HOSTILE TAKEOVER - Blog Tour Review

Yes, am breaking my SpoOOoky Halloween reading month with a book review that I agreed to do back in... er... July and is in no way spooky. In fact, it's romantic. I know - another MM romance. WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME SINCE THE UK FIRST WENT INTO LOCKDOWN?! I SEEM TO BE HAPPY READING LOW TO NO ANGST MM ROMANCES WITH HUNKY COVERS ... for the story, never for the hunky model on the cover. Nope. Not for the cover model AT ALL! Just... don't look at my Kindle app on my iPhone - the samples I've downloaded would tell a totally different story. 

ANYWAY, moving on. So, back ground, I had an out-of-the-blue email from PR company, Social Butterfly, chatting that I read MM romance and wondered if I would be up for reading Lucy Lennox's upcoming standalone, Hostile Takeover. I was intrigued by the idea and I knew that I wanted to do an extract reveal, but it took me a little longer to say yes to reading I was in two minds over this one. Then I went "Barring the one or two moments in my first Lucy Lennox, Right As Raine, that upset and stressed me out no end, I really enjoyed myself so this should be fun" then dived in. 

Title And Author: Hostile Takeover by Lucy Lennox
Publisher: Self-Published [?]
Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof gifted by PR company, Social Butterfly, for blog tour in exchange for honest review/reaction.

It was meant to be a prank. Only it's wasn't, not really. And now, years later, Grey Blackwood is out for revenge. That's what's made him an excellent billionaire venture capitalist. So when he does a hostile takeover on Ellison York's father's company, he wants the whole family to suffer. 

But he doesn't know that Ellison has regretted the fall out of what happened 15 years ago. That, though it was a dare, he wanted what happened with Grey to happen and the guilt of not speaking up sooner has haunted him. Plus, Ellison is trying get away from being a corporate lawyer and out from his father's manipulative clutches. So when Ellison's father phones and begs him to save the company, Ellison reluctantly goes to help and is shocked at seeing Grey again, hotter than ever. 

Two weeks. Ellison can work for Grey for two weeks and, somehow, figure out what to do about his father's company, right? But the lines between enemies to lovers is blurred and getting blurrier by the minute... 

The Last Roman Excerpt

Oh my! We have something different on here! Yes, I know, it's historical so very outside my wheelhouse, but when Erik from Breakeven Books messaged and asked if I wanted to be involved in this, I thought I would dive in and try something new! 

The Last Roman series By RK Greenwood follows imperial officer Marcus Sempronius Gracchus from the 9th Roman Legion into battle against a fierce barbarian rival. It's a battle he won't survive.

So, when he awakens three days later, clawing his way from a shallow grave, Marcus must face the reality of his new existence. He cannot be killed - but that won't stop him from dying time and again over the next 2,000 years to try. But while he's doing that, others like Marcus plan to bring the world crashing to its knees...

I have a sneak peek into the first book in the series, Exile. The second in the series, Abyss, is out now and the third will be out early next year (Spring, I believe. Don't hold me to that). If you want more info on the series, you can pop over to bkgreenwood.com and have a look round. 

Now, shall I just give you the excerpt now? I think I shall... 

Quickie SpoOOoky Halloween 2021 Reviews

So, my SpoOOoky Halloween reading isn't exactly going to plan. Come on, did we really think it would? I did start (then stopped for one reason or another) Malice by Heather Walter (I think I might save for this for when I go on a blog break next [Christmas/New Year?]). And with me still finding my feet with new job (when we do stop calling a new job new, exactly?) and my reading/audiobooking taking a bit of a nosedive/spiral, I thought I would throw these two VERY different mini-reviews at you!

Plotting The Harm Tree

I have a guest post for you guys! And I feel like this might fit lovely with me trying to read more spooky reads this month!

Rose Edwards is the author of The Harm Tree and its upcoming sequel Ember Days. Now, not going to say much about Ember Days (spoilers) but let's see how far I can tell you about Harm Tree. The land of Arngard is recovering from the last civil war, and is dangerous close to another. Torny and Ebba are two friends who are sent away, not remembering the war. But when Torny sees a man murdered in the street and she finds herself in possession of a dangerous message, the two find themselves on separate paths... 

And all the while, the Harm Tree stands... 

I am thrilled that the author of Harm Tree and Ember Days, Rose Edwards, has agreed to write a small guest post about plotting. I think you guys might like to read it! 

