losing isn’t an option for either of them. Let the games begin…

Audiobook Review - Mother Daughter Murder Night

Let’s start the blogging new year with one of the rare audiobooks I listened to over the December period (I would have listened to more, but I was made redundant and it effected my reading and audiobooking more than I realised). Now, this one I bought and I started this, thinking it would be one thing but it turned into another. 

Title and Author: Mother Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon

Publisher: HarperCollins

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Audiobook Purchased

Buy From (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

Lana Rubicon is a high-powered businesswoman with lots of be proud of. But when she faints one morning and discovers that she has cancer, Lana is forced to live her with estranged daughter, Beth, and her granddaughter, Jack. 

When Beth discovers a body while kayaking one morning, one of the male lead detectives believes she is a prime suspect, much to Lana’s furious. While Beth wants Lana to recover and stay out of it, Lana can’t. She doesn’t trust the Police, even though the female lead detective seems to have a good head on her shoulders. Lana decides to look into the case herself and prove Jack’s innocence - even if that means putting on a wig and leaving the house for the the first time in months. 

Soon, all three Rubicon women are looking into the murder. Butt can a murder really bring these three very different women together? And will they catch the killer?

Audiobook April - The Murders at Fleat House

As many of you know Lucinda Riley sadly passed away in June 2021 due to cancer and was the best-selling author of the The Seven Sisters (the surprise eighth and final book in the series, Atlas: the Story of Pa Salt was started before her death and her son, Harry Whittaker, finished). But Lucinda touched into different genres and The Murders at Fleat House has an interesting history. 

Lucinda wrote this murder mystery back in 2006. Once written, she put it to one side and it's believed she would return to this once she had finished the Seven Sisters series. After her death, her family discovered the manuscript and, with the lightest of touches, edited and allowed to be published. 

I have never read a Lucinda Riley novel (I do own the first book in the series on my Audible and I would like to listen to it once Amazon figure out what the hell they did to my account!), but I have always wanted to read The Murders At Fleat House, but was saving it. And then, out of nowhere last month, my brain went "Now! I want to listen to this NOW!"

Title and Author: The Murders at Fleat House by Lucinda Riley

Publisher: PanMacmillan

Bought, Gifted or Borrowed: Audiobook Bought and Borrowed via library's audiobook app

Buy from (Affiliate): Bookshop.org

The death of a student at a small private boarding school of St Stephen's sends shockwaves within the school and the head teacher is desperate for it to be a tragic accident. But why would the boy take aspirin when he was deathly allergic to them?

The boy's father demands the Police to look into it and the case prompts the return of Detective Inspector Jasmine 'Jazz' Hunter to the force. Jazz has her reasons for leaving the Met and the Police as a whole but, as a favour for her old boss, she decides to look into the death. 

As she enters the closed world of the boarding school and the boarding house of Fleat House, she discovers that the student was a bully and not well liked. Plus, with it being common knowledge that the student was allergic to aspirin and took drugs to control his epilepsy, it would have been easy to swap his medication. 

But when one of the teachers kills himself and another student vanishes, it looks like Fleat House has a dark secrets and history and Jazz needs to figure out what is going on. And fast.

Christmas 2021 Audiobooks - Christmas Tree Farm Mysteries Mini-Reviews

These are the last two audiobooks I blitz before the end of 2020 (yes, we're now getting towards the end of 2021 reading/audiobooking. And you can blame me discovering a bunch of audiobooks on Audible's Plus Catalogue [am doing a trial with Audible again. I don't know why but yeah, here we are. Again). 

And the last two are cosy murder mysteries in the same series. Hence why I'm only doing one post as they were ok. They were fun, but nothing really to write home about. 

Ok, let me do a quick summary of both titles. 

In the first, Twelve Slays of Christmas, Holly White has returned to her home town of Mistletoe, Maine after her Christmas Eve wedding was cancelled, nursing a broken heart. But her time back to help her parents's Christmas Tree Farm and their annual Reindeer Games doesn't get off to the festival start she hoped when Holly discovers the President of the town's Historical Society is bludgeoned to death on the edge of the family. And with the town's new sheriff discover that her father and the farm's reindeer keeper both argued with the grouchy President moments before her death, Holly is determined to find the killer. Though the killer is watching Holly... 

