What Extract Walks These Halls

I have a spooOOOOOOooookkky extract for you guys for this blog tour. It was touch and go for a moment due to the saga happening with my Amazon and my kindle at the moment (see previous post for more details on that battle at the moment), but I have an extract and I didn't have to do some late night internet doom scrolling for creepy-yet-cool Irish ghost stories to get you excited for What Walks These Halls by Amy Clarkin. 

Hyacinth House is the most haunted house in Ireland. So haunted in fact, that it's not reported about at all. Raven doesn't remember what happened in Hyacinth House five years ago. Her father died in that house during a paranormal investigation and, though everyone says it was a terrible accident, Rave is certain that it was her fault. 

So when her younger brother, Arthur, decides to start up the family business of paranormal investigating and he's asked to investigate Hyacinth House for a house sale, he can't resist even though Raven is horrified by the idea... 

Éabha can see and hear things no one else can. She's not sure if it's emotions from the past, ghosts or something else, but she decides that she has to find out. When she crosses paths with Arthur and his ragtag team of paranormal hunters, she thinks it's a great place to start. 

But everyone has a secret or two to hide. And Hyacinth House has its own as well... 

Now, I am not the biggest ghost/horror reader, but I couldn't resist reading this (which is what I am doing now. At the time of writing this, I am on page 101), and when asked if I wanted to be involved in this tour, I couldn't say no! 

Now, before I share the extract for you (which is the start of chapter eight), I just want to say a quick thank you to Chloe at the O'Brien Press for asking if I wanted to be involved in this tour. And if you want to know more info about the book, you can check out obrien.ie or (for an affiliate link) uk.bookshop.org. Plus, if you want to say hi to Amy, you can via Twitter at @AmyClarkin or Instagram at @amyclarkinwrites.

Now, are we sitting comfortable? Good. Then let us begin...

Why Do I Bother With Themed Months?

Well, this themed month of mine has been a bit of a train-crash, hasn't it?

I mean, I was hoping to have more listened to more audiobooks or, if not that, then have a few short stories or novels that I can reveal. But, alas, my oh-so-clever plans went out of the window over the Easter weekend.
 
Allow me to explain as three things happened in quick succession and, because of that, my plans are shot (though I am determined to keep April very audiobook-driven – though I might pop a podcast or two).
 
First, it took me far longer to finish Green for Danger by Christianna Brand that I was expecting. I thought I would whizz through the book as it’s a Golden Age Murder Mystery and I really enjoyed the writing. But, for some reason, I couldn’t warm to the characters and I tend to read historical fiction a little slower than when I read fantasy or crime in general. So, though I enjoyed it, I read this in a more leisurely way, which knocked one of my reading plans but not badly.
 
The second (and this one did affect my reading/audiobook plans A LOT) was that I was ill over the Easter weekend. I wasn't feeling great beforehand but I was stubborn and, on Good Friday, I was ill in bed and had the attention span of a cockroach. If I did listen to podcasts or audiobooks, it would be in very short 5-10 minutes sprints and then, I wouldn't go near it again for a good chuck of the weekend. Podcasts became my friends that weekend as I mainly stuck to short, 30 minutes or less episodes that I can tune in and out off (such as The News Agents, My Favourite Murder [the mini-sodes] and a few others that I will need to relisten to as they touch on subjects that am curious over). I have no idea what it was (there's a bug going round that's very cold/flu like so I suppose that) but I was ill for the whole weekend so that ruined my reading/audiobooking (and Easter family meet -ups!). 

The third is one I am still in, which is my Amazon kindle/audible has gone strange. No idea what has happened but let's say I am chatting to Amazon to see if I can fix it. Which means I can't read anything on my kindle at the moment and I have no idea how this will effect the eProofs I need to read for NetGalley (I bet my rating on that is going to go down VERY quickly if I don't figure something out. Or maybe this is a sign to quit book-blogging while I am ahead)... 

Anyway, just wanted to keep you in the loop with my blogging as it's not going to plan. But ha-ho, life happens and not much can be done about it. Hopefully, I will keep my eye on having some fun and, like I said, I am now feeling better so my reading and my audiobook listening is slowly going back on track... 

Audiobook April - Mini-Reviews

Another day, another mini-review write-up on two audiobooks: one I got for review (in exchange for an honest review/reaction, of course) and the other from my local library (because why not!) 

We have (for review) One of Our Ministers Is Missing by Alan Johnson and the other (from library's audiobook app) Miss Marple's Final Cases by Agatha Christie!

Audiobook April - Into Shadow Mini-Reviews

HAPPY EASTER MONDAY TO YOU ALL! And here we go with my first Audiobook April.

Welcome to my (hopefully not a complete car-crash of a themed month) Audiobook April. Like I said last month before I took a small, Easter blog holiday, this month is me trying to showcase some lovely audiobooks (and to get my audiobook TBR list down a little). Also, to have a little fun (fun is the name of the game this blogging/reading year)!

So, let’s start with something light, something easy, right? Nope. I listened to something short (my podcast backlog is getting quite long so, hopefully, will be able to have a listen to a few of them this/next month).

What I listened to is two short stories from the Into Shadows collection, a collection of short stories from Amazon. Amazon do a few collections of Amazon Original Stories, all short stories or novellas that, they hope, you will be able to read or listen to in one sitting. Very similar to Quick Reads.

The two am going to chat briefly about are The Six Deaths of the Saint by Alix E. Harrow (narrated by Saskia Maarleveld) and What the Dead Know by Nghi Vo (narrated by Natalie Naudus).

In The Six Deaths of the Saint, the Saint of War comes to an ill servant girl so she can fulfil her destiny to come the kingdom’s greatest warrior. But will it be worth it?

In What The Dead Know, a woman posing as a medium finds herself trapped in a school due to a blizzard starts to hear something. A voice in the dark that wants to be heard…