The Cancer Ladies Running Club Josie Lloyd 

  

THE CANCER LADIES RUNNING CLUB BY JOSIE LLOYD 

PAPERBACK PUBLISHED BY HQ STORIES 

SOMETIMES WE FIND FRIENDSHIP IN THE MOST UNEXPECTED OF PLACES.

When Keira receives her breast cancer diagnosis she doesn’t want to have to tell her children or her husband Tom, and she doesn’t want to step back from work. She doesn’t want to sit in a hospital and stare mortality in the face, nor be part of a group of fellow cancer sufferers. Cancer is not her club.

But, as she is forced to accept everything must change and her health becomes something she can’t rely on, Keira finds herself embracing running. Hot, sweaty running in the company of a group of brilliant, funny women each going through treatment.

Because the C-word  is not going to define Keira’s identity and with the Cancer Ladies Running Club cheering her on, she is going to reclaim her life. One step at a time.

MY REVIEW 

Impossible not to cry. My eyes filled eyes filled up, throughout reading this story. 

Although this story is a work of fiction featuring Keira’s breast cancer, author Josie Lloyd based this story through her own personal experiences with breast cancer. This novel takes readers through all the doctors and hospital appointments, with what the doctors and hospital say.  Keira tries very much to carry on working after her diagnosis. As Keria must keep fit she  joins a running club, that’s named The Cancer Ladies Running Club, it’s the kind of club everyone wants to join, where other women are going through treatment and understand each and can talk about treatments and even offer advice. The main characters in The Cancer Ladies Running Club is Keira, Sian, Amma and Tasmin. No doubt about The Cancer Ladies Running Club is extremely well written, that educated me through what happens during the diagnosis of breast cancer and all the treatments. Every know and then a fiction book comes along that tugs my heart, and makes me cry.  I urge every reader to read this fictional paperback. I have never highly recommend reading such an important fiction book enough. 

MY VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO

I would like to say a very special thank you to Joe at Harper Collins for sending me this very important early proof copy fiction book to read and review. 

ABOUT AUTHOR JOSIE LLYOYD 

When  author Josie Lloyd first discovered she had breast cancer a mum at the school gates suggested that she must keep fit. Personally Josie wanted to crawl under the duvet and stay there, but was cajoled out on the early front in Brighton where she lives and met the original running gang who inspired this story and to whom this book is dedicated. 

After some training and some serious bolstering from this amazing brave, diverse group of women, they all took part in the Brighton Matathon 10k. It was just before Josie ‘s third session of chemotherapy and she was running bald, but just as it happens in the book, Josie was soon overwhelmed with messages of love and support from other runners.  

Josie Lloyd mentions a thank you to all the wonderful staff at the Montifiore hospital who restored her health especially her oncologist David Bloomfield and Josie thanks her acupuncturist. 

And lastly Josie thanks a very kind lady who gave her a butterfly necklace and the random act of kindness that this book, wherever the lady is, Josie salutes her. 

Josie Llyod is the bestselling author of 15 novels, including the No.1 hit Come Together.

Self-Confident Sandy by Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino Illustrated by Sally Huss @SallyHuss #Bookbuzz #KidsBooks @LoveBooksGroup #LoveBooksTours

Sandy was full of self-confidence. Where did it come from? She could do anything, but why? Ah, she had a special mantra that she used to explain herself. “” You may ask me why I can do anything I try… and the only answer can be: all these things are inside me!’ Yes, I can do most anything. Once I set my mind and heart to it, I find that there is nothing to it. Still, I keep my mantra handy,” explained Self-Confident Sandy!
 

About Sally Huss

Author/Illustrator Sally Huss creates children’s books to uplift the lives of children. She does this by giving them tools to overcome obstacles; by helping them value themselves and others; and by inspiring them to be the best that they can be. Her catalogue of books now exceeds 100.
 