And in its sequel, Twas the Knife Before Christmas, a year has passed from the previous year's events and Holly is hoping for a quieter Christmas. Shame that's not gonna happen as the body is discovered in the town's centre - and all the evidence is pointing to Holly's friend, Caroline. A video of her arguing with the deceased is circling, his car is behind her house and the murder weapon is a customed marble knife. But Caroline can't have done it - and Holly is determined to prove it. But when Christmas just ten days away, her family Christmas tree family having renovations on its kitchen and buying a new inn, Holly's jewellery business taking off and her relationship with the town sheriff becoming suddenly strained, can Holly really prove Caroline's innocence and bring the killer to justice?

3 Christies, 3ish Weeks... What Was I Thinking?!

While in the mist of my Easter Break, I went down a bit of rabbit hole with audiobooks and going "Sod it! Let me do my weird thing" and Audible decide to do a huge sale on all their audiobooks (I become a member again. No idea why. Oh yes, the offer of three months for 99p per month.) And, like the basic so&so, I love a good sale. And, finally, I decide to get those Agatha Christie's I've had my eye on: Cards on the Table. And then, a few days later, The Hollow and after a day of listening to The Hollow, Five Little Pigs. 

This is the order I bought them and listened to them, but if you are a Christie fan, all of these are Poirot investigations. Cards on the Table is his 15th outing, Five Little Pigs (or Murder is Retrospect, depending where you live in the world) is Poirot's 25th and The Hollow (or Murder After Hours, again depending where you live in the world) is the 26th instalment. 

So, yes, am listening to them in the wrong order and yes, I got a little sick of Christie last year so had to quit her for a while. I had plan to read other crime authors from the Golden Age of Crime (Dorothy L Sayers's Whose Body, Joesphine Tey's Daughter of Time and Ngaio Marsh's A Man Lay Dead to name a few) and some newer authors (PD James and Ruth Rendell among others), but Christie is the Queen of Crime and when these title are under a fiver, how was I to refuse?

Ok, going to be keep of each of these and I don't want this post to be too long. 

Cards on the Table is a locked-room mystery: four guests at a party play the card game Bridge while the host is in chair by the fire. No one enters or leave the room, but by the end of the night, the host has been stabbed and one of the four did it. The host, before he was murdered, believed these four had killed once before and got away with it. But who among the four has just killed again, and will they get away with it? 

The Hollow is a different animal. Poirot is invited to lunch with his holiday home neighbours in the country. When he turns up, he discovers a man dying by the side of the pool, his wife standing over him. He was shot and the wife is holding the gun. The wife claims she picked the gun ups without thinking when she discovered her dying husband. Is she telling the truth or did she pull the trigger? 

And Five Little Pigs is, again, completely different. Poirot is visited in his London flat by a young woman. She is going to be married soon, but she wants Poirot is look into her past. Sixteen years ago, when she was a child, her father was poisoned and her mother was arrested and sent to jail for it. But the now grown-up daughter isn't so such. She believes her mother is innocent and asked Poirot to investigate. If it wasn't her mother who killed her father, one of their five house guest poisoned him and let an innocent woman go to jail...

Reindeer Readathon - Off The Rails

My first Reindeer Readathon story-time, and it’s a random, surprise audiobook I bought on Audible as part of their Black Friday Deals (I have bought/preordered a few other audiobooks as I’ve decided to pause/end my subscription for a while. I need to save some money and I have so many audiobooks to listen/relisten to!)

So, quick history lesson with me and Bryant And May. Been vaguely aware of this series for a while, but I always thought this was a crime series with a slight paranormal twist/element to it. I even have two eProofs from NetGalley – Hall of Mirrors and Oranges and Lemons. But kept putting them off as I wasn’t in the mood for it. Fast forward to a few weeks ago when Audible doing their Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sales. And yes, I am a sucker for a sale. So, when I saw this, this caught my eye.

Title And Author: Bryant and May Off The Rails by Christopher Fowler
Publisher: Transworld
Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought
Length: 386 Pages or 10 Hours 46 Minutes

Arthur Bryant, John May and the rest of the Peculiar Crime Unit are in shock and grief. One of their brightest and bravest members was murdered by a violent enigma that they already caught once and escaped. Everything about Mr Fox is false and he can hide easily in plain sight. The Peculiar Crime Unit are desperate to catch him – but they have less than a week to catch him. Otherwise, the department will be shut down. As they have nothing to work with, expect Mr Fox has a link to King's Cross train station. The same place as a strange, motiveless death has just happened. A woman was pushed violently down the stairs. The only clue on her is a sticker of a university bar on her back. Are these two separate cases linked in a twisted way? Can the history and myths of the London Underground and King's Cross be the key? And will Bryant and May finally catch Mr Fox before he strikes again?

