Tag: YA

Blog Tour/Review: The Thirteenth Gate by Kat Ross

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I’m thrilled to be one of the hosts for today’s stop on the blog tour for The Thirteenth Gate by Kat Ross, Book 2 in her exciting Dominion Mystery series.  You can read my review below.  To check out the other great bloggers on the tour and see what they thought, click here.

WinPlus there’s a giveaway (US & Canada only, sorry!) with a chance for one lucky person to win a signed paperback copy of Book #1 in the Dominion Mystery series, The Daemoniac.

To enter click here.

 

TheThirteenthGateAbout the Book

Winter 1888. At an asylum in the English countryside, a man suspected of being Jack the Ripper kills an orderly and flees into the rain-soaked night. His distraught keepers summon the Lady Vivienne Cumberland – who’s interviewed their patient and isn’t sure he’s a man at all. An enigmatic woman who guards her own secrets closely, Lady Vivienne knows a creature from the underworld when she sees one. And he’s the most dangerous she’s ever encountered. As Jack rampages through London, Lady Vivienne begins to suspect what he’s searching for. And if he finds it, the doors to purgatory will be thrown wide open…

Across the Atlantic, an archaeologist is brutally murdered after a Christmas Eve gala at the American Museum of Natural History. Certain peculiar aspects of the crime attract the interest of the Society for Psychical Research and its newest investigator, Harrison Fearing Pell. Is Dr. Sabelline’s death related to his recent dig in Alexandria? Or is the motive something darker? As Harry uncovers troubling connections to a serial murder case she’d believed was definitively solved, two mysteries converge amid the grit and glamour of Gilded Age New York. Harry and Lady Vivienne must join forces to stop an ancient evil. The key is something called the Thirteenth Gate. But where is it? And more importantly, who will find it first?

Format: ebook Publisher: Acorn Publishing Pages: 350
Publication: 26th Jun 2017 Genre: Historical Mystery, YA    

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com ǀ Barnes & Noble ǀ Kobo ǀ iTunes
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

 Find The Thirteenth Gate on Goodreads

 

My Review

‘In the universe…there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.’

What do you get if you take an intricately plotted, suspenseful historical mystery set in 19th century London and New York and add ghouls and daemons? An enthralling, wonderfully entertaining read, that’s what! I’m not much into paranormal or fantasy but I really enjoyed this book because the fantasy elements were subtly woven into a satisfyingly complex historical mystery.

Lady Vivienne makes a feisty, idiosyncratic and resourceful heroine alongside her companion, Alec Lawrence. Their bond is symbiotic in nature, forged and developed over a great expanse of time with each contributing skills and abilities that make them an effective fighting force against the powers of evil. As Lady Vivienne explains, ‘We are the light against the darkness’.

Harrison (Harry) Pell and her friend, John Weston, specialise much more in solving the crimes of this world – think Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, but of course they were only fictional, weren’t they? However, in The Thirteenth Gate, Harry and John are forced to confront malefactors from a distinctly more shadowy realm.  When Lady Vivienne, Alec, Harry and John join forces, nothing can stop them – or can it?

This is the second book in the series. (Click here to download Book #1, The Daemoniac, which is currently free from Amazon.)  Although there are lots of references to earlier events in The Thirteenth Gate, this didn’t affect my enjoyment and the book works perfectly well as a standalone. Except….that having read this you’re definitely going to want to read the first one (I certainly do), so why not start there? In fact, as the author explains in her afterword, the story of Lady Vivienne and Alec starts much further back than that, in The Fourth Element trilogy.  Book #1 of the trilogy, The Midnight Sea, is currently free to download from Amazon – click here to get hooked.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author and Xpresso Book Tours in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Compelling, suspenseful, imaginative

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAbout the Author

Kat Ross worked as a journalist at the United Nations for ten years before happily falling back into what she likes best: making stuff up. She lives in Westchester with her kid and a few sleepy cats. Kat is also the author of the dystopian thriller Some Fine Day (Skyscape, 2014) about a world where the sea levels have risen sixty meters. She loves magic, monsters and doomsday scenarios. Preferably with mutants.

Connect with Kat

Website ǀ Facebook ǀ Twitter ǀ Goodreads

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Book Blitz #Giveaway Paintbrush by Hannah Buchin

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Today the spotlight is on Paintbrush, the debut novel by Hannah Bucchin.  Set in a community in North Carolina, you can find some sneak peeks below of this charming, romantic, coming-of-age story. (And don’t you just love that gorgeous cover?)

WinTheBeginningof EverythingPlus there’s a giveaway (INTL) with a chance to win a $5 Amazon giftcard and a copy of the bestselling The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider. To enter click here.

 

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PaintbrushAbout the Book

Mitchell Morrison and Josie Sedgwick have spent their whole lives at the Indian Paintbrush Community Village, a commune full of colourful characters tucked in the mountains of North Carolina, and they aren’t particularly close – at least, not anymore. Josie wishes she could spend all of her time at Paintbrush planting tomatoes, hiking the trails, or throwing giant communal birthday parties, while Mitchell can’t wait to escape the bizarre spiritual sharing and noisy community dinners. Luckily for both of them, high school graduation is just around the corner. But when Mitchell’s mother makes a scandalous announcement that rocks the close-knit Paintbrush community, and Josie’s younger sister starts to make some dangerously bad decisions, the two find themselves leaning on each other for support – and looking at each other in a whole new light. Their childhood friendship blossoms in to something more as they deal with their insane families, but as graduation approaches, so does life in the real world, forcing Josie and Mitchell to figure out what, exactly, their relationship is – and if it can survive their very different plans for the future.

Format: ebook Publisher: Blaze Publishing Pages:
Publication: 11th July 2017 Genre: Romance, YA

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com ǀ Barnes & Noble ǀ Kobo ǀ itunes
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Paintbrush on Goodreads

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Mitchell: They look like a family, huddled in a group, the fading sunlight from the window casting them in a dusty glow. And here I am, close enough but still a few steps back. Enjoying the moment, but not quite part of the group. It’s always this way with me at Paintbrush. I hang around the fringes of every moment. Not because I’m not included or not welcome, but because, sometimes, I’m afraid I’ll get in too deep here. And then I’ll never be able to leave.

Mitchell: “Hi.” I tighten my grip on her waist, and she moves her hand from my shoulder, sliding her fingertips slowly, until they rest on the back of my neck. I close my eyes.           When I open them again, she’s staring at me, her face so close I can see the flecks of brown in her green eyes. It would be so easy to kiss her. Just a few inches. It would be the easiest thing in the world.

Josie: “We’re a mess, aren’t we?” He grins at me. I can’t help it—I lean into him, pressing my shoulder into his, wanting to feel his warmth and his soft sweatshirt, wanting to be a part of that smile. I shrug. “All the best people are messy.”

Josie: Just when I’ve decided to sneak back to my cabin, I see him. Mitchell. He steps right in front of me, a few feet away. I meet his gaze and hold it. And then he jerks his head slightly toward the side and strides off into the night, slipping out into the dark, off into the field behind the Sanctuary. I wait one minute and then follow him.

HannahBucchinAbout the Author

Hannah has spent her life falling in love with beautiful places, both real and fictional. She grew up in charming Bethlehem, PA, went to college in sunny Chapel Hill, NC, spent a summer studying wildlife in Tanzania, volunteered on organic farms across New Zealand, and hiked all over Acadia National Park in Maine. When not writing, reading, or adventuring, she likes to daydream about the dog she’ll adopt someday, listen to music from the sixties, and exchange ridiculous texts with her parents and siblings.

Paintbrush is her first novel.

Connect with Hannah

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