“Bright and happy,” “light and whimsical” have been the catch phrases attached to the writings and art of Sally Huss for over 30 years. Sweet images dance across all of Sally’s creations, whether in the form of children’s books, paintings, wallpaper, ceramics, baby bibs, purses, clothing, or her King Features syndicated newspaper panel “Happy Musings.”
 
Sally is a graduate of USC with a degree in Fine Art and through the years has had 26 of her own licensed art galleries throughout the world. sallyhuss.com.
 
About Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino



Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino is one of America’s foremost personal and corporate development consultants. She is the creator of The Best Ever You Network (or Best Ever You), a leading multimedia provider of lifestyle and self-help content. While participating in the Harvard Business School for Leadership program, Elizabeth serves as a Leadership Advisor for the Olympia Snowe Women’s Leadership Institute.
In 2020 Elizabeth joined Sally Huss to create the best-selling children’s book A Lesson for Every Child: Learning About Food Allergies. Living with life-threatening food allergies for many years, Elizabeth added her personal experience and her expertise to the project. She also sits on several boards of organizations and foundations that bring awareness to this life-threatening condition.
 
Elizabeth is also the best-selling author of Percolate – Let Your Best Self Filter Through (Hay House Publishing). elizabethguarino.com.

Payback Claire MacLeary Blog Tour @SarabandBooks @ClaireMacLeary @LoveBooksGroup #LoveBooksTours 


   

Payback by Claire MacLeary

Published by Contraband in paperback 23rd April 2020

When the body of Aberdeen socialite Annabel Imray is discovered at her home, the police are under pressure to come up with answers, and fast. The last thing they want is the distraction of a series of baffling break-ins. The victims, all of them women, are terrorised just how did the intruder know so much about them?

Meanwhile, local PIs Maggie Laird and Wilma Harcus are at Rock bottom, their bills mounting. As Maggie prepares to sell her home and contemplates dissolving the agency, Wilma goes off-piste to get a loan. But when the clock starts ticking on repayment, she realises the price is too high. 

And before long, Maggie herself is in grave danger, Wilma fears the worst. Can she find her before it’s too late. 

My review

Author Claire MacLeary is a new author to me, but Payback is her fourth novel. 

Payback by Claire MacLeary is a crime novel and Dow what a page turner it is. 

In the opening chapter the polic want to know as Wilma and Maggie Laird are business partners can she tell them where they can find Maggie Laird. 

Wilma was left with with nothing from her divorce from her ex- husband. She wants her new man Ian, in her life if she could use some of the money they had saved for a new kitchen.

Maggie Laird  husband George died. Now she has a boomshell she needs thirteen grand to pay for bills. 

The body of Annabel Imray has been found in her house, without any obvious signs of injury, only a bruise on one temple and with nothing out of place. Police constable Ian Souter and PC Dave Miller are called to the scene. How Annabel wasn’t a conclusion I cane up with and how she died shocked me. 

If you haven’t heard of Claire MacLeary, I recommend Payback as one to start with that is one of the Harcus & Laurd series. 

My thanks to Kelly @LoveBooksGroup for sending me this fabulous crime novel to read and review and most of al for inviting me to be part of the blog tour today.

ABOUT AUTHOR CLAIRE MACLEARY


Claire MacLeary lived for many years in Aberdeen and St Andrews, but describes herself as “a feisty Glaswegian with a full life to draw on”. Following a career in business, she gained an MLitt with Distinction from the University of Dundee and her short stories have been published in various magazines and anthologies. She has appeared at Granite Noir, Noir at the Bar and other literary events. Claire’s debut novel, Cross Purpose, was longlisted for the prestigious McIlvanney Prize, Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award 2017, and Burnout was longlisted for the Hearst Big Book Award 2018. Runaway is her third novel and continues the Harcus & Laird series.