Audiobook Review - Obsidio

I know this is NetGalley November. I know, but I asked you guys on Twitter if you wanted this write-up now or wait till December. You all voted now, so here we are. This is all on you!

And here we are. The final book in Illuminae Files series. And I blame you all for badgering me to read/audiobook this as, if you backtrack through most of my reads the past few years, I don’t jump to sci-fi books that often. I am much happier in fantasy and crime/thriller (though there are a few sci-fi books on my TBR that I do want to try and read/audiobook in the next few months. There are always expectations to the rule) but this series has a lot of love to it and I worried that I wouldn’t “get” this series… 

Hang on, let me get the info up and explain better in my write-up! 

Title And Author: Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Publisher: Rock The Boat

Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought
Length: 624 Pages or 13 Hours 1 Minutes

Asha survived the initial BeiTech assault on Kerenza IV and is trying to survive and be involved in Kerenzas ragtag underground resistance. But when a face from her past - Rhys - reappears, they find themselves on different side of the conflict. 

Meanwhile, Kady (Asha’s cousin, by the way), Ezra, Hanna and Nik narrowed escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdal station and find their situation all the more worse now they find themselves crammed in a container ship Moa with over 2,000 refugees, among them Nik’s cousin and Kady’s injured father. With the jump station destroyed, resources bare and an AI that can’t be trusted, their only opinion is to go back to Kerenza. But who knows what they’re going to find seven months after the invasion? 

It looks like their day in court is coming, and their final battle is coming stupidly fast. Let’s see how many of them survive, chum…

Audiobook Review - Piranesi

Oh yes. I audiobooked this. Actually, I preordered the audiobook to this a while ago and I kinda half forgot. But this title is a bit of a big deal. 

Before I give you all the info and affiliate links, let em explain quickly why. Susanna Clarke is the author who wrote Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, a monster of a book (1000ish pages) that main people have classed as a modern classic. I have tried to read it several times and it never really worked for me. That was fifteen years ago. Yes, FIFTEEN. Because of that, this (of course) is going to be a big deal. 

But is it worth the hype? 

• Title And Author: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought
• Length: 272 Pages or 6 Hours 58 Minutes

Piranesi lives in the House. Maybe he always has. Maybe he hasn't... 

In his notebooks, Piranesi writes carefully about the wonders and mysteries of the House: its labyrinths of Halls, the thousands of statues, the clouds in the Upper Floors and the seas and tides in the Lower. He is alone, barring the fourteen Dead and, on Tuesdays and Fridays, he is visited by his only friend, the Other. But, for the most part, he is alone. 

But now, he's not so certain. Piranesi is sure there is someone else in the House. Someone who is writing messages in chalk for him. Someone he calls Sixteen and someone the Other calls a threat and a danger. 

But who is Sixteen? Who is the Other? Who is Piranesi?

Self-Isolation Audiobook - The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home

• Title And Author: The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor
• Publisher: Orbit
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought
• Length: 384 Pages or 9 Hours 13 Minutes

It’s been a while since I listened to the podcast, Welcome to Night Vale. But I always say it’s one of my fave podcasts as it has that level of creep, unnerve and yet a big hearted and very diverse! One of the fans’s favourite character is The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home. She tried (and failed) to become the town’s Mayor and little is known about her barring her living in your home, in every home. Though, in an episode The April Monologues, she says “I haven’t begged since I was a child aboard that wicked ship. Those men didn’t listen either … which is the reason I lived at the bottom of the ocean for so many years before this place, this desert, this town, this apartment…” 

So, who is/was she? How did she come to Night Vale? This book gives the answers as this book goes back in 19th century Europe and slowly pieces her past together with the present as she guides, haunts and sabotages a young man called Craig…

Self-Isolation #re3 - Tales of Beedle The Bard

• Title And Author: Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling
• Publisher: Pottermore
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought
• Length: 144 Pages or 1 Hour 35 Minutes

REREAD TIME! Ok, not reread or #re3 (as I call them on the Pewter Wolf) as this is the audiobook version, which was only released a few weeks ago. But, this is a reread as I have read and reread this how often. I mean, it’s Harry Potter related, OF COURSE I have read this goodness knows how many times! 