Now, before I hand you over to Rose, I want to thank her for finding the time to write this post and, if you want to say hi to her, you can by popping her a tweet at @redwardswrites. Also, quick thank you to Graeme from UClan Publishing for chatting to me about this. Also, if you're curious about The Harm Tree, you can check out UClan Publishing's website. 

Now, TO ROSE!

Shocktember - The Man Who Died Twice

Ok, this was meant to be my last Shocktember audiobook. This was meant to be last month so you can't have a go at me for this being late! I finished this on the 1st October! I was ONE DAY OUT! But, oh, I had fun with this. 

Ok, getting away with self. Before I go any further, just want to quickly say that I think I said multiply times in my write-up of The Thursday Murder Club, this isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea as this series is very much a cosy crime/murder mystery, and I know many of you like your crime with a bit of darker edge. And yet, here we are. The second Thursday Murder Club book and yes, I preordered this!

Title And Author: The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

Publisher: Penguin

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof gifted by UK publisher in exchange for honest review/reaction while Audiobook’s bought via Audible. 

Days after the events of the first book, Elizabeth receives a letter. A letter from a man she knows is officially dead. But when she meets the man, she is surprised to see it's not the dead man, but someone from her past. A man she wants no involvement in, but finds herself helping out after he tells her his story. A story containing stolen diamonds, a violent mobster, his life in real danger and MI5.

Of course, this is a case for the Thursday Murder Club - aka four seventy year olds known as herself, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim - and friends of the club (Bogdan, Donna and Chris). But when one of their members is violently assaulted and the attacker looks like they're going to get away with it, the club go to lengths to make sure that doesn't happen...

Cheltenham Literature Festival 2021 - Mystery Review Time!

I feel a bit of backstory is needed here to explain why I am doing a mystery review to celebrate this year's Cheltenham Literature Festival. 

For those of you who don't know, the Cheltenham Literature Festival is... hang on, let me just "borrow" what their say on their website (cheltenhamfestivals.com/literature) "... the world’s first literature festival, leading the way in celebrating the written and spoken word, presenting the best new voices in fiction and poetry alongside literary greats and high-profile speakers, while inspiring over 9,000 school children with a love of books through its Literature for Schools programme." with this year's theme being "Read The World" (which, as you can guess, is looking at world literature [fiction, non-fiction and poetry]). 

Now, Sofia at Midas emailed me about this and went "Fancy doing something a little different?", which caught my attention. Her idea: to receive a mystery book from the festival and read/review it. If I can't read or review in time, plot something a little out of the box.

And who am I to refuse that? Now, I am writing this intro bit in September, before my mystery book has arrived. I am a mix of excited/scared due to time frame but I am going to read this as quick as I can and report back. So... if you want to see the mystery book, you know what to do?

Breaking Your TBR Rules Is Ok

Have you noticed that if you follow most bookish people - booktubers, book bloggers, booktokkers, podcasters, bookagrammers and others that I am not hip enough to understand or too old to understand the lingo (oh hell, am the below gif, aren't I?) - that they created their To Be Read list for the upcoming month and they stick to them? They stick to them, no matter what. yes, they quit some reads but, 9 times out of 10, they read their list and they don't break the list or impulsively read something else? 

I do this all the time, hence why I never make TBR lists. I never stick to them. Yes, I am a mood reader. 

And I break my rules with TBRs all the time. Hence why I never do them. I try and do themes. And yet, I break them too. I mean, I did it last month and no one really commented on it. And I'm 95% certain I will break my TBR plans this Spooky Month as well. 

Ok, let me explain. 

Last month, I was planning to read crime and thrillers. I had several thrillers I was desperate to read. One them being Lies Like Wildfires by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez. Hell, this was the book that inspired the idea of doing a crime/thriller themed month! That's how excited I was to read, and how excited I still am to read this. And I started it... only to stop at page 16. I kid you not, 16 pages! My brain wasn't in the right space to read this. And so, I put it back on my TBR and, on a whim, read Drilled by KM Neuhold (final books in the Four Bear Construction series), hoping that this would be a platter cleanse, something I can read as a side project. Only for me to binge read this over the course of a weekend. 

So yeah... I broke my TBR rule for last month. And I felt no guilt WHATSOEVER in doing so. And I'm surprise no one talks about that - that, sometimes, breaking your TBR or not setting one is quite freeing. 