Buy Link & More Info 

RRP: £8.99 (print) / £4.99 (ebook)
ISBN: 9781912235827

Ebook ISBN: 9781912235834:

Publication date: April 23, 2020
https://amzn.to/2RDZjhO

https://www.waterstones.com/book/payback/claire-macleary/9781912235827

https://saraband.net/sb-title/payback/

@SarabandBooks
@ClaireMacLeary

@LoveBooksGroup  

#Lovebookstours 

Living Candles by Teodora Matei @TeoMatei2 @CorylusB @Lovebookgroup #Lovebookstours 

Living Candles by Teodora Matei

Published by Corylus Books

The discovery of a woman close to death in a city basement sends Bucharest police officers Anton Iordan and Sorin Matache on a complex chase through the city as they seek to identify the victim. As they try to track down the would-be murderer, they find a macabre trail of missing women and they realise that this isn’t the first time the killer has struck. Iordan and Matache hit one dead end after another, until they decide they’ll have to take a chance that could prove deadly.

   

 

My Review 

I’m really excited to share with you all a small publishing company Corlyus Books, that are publishing Living Candles, that’s a police procedural, mystery novel set in Romania. 

Serval people live in a block of flats that know everyone’s daily routines and who visits. Mrs Marcus had the shock of her life when she see in Minescu storage room a body of woman hanging upside down with her arms taped to her side, her ankles tied with rope and her red long hair. The police start questioning all residents in the apartment block, about this suspicious shocking discovery. I recommend reading Living Candles as there is a lot more to uncover. 

My thanks to Kelly @LoveBooksGroup for sending me the paperback Living Candles to read and review and for kindly inviting me to be part of the blog tour today.  

Buy Link

https://amzn.to/2HT6MnD

About Corylus Books

Corylus Book is a new venture aiming to publish fiction translated into English. The people behind the company have very different backgrounds, but what brings us together is a deep appreciation of crime fiction and a strong interest in books from countries that so have been under-represented in English.

It took a while before it turned out that everyone’s thoughts had been on similar lines – that we wanted to take a chance on presenting some of the great European crime fiction that wouldn’t normally make its way into English. With a mixture of language, translation and other skills between the four of us, it seemed the logical next step to take.

The first Corylus books are a pair of Romanian crime novellas, Living Candles by Teodora Matei and Zodiac by Anamaria Ionescu.

There’s more to come in 2020 – starting with Romanian novelist’s Bogdan Teodorescu’s Sword, a powerful political thriller that has already been a bestseller in Romania and in its French translation. Sword will be available in May and will be followed later in the year by the first of two books by Icelandic crime writer Sólveig Pálsdóttir. The Fox will be available in the second half of this year, followed by Shackles in 2021.

And there’s more to come, with a novel by Bogdan Hrib set partly in Romania and partly in the north-east of England, a second novel from Teodora Matei, and we’re talking to more exciting writers from across Europe about what we can do together…

@TeoMatei2 @CorylusB @Lovebookgroup #Lovebookstours

Twitter

@TeoMatei2

@CorylusB

@Lovebooksgroup

#Lovebookstours

#LivingCandles
Author Theo Matei

My Secret Terrius what I’ve been watching on Netflix

I have been watching on Netflix  My Secret Terrius from episode 10 featuring a strain of Coronavirus. There are similarities of the fictional one to our Coronavirus pandemic.  My Secret Terrius drama TV series was filmed in 2018. The TV show is set in South Korean. My Secret Terrius was aired from September to November 2018.  

My Secret Terrius episode 10 will shock you liked it did me, when the TV drama mentioned the Coronvirus. 

It’s frightening that a South Korean TV drama 2 years ago mentioned the word Coronavirus, when we have only just been hearing the word Coronavirus in 2020. 

I have a link to the sun with a scene from My Secret Terrius, and more about the Netflix TV drama if you want to find out more. It’s certainly worth watching.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/11271625/my-secret-terrius-coronavirus-scene/

Wine Girl Victoria James

  

Wine Girl Memoir By Victoria James

Published by Little Brown in hardback 16th April 2020

At just twenty-one, the age when most people are starting to drink (well, legally at least), Victoria James became the country’s youngest sommelier at a Michelin-starred restaurant. Even as Victoria was selling bottles worth hundreds and thousands of dollars during the day, passing sommelier certification exams with flying colors, and receiving distinction from all kinds of press, there were still groping patrons, bosses who abused their role and status, and a trip to the hospital emergency room.