And while I was in two minds over whether to write this or not (for several days, I did say I wouldn’t as WHAT COULD I ADD?!), Am surprised that I haven’t written this up on the Pewter Wolf before. So, while in self-isolation and trying to avoid my eProofs TBR as if it was the [retracted badly-timed joke here], I thought I would listen to this and write a quick thingamabob here. 

So, history to Beedle. Ok, most Harry Potter fans know this but Beedle was reference in the last Harry Potter, Deathly Hallows. And in it, it’s a collection of wizard fairy tales, very similar to Brothers Grimms’s. After finishing Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling decided to hand-write Beedle to people as a way of thank you. One went to her first UK editor (who, I believe, auctioned off his copy a few years ago with most proceeds going to charity), and a second going to her American editor. Another copy was auctioned and the proceeds went to charity and, less than a year later, the collection was published to general public. The sale of this collection went towards charity and continues to do so. 

So, Tales of Beedle the Bard is a collection of five wizard fairy tales: The Wizard and the Hopping Pot, Fountain of Fair Fortune, Warlock’s Hairy Heart, Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump and The Tale of the Three Brothers. Also, as this is seen as a Hogwarts Textbook (much like Fantastic Beasts and Quidditch Through the Ages), this has a little extra with footnotes written by Albus Dumbledore.

Blog Tour - The Patient Man

A blog tour review alert! And yes, I know. I am breaking my own rule of getting involved in blog tours and using a review as my stop. I have this fear of reading/listening to a story and then going “Oh no!” over not liking and then having to backtrack. So the fact that this post is here must show you guys that this is a good story, yes? 

Right, let me give you some info to this audiobook and get back to you! 

• Title And Author: The Patient Man by Joy Ellis
• Publisher: Audible Studios
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by Midas PR for Audible in exchange for an honest review/reaction for blog tour
• Length: 10 Hours 14 Minutes

So, ok, The Patient Man. My first outing with Jackman and Evans series but the sixth in the series. I’ve wanted to try this series for quite some time but never sure when/how to get in. So, when asked if I wanted to be involved in this tour, I said yes and hoped I wasn’t going to get lost. 

Serial killer Alistair Ashcroft is back on the scene, ready to finish his unfinished business with Detective Inspector Rowan Jackman and DS Marie Evans. But for all his taunts and mind games, where is he? 

But normal Police work must continue while searching for this dangerous individual. Separate thefts of six pigs, a thoroughbred stallion, guns and red diesel leads the police to the Lorimer family. And the thief of guns from gun-club owner Kenneth Harcourt gets complicated when the man long held responsible for killing Harcourt’s daughter in a hit and run is shot dead - by a sniper. A new killer is on the loose. 

But are these three very different cases - the sniper, the Lorimer family and Ashcroft - all separate? Or is there a more sinister connection between the three? And will Jackman and Evans finally caught Ashcroft or has he got one more trick up his sleeve?

Audiobook Review - Murder At The Vicarage

• Title And Author: The Murder At The Vicarage by Agatha Christie
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought
• Length: 304 Pages or 8 Hours 12 Minutes

My first Agatha Christie of the Year. And I am planning to read a lot more (I have … hang on, let me check my Goodreads To Be Read list … six.) Hopefully, I will try and read them all this year. I want to read more crime/mystery books this years as well as a few other genres. But getting away from the point, my first Agatha Christie of 2020 and my first, real Miss Marple novel. 

And while I do have one Miss Marple on my kindle - Sleeping Murder - and I do keep wondering about two or three other titles, I keep hearing this is a good place to start with Marple. So, when I saw just before Christmas that this was on a One Day Deal on Audible for 99p, I jumped at it, only to hesitant a little. 

Why, I hear you ask? Because I have tried to read a sampler of the book on my kindle multiply times and I can never seem to get past the first few pages. I just don’t click with it. But I hoped, when I decided to press play, that I would just go with it and hopefully, I would get it as I went. 

“Anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe would be doing the world at large a service!” Careless remark from the parson to his wife, only his words come back to haunt him when he discovered the Colonel, shot in the head, in the vicarage’s study. The people of St Mary Mead are shocked: who could have done such a thing? The wife? Her lover? The Colonel’s daughter? The newcomer whose past is a mystery? The doctor? The parson himself? 

