Crown of Talons Lockdown

I am so thrilled to welcome back Katherine and Elizabeth Corr, sisters and authors of two series that I chat about on this blog, The Witch's Kiss trilogy and the Throne of Swans duology. Their latest is the conclusion to the Throne of Swans duology, Crown of Talons, and the best way to describe this series (and this book in particular) is imagine Game of Thrones had a baby with Swan Lake and you have a vague idea.  

Now, seeing as Crown of Talons is a sequel, I don't want to do a write-up in case of spoilers, so how far can I go to talk about this world... After the events on Throne of Swans, Aderyn is on high alert. Enemies outside and within court are watching her and thinking she and Aron, her cousin, aren't enough to rule. But with nobles from neighbouring country fleeing for their lives - the flightless have risen up and overthrown their rules - and an attempted assassination is made on Aderyn's life, the world is changing and Aderyn must have the strength to overcome everything to save her kingdom. Or die trying... 

It's going to be a bloody, feathery fight to the death!

Now, before I hand you over to the Katherine and Elizabeth, I just want to thank and apologise to them for writing this. I popped a random email at them (I love having them on the blog as they are a delight!) over Easter, saying something along the lines of "Hey, am reading Crown of Talons. Fancy popping on the blog for a guest post, if you have time?" and them saying "Sure, what do you want us to write, though?" and us bouncing ideas till someone (Katherine, was it you or Elizabeth? It wasn't me, am not this clever) said "What about what TV shows they watched or books they read if they were in lockdown with us?" and I jumped up and down in my seat, going "YES! THIS! CAN YOU WRITE THIS?!"

Ok, quick house-keeping. If you want to know more about either the Corr's series (Throne of Swans and their debut trilogy, The Witch's Kiss), pop over to their website - corrsisters.com - or you can jump on their social media and say hi to them both. Elizabeth is on Twitter at @lizcorr_writes and Katherine can be found at @katharinecorr.

Now, what would the characters in Crown of Talons read/watch during lockdown. Shall we find out?

Quick Reads 2021 - The Motive

Happy Quick Reads Day! Today is the day where the six titles of this year's Quick Reads are published! We have Saving the Day by Katie Fforde, The Skylight by Louise Candlish, The Baby Is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite, Wish You Were Dead by Peter James, an abridged How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran and The Motive by Khurrum Rahman. 

According to the the Reading Agency, one in six adults in the UK struggle with reading and one in three do not regularly read for pleasure. Also, England is rank 23rd out of 23 OECD nations for literary levels among 16-19 year olds and studies show that those who read for pleasure have higher levels of self-esteem and show a greater ability to cope of difficult situations. 

This year marks the final year of funding received when, several years ago, the best-selling author Jojo Moyes gave a donation to help fund the Quick Reads programme for three years. So, when the lovely people at Midas asked if I would be involved in making some noise about these titles, I was honoured. What more, I was asked if I fancied reading one of these titles and chatting about it. I was happy to read any, but had hopes for one title in particular. So, I am thrilled to talk about that title in question: The Motive by Khurrum Rahman.

Mini-Reviews - May 2021

Another day, another mini-review post. So, what makes this one so different from my other mini-review post? Well, unlike the other titles which were kindly given to me via publishers, these three titles are titles I either bought out of my own money or borrowed from my local library. 

Yes, I put my money where my mouth is and bought many books, ebooks and audiobooks (have you not SEEN my TBR lists on Goodreads and my many wishlists on Amazon.co.uk, Audible and other online retailers?!). So, while I should do another mini-review post of some of the library books and NetGalley/Gifted by Publishers, I thought I would do a small post about these three titles: Dead In The Water by Chris McDonald, The Other Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn and The Lady With The Gun Asks The Questions by Kerry Greenwood. 

But, to cut to the chase, these were all fun reads and I had a blast. Like I warned earlier this month, I want to read fun for a while before I scare you all with books that make me think/turn me into a furious reader. So, shall we start?

