The Good Hawk Makes A Good Friend

GUEST BLOG POST TIME!!!

Ok, I must admit that I did want to read The Good Hawk before I welcome the author, Joseph Elliott, onto the Pewter Wolf. But, alas, real life got in the way and so did my reading speed. I slowed down A LOT! But I really want you guys to know about this book as it sounds so good. Perfect for you Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver fans (another series I'm slowly working my way through. Will start book 3 soon. Honest!)

For those of you who don't know the book, let me explain. The Good Hawk is the first book in a new series set in the Stone Age Scotland. Agatha is a Hawk, protecting her clan by patrolling the sea wall, even though her people whisper about her and her condition. Jamie is a reluctant Angler, full of self-doubt and anxiety. And worse, he has been forced into a position that hasn't happened in generations: to marry.

But when disaster and betrayal strikes, the two are bound together and must embark on a journey to save the clan. But can a girl with Down's syndrome and a boy with anxiety be a match for a land where forgotten magic and dark, dangerous secrets that lurk in every shadow...

WHAT MORE CAN I ASK FOR IN A FANTASY BOOK?!

So, I am thrilled that Joseph has found time to write this as he's super busy. Teacher, author and actor (most of you might know him from CBeebies's Swashbuckle). So, before I hand you over Joseph to chat about one of the leads, Jamie, I just want to thank him for finding time to write this for my tiny little blog & to thank Rebecca at Walker for going "Sure, why not" when I asked if Joesph fancied writing a guest post.

Oh, if you want to say hi to Joseph, you can via his website - joseph-elliott.net - or you can say hi via his Twitter (@joseph_elliott) and Instagram (@joseph_elliott3). Oh, and if you want more info on Good Hawk, you can check out Walker Books.

Now, over to you, Joseph!

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 - The Wreckage

• Title And Author: The Wreckage by Robin Morgan-Bentley
• Publisher: Trapeze
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by the publisher via Titleshare for blog tour in exchange for an honest review/reaction
• Length: 336 Pages or 8 Hours 48 Minutes

BLOG TOUR ALERT!!! Kinda. And it’s a review - SOMETHING I NEVER DO! I always feel very uneasy doing a review for a blog tour because what if I don’t like the book. So, when I was asked to be involved in the Wreckage tour, I said yes mainly as I was in the mood for a good thriller. I craved a something that would get me on the edge of my seat. 

Told from two points of view (though we do have a third reader for one chapter quite late in the story), The Wreckage starts with Ben driving to work, a normal start to the day. Expect Adam jumps in front of Ben’s car, turning Ben’s world upside-down and inside out. 

Wracked with guilty and desperate to atone, Ben meets Adam’s widow, Alice, and her seven year old son, Max, and an unusual friendship develops. But with the consequences of Adam's death weighting on both Ben and Alice, how far is Ben going to go to trying to make amends? And how far is too far?

Book Review - Hideous Beauty

• Title And Author: Hideous Beauty by William Hussey
• Publisher: Usborne
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Physical
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by publisher in exchange for honest review/reaction
• Length: 336 Pages

OMG! Am writing a blogpost reaction to a book! Which isn’t out yet! For several months! For once, i’m AHEAD OF THE GAME!!! And before you ask, I might be coming down with a cold but barring that, this is unheard of for me! 

Ok, I am going to say I was’t really away till I started chatting to the author, William Hussey, on Twitter. I’m out of the loop on most things, so when he asked if the publisher could send me a copy of his debut, I was “Ok, why not”. Then I read more of the blurb (not much, but enough) and I went “I need this in my life as soon as!”. I mean, an thriller with a gay romance at its heart? Sign me up! Plus, I knew I would be in the mood for a thriller this time of year - screw soppy romance novels, give me murdery reads!

After his secret relationship with Ellis is exposed on social media, Dylan has the come out. But, to his surprise, everyone is really kind and supportive. Or at least, seem to be. So when Ellis’s car loses control and things take a tragic turn, Dylan begins to realise that he knows very little about the boy he love and the people around him. But Dylan knows he has to figure out the truth… no matter how painful and heartbreaking it could be…

#re3 Audiobook Review - The Diviners

• Title And Author: The Diviners by Libba Bray
• Publisher: Atom
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought 
• Length: 583 Pages or 18 Hours 14 Minutes 

If you have followed the Pewter Wolf for quite some time, you would know that I have a bit of a history with The Diviners. I tried to read this when the book first came out and I DNFed it halfway through. A year or so later, I tried again, this time on audiobook and I finished it. And while there were things I did like, there were others things that I didn’t (I’ll pop link to that write-up here). So… what made me decide to go back? 