But living in this picturesque English village lives one Miss Jane Marple, and she has her own thoughts on the murder…

Counterplots Can Be Dangerous

This is going to be my last post of 2019! And what a nice post to have as this is part of the blog tour for Dai George's The Counterplot, an Audible Original!

The Counterplot follows Ben Johnson, a contemporary to Shakespeare in London 1603. But Ben has fallen on hard times and in desperation, writes a satirical play. Only for it to backfire hugely and he finds himself in prison with his reputation in ruins.

When he finally leaves jail, he decides to return to his estranged wife, Anna. But Anna isn't the same woman Ben left when he went out to seek his fortune. His absence and the deaths of their three children has led Anna to become friends with some very passionate Roman Catholics. Scared for his wife, Ben becomes entangled with these people and their dangerous plan to overthrow the King. The Gunpowder Plot is brewing...

If you want more details about this audiobook, check it out on (of course) Audible, but I am thrilled to welcome the author, Dai George on the Pewter Wolf with a small Q&A. No spoilers, but hopefully, these questions and answers will wet your appetite!

Before I hand you over to our Q&A, want to thank Dai for finding time to answer these (this time of year is insane!) and a small thank you to Anna at Midas PR for asking if I wanted to be involved in this tour. Now, if you want to say hi to Dai, check him out on Twitter at @dai_r_george!

Now, ONTO THE QUESTIONS!!!

Psycho-Logical

Am back from my little holiday with a blog tour! I know! Blogging never sleeps (though I am writing this while feeling quite jet lag so once I've written and amended this, I shall!) and this title might tickle your fancy, hence why I wanted to be involved in the tour!

Pyscho-Logical is an Audible Original that sees Dr Dean Burnett, neuroscientist and best-selling author, look at mental health and ask the question "why?". Why are some conditions such as depression and anxiety so common? Why do so many mental health problems have physical symptoms? Why, when mental health is so common, do people need to be made aware of it? And why is there still so much stigma and confusion when it comes to mental health? 

I am thrilled that Dean is writing a small guest post for the blog tour and I am able to host it! Mental health is important and as someone who thinks he doesn't always have the right balance when it comes to my mental and emotional health (as you can probably guess, I have a tendency to panic), I think we all need to learn to be better on ourselves and look after ourselves and be more aware of the world around us. 

So, before I hand you over to Dean, I just want to thank Dean for finding time to write this post and to Anna at Midas who thought this would be right up my street. If you want to know more about Dean, you can pop over to his website - deanburnett.com - or say hi to him on Twitter at @garwboy. If you want to know more about Pyscho-Logical, go to Audible.co.uk and have a listen to the samplers. That should explain this better than I did up above. 

Now, over to you, Dean!

Audiobook Review - Evidence of the Affair

• Title And Author: Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought
• Length: 1 Hour 19 Minutes

Ok, this was a bit of a curveball. After audiobooking The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and totally enjoying myself with it, I was going to read Daisy Jones and the Six. I even bought the hardback for a £5 when it was on offer. And I have every plan to read this. Plus, with the past few months reading more “grown-up” reads and, every now and again, feeling a bit uncertain of the Pewter Wolf, its future and whether I still am a YA book blogger and am now more an adult book blogger (I am in my 30s, after all), I was planning to have a month or two reading whatever the **** I wanted. 

So, why did I decide to audiobook this? Well, I requested it on Amazon’s Prime Reading (don’t ask how I discovered this - I have Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine on this and, from everyone’s reaction, I need to read this soonish…), then changed my mind but, somehow, I downloaded and kept the audiobook version and, one day, after a long day at work and knowing I had a bit of a drive home (for once I drove to work, not car-shared), I popped this on as wasn’t in the mood for music and had caught up with my podcasts & audiobooks (*coughs* You haven’t listened to Kings of the Wyld and Great Small Things yet, Andrew *cough*). 

It’s 1976 and David Mayer receives a letter from Carrie Allsop, a woman he has never met. In the letter, Carrie reveals that she’s discovered that her husband and David’s wife are having an affair. From their correspondence, the two reveal their shock, hurt and the painful details about their spouses’s affair. And therough their letters, the pair comfort each other as they try and figure out what they are going to do next…

Murder Month 2019 - The October Man

• Title And Author: The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch
• Publisher: Gollancz
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought
• Length: 192 Pages or 4 Hours 20 Minutes

I am in two minds over whether or not to write this as part of my Murder Month. I decided, probably against my better judgement, that I will on the condition that I attempt to read the first book in the Rivers of London series this month as well (yes, I know, this is my first within this series and before you all have a go at me, when have I EVER read a book series in order? This is very on me brand).