Mini NetGalleyish Reviews - May 2021

My first review-is post and it's mini-reviews. I have decided to write a mini-review post for the next few reads (unless one screams "I NEED YOUR UNDIVIDED ATTENTION!!!") but these three titles I think just need a nice, short review. Very similar to what I wrote on my Goodreads (goodreads.com/pewterwolf), but not exactly. 

Now, quick note, the three mini-reviews below are titles I have been gifted very kindly by publishers either physically or via NetGalley. All were kindly gifted, of course, in exchange for an honest review/reaction (and when have you guys known me to be filter my opinions?). But then, all the titles I review and chat on here, I do try and be as honest as I can with you all as possible.

The Secret Extract of Albert Entwistle

EXTRACT ALERT! I have an extract for you guys and, oh, it's from a good'un of a book. Possible one of my faves of the year so far! Yes, it's THAT good! 

The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain follows the life of 64 year old postman Albert, who loves his job, keeps himself to himself and has lived alone since the death of his mother 18 years ago (barring his cat, Gracie). But when he discovered that he's going to be forced to retire on his 65th birthday (Royal Mail policy), Albert realises that a lonely future awaits him which terrifies him. Realises that he's been hiding from life, Albert takes baby steps to being honest with himself and the world about who he truly is. And, in doing so, Albert hopes to find the courage to look for George, his first love... 

My review on this is up next week, but you can tell from the above that I adore this book and wanted to do as much as I can to share the love. So, when Rosie from Headline asked if I wanted to share an extract for you guys, I jumped at it! Plus, if you watch Twitter the next few days, a few other book bloggers (I think) will be sharing more extracts and maybe one or two will do contests! 

Before I share the first extract of the week, I just want to thank Rosie for asking me to be involved (and knowing I would say yes as tweeting A LOT of thoughts/feels to her and the author while I read). I, also, want to point you in the direction of the author, Matt Cain's, website (mattcainwriter.com) and his Twitter (@MattCainWriter) so you can say hi. If you want more info on Albert Entwistle, you can pop over to the publisher's, Headline, website. 

Ok, all house keeping out of the way, ONTO THE EXTRACT! Enjoy!!!

MARION LANE AND THE MIDNIGHT MURDER CONTEST!

I HAVE A CONTEST FOR YOU!!! This is my first in a while and I am SO EXCITED to share with you. It's, also, a tad outside my comfort zone as it's historical but as soon as Ellen from Orion emailed me, I knew I had to do involved in this with this book! 

Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder is the first book in a new series that is a tad historical, a dah murdery and is a little weird. In the best way. 

London, 1958. Hidden under the 1958's streets of London is the world of Miss Brickett's, a secret detective agency. Here, apprentice detectives must undergo rigorous training to equip them with skills, knowledge and tricks to help them solve mysteries that will stump London's Police. 

But when her friend and mentor is arrest on suspicion of murder, 23-year-old apprentice Marion Lane is tasked to clearing his name. But her investigation will put her and her friends in danger as her investigation takes into the out-of-bound maze of unchartered tunnels that surround Miss Brickett's, and Marion discovered that these tunnels contain something more than secrets... 

See? Now you see why I had to be involved! 

And guess what? If the blurb has wetted your appetite, this is where my contest comes in! I have ONE COPY of the book to give away to ONE lucky winner. All you have to do is fill in the GoogleForm below and, after a few days, I will pick a random winner using a random number generator. 

Now, before I go further, I need to say one or two things (it's been a while since I've done this). The contest is for UK address only as the publisher will be sending the winning copy out once I have the winner's address. Contest will be open till Friday 28th May 2021 at 7pm. Winner will then be selected at random from random number generation and will be announced on my Twitter (@PewterWolf), then will be emailed for address (and don't worry about address being kept on file after the winner get their winning copy. You address will be deleted straight after).

I don't think am forgetting anything... no, wait. How do you enter? Just fill in the GoogleForm below. And that's it. Keep eyes peeled for news of the winner and keep your fingers crossed. Good luck, y'all!!!

