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!!!

Audiobook Review - The Twisted Tree

• Title And Author: The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge
• Publisher: Hot Key Books
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Borrowed from local library via BorrowBox
• Length: 256 Pages or 6 Hours 41 Minutes

This might be my last review/write-up of 2019! It depends how fast I can finish my current read (unless I finish it prior to this weekend). Anyway, back story. I went the to the Hot Key Blogger Launch to The Twisted Tree earlier this year at the publisher and we were all intrigued by this. A ghost story with hints of Norse mythology? Sign me up!

But I kept putting this off. So, in the end, when I saw the audiobook version on the BorrowBox app (in connection with Essex Libraries), I requested it and listened to this over the course of several days at work.

Ever since the accident, Martha can sense things. She can tell things about a person by touching their clothes. Their emotions, memories, regrets, all soaked into the fabric. Trying to come to terms with this new, unsettling gift and how the accident left her blind in one eye, Martha goes to her grandmother - Mormor - house in Norway. But when she gets there, she finds that her Mormor is dead and a runaway is living in her cabin. Not only that but something is outside the cabin, waiting… and all the while, the Twisted Tree is watching. Watching and waiting…

Audiobook Review - Wolf-Speaker

• Title And Author: Wolf Speaker by Tamora Pierce
• Publisher: Harper Voyager
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Borrowed from local library via BorrowBox
• Length: 256 Pages or 6 Hours 31 Minutes

Last year, I went through a huge blitz of getting advance reader copies of Tamora Pierce’s novels via NetGalley. And I only read Wild Magic. I liked it (will put link to my write-up here) and I had plans to read the second and third (Wolf-Speaker and Emperor Mage) in the series soon after as I got them as well as her newest novel, Tempests and Slaughter. And I somehow didn’t get round to it. I just lost track of time. Earlier this year, I audiobooked First Test, the first in another quartet by her, Protector of the Small (link for that is here). After audio booking and again, liking it, I decided that if I want to continue with that series, I really should try and finish the ARCs I have and, maybe even completing the series somehow.

But it’s been nearly a year, could I pick up the story of how Wild Magic ended and Wolf-Speaker begun…?

Daine has wild magic. She can talk and sway the actions of animals. So when Daine is summoned by a pack of wolves who saved Daine’s life years ago, she goes without thinking, taking her mentor, the legendary mage Numair. They travel to the Dunlath Valley, but both are shocked at the danger that awaits them. The animals and humans of the valley’s lives are in danger as the valley’s rulers have been blinded by greed and power, and they plans to overthrow the king must be stopped at all costs…

The Extract From The Red Book

I have a slight sidestep for you today as I have an extract for you!

I know! What kind of monster am I?!

Now, most times I've quite wary of doing extract, but when I heard the premise of this from Faye, who emailed and asked I wanted to be involved in this tiny blog tour, I was very intrigued by it. And I like to be intrigued when it comes to my reading and with what I want to share on the Pewter Wolf. So, let's chat The Red Book by Davide Cortellucci.

Martin's life is going to be turned upside down through a series of accidentally and not-so-accidentally coincidences. Soon, he found a group of people who can help him enhance the power of his own thoughts to modify the physical world around him. Which is cool, right? Expect that now Martin understands why he's flooded with negative feelings and energy when he's close to certain people, and he's not carefully, everyone around him and himself will cease to exist...

Now you see why I said I was intrigued by this...

Now, before I hand you over to the extract, I just want to thank Faye for asking if I wanted to be involved in this tour and saying "Ok" when I asked for an extract.

Now, over to the extract!!!

#re3 Audiobook Review - Shadow and Bone

• Title And Author: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
• Publisher: Orion
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Borrowed from local library via BorrowBox
• Length: 352 Pages or 8 Hours and 55 Minutes

This is the third time I have read or attempted to read it. The first was back into 2013 and I liked it. But there was something “meh” about it. Something three stars about it and something that held me back from continuing the series. I, then, tried to reread it earlier this year (June?) as I was, very kindly, given by the publisher an eBook copy to celebrate the release of King of Scars. I did try and I struggled. I got to about 38% then went “I’m done”. Rewind to a few weeks ago, I was playing around on my BorrowBox app and, even though I have several audiobooks I really should be listening to or thinking about requesting due to my commitments to NetGalley titles and publishers, I saw this and went “Maybe if I audiobook it, I might fine it easier to get into…”

Hence, that’s what I’ve done. I audiobooked it over the course of 3 days at work.

Alina Starkov is a simple map-maker, an orphan and refuge so when her army regiment is taken into the Shadow Fold to cross Ravka, yes, she is scared. Because the once great nation is torn in two due to the Fold, darkness that is filled with creatures that feast on human flesh. And no-one, not even the powerful Grisha or their leader, the Darkling, can defeat it. 