The reason I bought this is because back in October last year, at the Orion Book Blogger Event, the sampler of this audiobook was played and I went “Ok, I need to read this!” so I preordered it a few weeks later and thought “I’ll have plenty of time to catch up”. Oh, foolish book blogger, do you know nothing about yourself? You’ve been doing this for how long and still, you don’t know yourself? 

So, in this 7.5 novella of the Rivers of London series, we are no longer in London, but Germany. In Trier, to be exact. Famous for being Germany’s oldest city, its wine and now a dead body covered impossibly in fungal rot. Enter Tobias Winter, an investigator for the Abteilung KDA, the branch of the German Federal Criminal Police that handles magic and the supernatural. His aim is to get in, solve the case and get out, with little fuss, danger and, more importantly, paperwork. 

Together with a frightening enthusiastic local cop, Vanessa Sommer, the two link the first victim to a group of ordinary men who create a wine club to handle their midlife crisis. But is it possible this club has reawaken a bloody conflict from the previous century? Looks like the duo will have the unearth the secret, magical history of Trier that goes back two thousand years. That is… is history doesn’t kill them first…

The Apartment Awaits...

When I first heard of The Apartment, something about it chilled my blood and I knew I had to get it involved in my Murder Month!

The Apartment is an Audible original thriller, written by KL Slater (author of The Silent Ones, Closer, The Mistake and other creepy thriller), which is inspired by the terrifying "Little Albert" Experiment. I won't go to much into what the plot of this is, but let me be as vague as I can.

Freya is struck by tragedy. Losing her husband and her house, she needs to find somewhere to live quickly. So when she meets by chance Dr Marsden, she can't believe her luck. He offers her and her five year old daughter, Skye, a place to live. A small apartment in an exclusive part of London for a fraction of the market rent. When she moves into Adder House, she feels comfortable with the other residents.

But strange things start happening and no matter what Freya does, she can't help feeling that she and Skye are never truly alone... Freya might have escaped the problems of her past, but it looks like danger is in Adder House, and they are terrifying...

Now, I am thrilled to have a small guest post from KL Slater, talking a little about The Apartment and I hope to will creep you out to check it out!

I want to thank KL for writing this post - I know how busy she is! And I want to thank Anna at Midas PR for asking this would be up my street! Now, if you want to check KL out, visit her via her website - klslaterauthor.com - or via her Twitter at @KimLSlater. And if you want to check out The Apartment, you can visit Audible now!

#re3 - A Discovery of Witches

My first #re3 of 2019! I know, it’s six months and I only start to reread and relisten some titles (and I have a rough number of books I wish to reread or relisten to this year. I need to get my rear in gear over the next few months). So, let’s get the book info out of the way!

• Title And Author: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
• Publisher: Headline
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought
• Length: 704 Pages or 23 Hours 59 Minutes 

This is my third listen to this audiobook (I only listen to the second and third instalment of this series for the first time at the start of last year and read the companion novel at the end of last year - plus, I met Deborah at a book signing last year and watched the Sky One TV adaption so, of course, I like this series!). But I had an itch to relisten to this and maybe try and do the whole trilogy again… maybe… 

Now, with my #re3 posts, I don’t do reviews. Why would be the point of doing a review of me rereading or relistening to a story I enjoy? 

I’m not sure if I should explain what this book is about or not? Normally, I don’t think I do, it’s so long since I’ve done a #re3 or a reread post, I’m not trusting myself. So, let’s pretend that I do know what I am doing and we’ll carry on from there. 

In Oxford, Diana Bishop discovers an myserteous alchemical manuscript in the Bodleian Library. It has magic on it and, as Diana is a witch who refuses her magical heritage, returns the book back to the library. But the book has been missing for centuries and now, every witch, vampire and daemon is watching Diana, waiting for her to call it back. But Diana’s careful world, the world she’s built for herself since her parents deaths, is beginning to crumble and come apart. Enter vampire Matthew Clairmont, who has been searching for the manuscript for over a century or more. As the two begin to figure out why this manuscript is so important, the two begin to grow closer… there are rules saying vampires, witches and daemons shouldn’t be friends. But Diana and Matthew are going to cross that line…