Answer: I have no idea. A few weeks before Christmas, I was looking up the second book in the Diviners series, Lair of Dreams, and after I returned an audiobook I disliked, I used the credit for that. I went “Well, if I’m going to listen to Lair, I should relisten to Diviners.” Once I thought of this, I was a little excited. Plus, as 2020 is my tenth year of blogging, this would be a nice way to celebrate - reread or relisten to some titles of my past. Plus, over the course of the next few weeks on me making this decision, I had somehow got my hands on the rest of the series so, guess what I’ll be planning to audiobook in the next few months! 

So, my relisten to Diviners...

Normally, I don’t do a recap when it comes to a #re3/reread but am going to do it as it’s been so long since I blogged this as seeing as I don’t know anyone who is reading this series as this series is coming to a close… 

1920s New York. The time for flappers, speakeasys, jazz and gin. Life is for partying. America survived the Great War. And New York is the centre of it all. 

And for Evie o’Neil, it’s her escape. After being sent to New York to live with her uncle after her latest scandal, Evie sees this as her chance to finally live. To be thoroughly modern and daring. To live life and come to terms with her gift. To be free of the past. 

But New York has a dark side. A killer is on the loose, killing people and calling each his offerings to the Beast. They’re all gruesome deaths. And the New York Police don’t know how the solve them nor stop the killer from striking again. 

Evie’s gift might be able to help. She can see things while touching items. She could use it to stop the killer. But if she’s not careful, the killer will see her and will go after her… 

And all the while, a bigger storm is coming…

Book Review - Wranglestone

• Title And Author: Wranglestone by Darren Charlton
• Publisher: Stripes/Little Tiger
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Physical
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by the publisher in exchange for an honest review/reaction
• Length: 384 Pages 

I hate zombies. Out of all of the well-known supernatural creatures in pop culture at the moment, zombies freak me out the most. Hence why I’ve never read/watched The Walking Dead and it took the Other Half YEARS to make me watch Zombieland (it was in the cinema on our first date but, due to me hating zombies, we watched District Nine instead). There are exceptions to this rule - though it is VERY rare. I adore the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix and I have read books and series where they are hinted at, but normally, I stay away. 

So why, I hear you ask, did I was to read Wranglestone so badly? It’s a zombie book. Yes, but it features at its heart an LGBT romance. And this is the main reason I wanted to read this. I haven’t heard or read a zombie book that has a same-sex relationship as the main romance before.

Set in post-apocalyptic America where the Dead are Restless, one of the few safe havens is Lake Wranglestone. But Peter never feels like he’s fit in the safe community. He’s not like Cooper, a boy he’s always watched from afar, who’s strong and brave and fearless. Peter is more a homebody. And when he puts the community in danger after naively allowing a stranger to come ashore to one of Lake Wranglestone’s islands, he is forced to leave the islands and help Cooper herd the Restless Ones away from the shores before the lake freezes. 

But as the pair realises that’s something to their long-held feelings for each other, both discover a dark secret about Wranglestone. Meaning they have been lied to their whole lives…

Welcome to Wranglestone

WELCOME TO MY FIRST BLOG TOUR OF 2020!!! And I am thrilled to welcome Darren Charlton, debut author to Wranglestone, to the Pewter Wolf.

Now, for those of you curious over this, Wranglestone follows Peter, who live on the islands of Lake Wranglestone in one of the United States's National Parks. He's not like Cooper, a boy he's watchd from a far. A boy who is strong, brave and can keep himself and everyone of Wranglestone safe from the Restless Dead.

Oh yes, this is a gay romance with zombies thrown in. Did I not mention that?

As Peter and Cooper slowly being to fall in love, they unearth something. Something from Wranglestone's dark past, and with this discovery, both Peter and Cooper being to question everything.

I am currently reading this at the time of writing this post and I can not wait to talk to you guys about this! Soon, I promise! So when I was asked if I wanted to be involved in this tour by Charlie at Stripes, I jumped at the chance (and I don't really like zombies - they freak me out - so you guys know this means something for me!)

Now, before I hand over to Darren to chat about Peter and Cooper and their story, I want to thank Darren for finding time to write this post for the tour. I want to, also, thank Charlie for inviting me on this tour. And, if you want to say hi to Darren, his Twitter handle is @DarrenRCharlton and if you want to find out more about Wranglestone, check out Stripes website!