So when her regiment is attacked in the Fold and her best friend, Mal, is brutally injured, Alina does something no-one, not even herself, expects. She reveals a dormant power of bring forth light. This power could be the key to saving her war-torn country. And because of this, she is snatched away from everything and everyone she knows into the lavish world of Grisha court and the royal court to train and control her power. 

But not everything in this new world is what it seems and Alina must be careful when it comes to the secrets of the Grisha and the secrets of her own heart…

Audiobook Review - Flying Too High

• Title And Author: Flying Too High by Kerry Greenwood
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press/C&R Crime
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Borrowed from local library via BorrowBox
• Length: 236 Pages or 5 Hours and 2 Minutes 

Another audiobook that I listened to while during Believathon (I really should have prepped myself much better but I had to wait till it was available), and it’s another cosy crime. I seem to enjoy reading/audiobooking crime stories, as long as I click with it. 

And after listening to my first Phryne Fisher mystery - Murder on the Ballarat Train - back in October, I wanted to do another. I was torn between this, the second in the series, or Death at Victoria Dock, the fourth. This came available first so nabbed that. 

Phryne Fisher likes a thrill. Flying a Tiger Moth plane and walking the wings of one in full flight should be enough excitement for some people, but not Phryne. Now becoming a private investigator, Phryne finds herself involved in trying to solve a murder, save a child from kidnapping, all while having young, attractive men at her door… Sometimes, a woman’s work is never done.

Audiobook Review - Daisy Jones And The Six

• Title And Author: Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Publisher: Cornerstone
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Borrowed from local library via BorrowBox
• Length: 335 Pages or 9 Hours 3 Minutes

Ok, before I go further, want to state that I listened to this last month while doing Believathon so, I decided to put this up now so I don’t get muddled. So, December is going to be a bit of a mixed-bag of books/audiobooks from when I read/listen to them. Plus, with Christmas and New Year round the corner, am going to squeeze them in as much as possible, so sorry in advance for the blog post overload. 

Now, we have housekeeping out of the way, Daisy Jones. As you know, I audiobooked The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and thoroughly enjoyed myself with it. I'm thinking of relistening to this in the New Year. And I audiobooked Evidence of the Affair and I liked that a lot. So, going into this, I was excited that it would make a good, if not great, read. Plus, everyone I know who had read this has loved it, so high hopes. 

In the 1970s, Daisy Jones and the Six were rising stars in the rock n roll scene! Their album, Aurora, is rising high in the charts and their tour is selling out. Then, on 12th July, 1979, the seven break up, halfway through their tour. But no one knows why… 

Who knows the truth of what happened that day and the events leading up to it? Daisy Jones, the brilliant songwriter but high functioning drug addict? The egotistical Dunne brothers who control everything the band does? The angry guitarist? The binge-drinking dummer? The Bassist looking to the future? The keyboardist who won’t fit into her gender role? Or the frontman’s wife, who knows that one wrong step from her husband can result in him falling off the wagon or that the connection between him and Daisy is electric? 

There’s never one side to the truth.

Believathon 2019 - Le Belle Sauvage

• Title And Author: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
• Publisher: Penguin/David Fickling Books
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought
• Length: 546 Pages and 13 Hours 14 Minutes

It’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it? With me finally, FINALLY, getting my rear in gear and reading/audiobooking La Belle Sauvage, seeing how much I love the His Dark Materials trilogy and bought this as soon as I could. 

But I held off reading this. For the same reason I’m holding off watching the BBC/HBO adaption of the series - The Fear! I mean, we have been waiting for these FOR YEARS! What if, after all this waiting, they don’t live up to our exceptions?!

So, how/why did I decide to do it now? Well, the audiobook is the main reason. Plus, The Secret Commonwealth for another. OK, let me explain. The Secret Commonwealth has just come out in hardback and I would like to read that as Lyra is an adult in this and I want to return and see what’s happened to her and her daemon, Pan. Now, the audiobook. I returned an audiobook after an hour’s listening on Audible and they, very kindly, gave me a credit as a refund. So, I decided to grab this (as well as activate a Black Friday deal of getting an Audible Subscription with 4 months being only £3.99 [The offer is still going. I think it ends on Thursday 12th December aka UK General Election Day or Friday 13th, so go go! Just remember to cancel it before the price goes up to £7.99])

Anyway, La Belle Sauavge, the first volume in the Book of Dust series is a little different from what everyone was expecting. We thought this was going to follow after His Dark Materials. Nope. This takes place years BEFORE, when Lyra is only six months. 

Malcolm Polstead and his daemon, Asta, lives in the pub in Oxford by the river Thames. His life is fairly ordinary, even uneventful. But this winter, the rain won’t stop. Rumours of a flood are everywhere, and Malcolm finds himself near the centre of a battle between religion, science and politics, when he goes to the priory across the river and discover they are looking after a small six month baby called Lyra, daughter of Lord Asriel...