Now, saying that, I would like to stick to my Halloween reading this month (and hopefully read more than two books/audiobooks), but I know I am going to break it. I might have agreed to read two books for blog tours. One that I might have done (writing this post in late September) and another for the end of the month so... yeah... October might not be a spooky as I would like. 

Oh well, reading should be fun, after all. And sometimes, doing left field reading, away from you TBR for the next few reads is a good thing. Can't wait to freak you guys out over what I plan to read from now until my Christmas Blog Holiday... 

Love Is The Answer... Right?

I have a guest post for you. Yes, it break my SpoOOoky Halloween theme, but I think you might like this so decided to go for it. 

I am thrilled to welcome Ben Craib onto the Pewter Wolf, and he's going to chat about his debut YA novel, Love Is The Answer. 

Scarlett feels like she's lost a lot. Her mother to cancer. Her friends who have no idea what to say. Her dad, who has meet someone and seems to be moving on with his life. Scarlett just feels lost. Till she meets Hayden, life and soul of the world. He sees her and feels her pain. Scarlett dives into his life, all the parties, the sweaty raves and worse. All that matters is them: Scarlett and Hayden. 

But not everything is as it seems... 

Like I said earlier, I am thrilled that Ben can pop on the blog and write a small guest post, tackling about grief and mental health. And Ben would know - he co-wrote write two self-help books (Slay Your Dragons With Compassion with Malcolm Stern and Online Men's Group Success with Kenny Mammarella-D'Cruz), both tackling resilience and resourcing in turbulent times. 

Now, before I hand you over to Ben, if you want to know more about Ben or Love Is The Answer, you can check out Ben's website at bencraib.com/ or check out the publisher's website at quoscript.co.uk!

Now, over to Ben!!!

SpoOOoky Halloween 2021 - Redemptor

My first SpoOOoky Halloween post and this took some time as I audiobooked back in late August and early September while driving to and from my new job (I only listened to around 30/40 minutes per car trip, if I was in the mood and not too stressed/freaked out) and, because of how little time I listened, it took me so much longer than I normally would. Plus, at the time of writing this (back in early September, FYI), am having a bit of a head cold so... yeah... this might not be the best start of SpoOOoky Halloween, but we are going to take it and run with it! 

Title And Author: Redemptor by Jordan Ifueko
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof gifted by UK publisher in exchange for honest review/reaction while audiobook was borrowed from local library via BorrowBox app. 

After the shocking end of Raybearer, Tarisai now finds herself Empress Redemptor, sitting on Aritsar's throne, a Raybearer in her own right. But to appease the sinister spirits of the dead, she must anoint her own council, leaders from nations within the kingdom. Then, once done, she must descend into the Underworld, the final sacrifice to end all future atrocities. And she has only two years to do these impossible tasks in. 

Tarisai is determined to survive. To return from the Underworld. But her reign as empress is shaky, especially since the arrival of the mysterious rebel leader, the Crocodile, her council siblings and friends are becoming distant and she's started to see child spirits, all demanding that she must pay for the sins of the empire, that she must do more...

With the pressures growing and the ghosts refusing to leave her, how far can Tarisai go for justice and a better future? Is she willing to dine for it, or will she find the strength to live for it? And what if things have other plans?

SpoOOoky Halloween 2021

HAPPY OCTOBER TO YOU ALL! Ok, to most of you, it's YOUR month! The month of Halloween! 

Now, normally, I am not a Halloween person. Ok, let me rephrase that as I like Halloween. I like autumn and a level of spooky. But I don't like some elements of Halloween (trick or treat is a good example). 

So I am a weird contraducton when it comes to Halloween. And, normally, I read books that are, normally, aren't very Halloween. You know, horror in tone. I'm not a horror fan (yes, I am a wuss!), but I do like reading fantasy and magic, so while I do read something themed to the season, I normally read something opposite. A romance or something super light. 

You might have, also, noticed that the past few months that I do themed reading. Romance for August, crime/thriller for last month and I thought I might continue with this month and have Halloween my theme. Now, I am not going to go full-on horror, but I thought spooky/magical reads might be a good port of call. So, that's what am thinking. A spoOOoky Halloween (see what I did there, ghosts?). 

Now, I have one or two other reading commitments this month (planned in early summer before I came up with this!), so this month isn't going to be full on Halloween, but I want this month's reading to be autumn and bump or two in the night... 

At the time of writing this, I have no idea what I'm going to read this month (maybe one title that I read/audiobook back in August), so no spoiler/teasers, but I do hope this month will be shiver up your spine or will bring a magical chill in the air...