TV Covid-19 Binge-Watching

I think we all binge watch a bunch of telly during the lockdown and my partner and I did exactly the same. We’re still doing it with, at the time of writing, we have just finished Suits on Netflix UK (most of you will know it as the show that Meghan Markle was on while she was dating Prince Harry, but it’s a legal drama with a dash of humour, set in a fictional New York City law firm following a college dropout who starts working as law associate, despite never going to law school) and going to start Apple TV+’s The Morning Show (starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, this follows a popular US breakfast show and what happens when the male host is fired for sexual misconduct and the female co-host of 15 years, tries desperately to stay in her job while sparking an off-air rivalry with her new co-host, a haphazard field reporter who makes very impulsive decisions).

But what did we watch during last year during lockdowns? Well... the Other Half and I had a think and most were crime-related. Should we all be worried about how many crime/thriller like programmes we watched?

Now, before I go any further, we are not talking rewatch. So no Friends, Big Bang Theory, The Good Place and The Blacklist, nor shows we were continuing with latest series such as Blindspot, Great British Bake Off and Taskmaster. We are talking new shows that my partner and I discovered during last year. (Does that include me discovering The Great Pottery Throw Down that I discovered late this year one evening?).

Another COVID-19 Podcast Listening Post

As you know, I am a bit of a podcast addict. I do love listening to audiobooks and listening to the radio, but there’s something about podcasts I have a soft spot for. While I liked podcasts before the COVID-19 lockdown, the lockdown rammed up my love for the podcasts. Whenever I feel a little low and need something quick and fun to listen to, I go to my podcast app more than my audiobook apps (most of my audiobooks are over 10 hours with several near/over 24 hours. I still have to finish A Promised Land by Barack Obama [I will finish this! But it’s a tad dense for me ATM] and I want to do the second audiobook in Alison Weir’s Six Tudor Queens, which looks into Anne Boleyn). 

I know I chatted about some of the podcasts I listened to during lockdown last year (I talked about My Dad Wrote A Porno, ARDEN, Shedunnit and F***bois of Literature and touched on some others). But I wanted to talk about a few other things other than books for the first few weeks back from my blog holiday but I feel very “meh” lately energy-wise, and I want to shake myself up a little and write new things.

And where best to start is to talk podcasts and TV shows I listened/watched during the crazy times known as COVID-19 lockdowns. So, let me chat podcasts and hopefully, will write COVID TV Binging (writing that up as we speak!). You might sense a theme with some of my choices and recommendations. 

Vino and Veritas Cover Reveals!

I HAVE LAST MINUTE COVER REVEALS FOR YOU GUYS! Five of them, in fact. 

These are the covers for upcoming instalments within the Vino and Veritas series. Vino and Veritas series is part of the World of True North, where authors write stories within Sarina Bowen's True North world (the other series within the World of True North are Moo-U Hockey [New Adult Romance set at University], Busy Bean [Small Town Romance set round a coffeeshop so, of course, it's gonna be steamy] and Speakeasy Taproom [Again, a Small Town Steamy Romance set round a gusto-pub setting]. Vino and Veritas is the World's LGBTQ+ romance and, of course, we have Sarina Bowen and her True North.). Actually, I'm going to have put an episode of the Big Gay Fiction Podcast here where Sarina explains much better than I. 

With that out of the way, this post is a cover reveal of FIVE covers. These are books 14 to 18 in the Vino and Veritas and they are [inhales deep breath] Stronghold by Ana Ashley, Limelight by E. Davies, Showstopper by Regina Kyle, Unforgettable by Marley Valentine and Undone by Leslie McAdam!  

I am planning to read some books in this series (gonna keep quiet as I want the mystery), but when I saw the callout for the cover reveal, I jumped out it! Plus, a few of these upcoming releases have catch my attention. Oh, to preorder or not to preorder... 

