From the Book Elf

The Winter Guest  by Karen Swan The Winter Guest by Karen Swan is published by Bantam. My thanks to Karen and Bantam for sending me a copy to review and to  Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the Book Tour. Synopsis In a grand villa on the shores of Lake Geneva, Dulcie’s grandmother nears the end of her glamourous and eventful life. The days pass quietly to the reassuring tick of the Swiss   clock  until a visitor comes to their door… 1961 In the streets of Paris, Lise Erlach is in love. Twenty-two years old, the beautiful young Ambassador’s wife enjoys the very best the city has to offer: glittering receptions, a magnificent residence and an address book filled with the numbers of the Parisian elite. She is wanted at every party…and by one man above all. Their affair dazzles them both but in a distant sea, a crisis is brewing that will change their paths forever. Present day As snow falls upon the Alps, Dulcie sits by her grandmother’s bed, undisturbed until...

A Deadly Abode  by Jane McParkes My thanks to Jane and No Exit Press  for sending me a copy of A Deadly Abode to review  and to  Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the book tour It’s autumn and with crisp frosty weather and the leaves as colourful as they've ever been, Olivia and Jago are nestling into their life in Penbartha. Until local resentment about incomers and second-home ownership is ignited by what seems to be an increasingly militant action group. Maybe Penbartha isn't the happy place Olivia thought it was? Is the discontent really about second homes or is someone pursuing a much more personal agenda? When a neighbouring house is set on fire and a body found in one of the outbuildings, Olivia and Jago need to find the source of the trouble before it gets even closer to home... This  is the third book in The Olivia Wells Mysteries and I have absolutely l oved each and every one of them though I have to be honest there were aspects of A Deadly Abo...

  The River Murders  by Colette Kebell   Many thanks to Colette and Skittish Endeavours ( love that name )  for sending me a copy to review and to  Rachel's Random Resources for inviting me onto the Book Tour. Jack Wood catches thieves. Shoplifters, kleptomaniac aristocrats, employees skimming the till. If someone steals, Jack finds them. Then a teenager walks into a Canterbury shop with a rented gun in her bag—one already used in multiple murders. Overnight, Jack is pulled into a dark black-market trade. A wealthy client’s story doesn't add up. A detective leaks classified details. And the trail points straight to a corrupt town hiding a nightmare. Jack Wood is no hero. He might not even be one of the good guys. Some cities keep their secrets buried. Jack digs them up. One grave at a time. Pick up The River Murders to uncover Canterbury’s darkest secrets. This is the first book I have read by Colette and it is certainly one that was worth the read. Jack's cha...

You Too  by Katharine Light You Too by Katharine Light Published 2025 This is the third book in the Millingham series . My thanks to Katharine for sending me a copy to review along with a lovely, personal thank you card and to  Rachel's Random Resources for inviting me onto the Book Tour. Synopsis Anna has finally got what she longed for. After years of focusing on her career—ignoring the quiet, insistent need for a child—a chance encounter with Rob led to an arrangement that changed everything. Now she’s pregnant. But nothing about what comes next is simple. This was never meant to be a relationship. As her pregnancy becomes more difficult, Anna retreats, unwilling to face Rob, or the feelings she can no longer ignore. Because wanting a baby was one thing. Letting someone in is something else entirely. Rob always knew their arrangement had limits. He didn’t expect Anna would quickly become the one person he can’t walk away from. Now, both must decide what they’re willing to ...

The Other Life Of Mary English by GD Harper The Other life of Mary English by G D Harper is published by Ginger Cat. My thanks to Glynn and the publisher for sending me a copy to review and to  Rachel's Random Resources for inviting me onto the book tour. Synopsis Two Different Women. One Shared Destiny. Mary English, a dockworker’s daughter from Faversham, England, travels to South America to escape a scandal from her past. She ends up running a cacao plantation in Colombia, at a time when women were not legally allowed to own businesses there. Manuela Sáenz, tempestuous lover of Venezuelan revolutionary Simón Bolívar, serves as a colonel in his army. She joins him in battle to fight the Spanish and twice saves his life from assassination attempts. This is the story of two real-life remarkable women, both fighting oppression, hardship and danger in 1820s Colombia, who come together to change the course of a nation’s history. My Thoughts This is a fascinating book about two rema...