Now, I'm not going to do a write-up of these six titles as they are each very different (former rock stars, bee keepers, chefs, pretend boyfriend at sister's wedding, reality TV camera following your every move, bisexual awakening...). And I'm not going to say much about the previous instalments in the Vino and Veritas's series, but you can check out of the synopsis of all the books in the series at the publisher's, HeartEyes Press LLC, website.  

And without further ado, HERE ARE THE COVERS FOR STRONGHOLD, LIMELIGHT, UNFORGOTTABLE, SHOWSTOPPER and UNDONE!!! 

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...

Sue Wallman Knows You Did It

Let's hit the ground running with a small Q&A type post (very rare for PW, I know.) with thriller writer, Sue Wallman. 

In case you're not sure who Sue is (how?!), Sue is the bestselling author of four YA thrillers - Lying About Last Summer, See How They Lie, Your Turn To Die and Dead Popular - with her fifth title, I Know You Did It, coming out TOMORROW!!! All her titles are edge-of-your-seats away winners with her debut, Lying About Last Summer, was part of and won the Zoella Book Club 2016.

Now, I don't want to say too much about what I Know You Did It is about (Sue's going to explain in an elevator pitch below), but I am HUGELY grateful to Sue for saying "Yes" to my out-of-the-blue email, asking "Do you fancy being on my blog again?". 

Oh, FYI! By the think you'll be reading this, Sue will have done a Crowdcast with her lovely editor from Scholastic, Linas, and I think (though I'm not sure so don't hold me to this) that you might be able to rewatch the event. Go to crowdcast and see for yourselves.

Also, I would love it if you pop over to Sue and say hi. You can do so by visiting her website (suewallman.co.uk), her Instagram (instagram.com/suewallman/) or her Twitter (@suewallman).

Now, ONTO THE Q&A!

... Well, This Is Unexpected

... well, this is unexpected.

I know, dear readers. I know what I said at the end of March 2021. I said it was only going to be a two or three weeks due to Easter. And that was the plan. Expect, that didn't happen. A month's blog holiday happened.

I feel I should explain, but there's not much to explain. As you know, I normally take a few weeks off for Easter or I try to. But the last few months, with COVID and trying to get back in the swing of "normal" life, I found that I didn't really have the energy to blog every book I read or audiobook I listened to. And every time I tried to force myself to write something, I usually hate it and just go "DELETE!". 

And I have been writing short reviews on Goodreads (goodreads.com/pewterwolf) and do star ratings on my Twitter (twitter.com/PewterWolf) to keep my foot in the reviewing. But the energy lately has been sagging and, at times, I feel a little like an outsider, looking at the cooler bloggers and vloggers and all the other bookish content-makers and feeling not good enough. Not loud, not brave enough, just not enough. 

Yep. Pity party time. 

And then another book drama hit the socials after Easter (should we talk about that? Or if I give it air, will it get worse? Same goes with the Book Drama that happened a few weeks later) and I kinda lost my rag with this. I tweeted this and, though I knew that I wouldn't quit, I did feel frustrated and wondering if this tiny corner of the Internet is worth it? 

So yeah, this happened. And this was the moment I went "I need to stay away. I need a holiday. No blogging, not involving in anything bookish for a while. I need to read for the enjoyment of reading." This lasted... oh... two days. Then I went on a huge email blitz of authors, publishers, PR people and others and then I looked at my huge TBR and went "Right, what exactly do I want this blog to be?". 

Oh yes, I hit a wall and, over the course of my first real week off blogging, I went "F*** it!" and decide to just do fun again. You might notice it, you might not. But hey, am going to inject some fun in it at my end. It;'s gonna be weird with a bunch of left turns but I'm going to have a bit of fun with this. 

So, I might not review everything on here, but I will on Goodreads and Twitter (please follow me on both or either. I am a chatter!). And I will do some bookish chat on here but them might be more wrap ups or focusing on one or two titles. BUT the main plan is fun. I want to show off books that are fun and wonderful. Let's see if I actually stick to this plan!