It would take hitting bottom at a new restaurant and restorative trips to the vineyards where she could feel closest to the wine she loved for Victoria to re-emerge, clear-eyed and passionate, and a proud leader of her own Michelin-starred restaurant.
Exhilarating and inspiring, Wine Girl is the memoir of a young woman breaking free from an abusive and traumatic childhood on her own terms; an ethnography of the glittering, high-octane, but notoriously corrosive restaurant industry; and above all, a love letter to the restorative and life-changing effects of good wine and good hospitality. 

 Wine Girl is a memoir from America’s youngest sommelier, tracing her path through the glamourous, but famously toxic restaurant world. I found it so compelling – some of Victoria’s stories are shocking, but there’s also so much hope, resilience, and of course, wine! Victoria has worked in restaurants since she was thirteen and was certified as a sommelier when she was twenty-one. She has appeared on both Forbes and Zagat’s ‘30 Under 30’ lists. She has worked at some of the most prestigious restaurants in New York City, including Marea and Aureole. Currently, she is the Beverage Director and partner at Cote, a Michelin-starred hot spot in the Flatiron district of New York. 

My review 

Wine Girl is a memoir from America’s youngest sommelier, taking readers through the necessary accounts of the best and darkest moments throughout her work in the restaurant world. And d throughout her childhood age 7 to 14. When Victoria worked in the restaurants she take us all through what it was like working in the restaurant trade. Some of the wines were a staggering six-hundred-fifty dollars. And before serving wine, a sommelier must taste every single bottle. There are many more real life stories throughout this book, and stories about her family. I always like reading a memoir, with information of certain things people go through in their life. 

My thanks to

I would like to thank Grace at Little Brown for sending me this hardback memoir to read and review.

ABOUT VICTORIA JAMES 



Victoria James has worked in restaurants since she was 13 . She was certified as a sommelier when she was 21, making her the youngest sommelier in the USA and has appeared on both Forbes and Zagat’s under 30 lists. She has worked at some of the most prestigious restaurants in New York City, including Marea and Aureole. Currently she is the Beverage Director and partner at Cote, a Michelin-starred hot spot in the Flatiron district of New York. 

You can find Victoria James on Twitter  on 

Geturgrapeon

The Loss of Some Detail Mandi Martin Blog Tour

   

The Loss of Some Detail By Mandi Martin 

Paperback published by Clink Street 

Forget all you know, for all you know might well be false.

That is how is often seems to asylum worker James Grey as he tends to the patients abandoned to Oculus Mentis, an austere asylum lost to the world. His day to day quite literally forgettable.

Until now.

Slowly the world around him starts to change. Plagued by lucid dreams, a haunting drawing and visions of a pleading female he feels his mind is dissolving.

Aided by the enigmatic Silas and silent Marianne he seeks to solve the mysteries that are tormenting him.

MY REVIEW 

I absolutely loved reading the paperback  The Loss of Some Detail. James Grey in his mid-twenties is one of the younger attendants of the male section who is an asylum worker for patients in abandoned to Oculus Mentis. Most inmates are in isolation for their saftey and the staff safety. The part that enjoyed the most reading about was inmate Silas Everett, I loved how the author gave him a pleasant drawl, immaculately manicured nails, with hair falling to hips. Sailas, could be playing with James Grey, when he tells him, Did I not say I knew you? I remember even if you do not. I just loved reading about their ongoing talking session each time James had to go into Silas room. To share too much would be a shame to spoil this book, but I can assure you that several things happen in this story, that I didn’t know was going to take place.

Notes by Mandi Martin

Some language used in this book whilst unaccountable today, was common place in the era it is set in and is in no way a reflection of the author’s opinion and nor does Mandi condone it nowadays. 

From the desk of Sailas Everett, Oculus mentis forget all you know for what you know may all be false is the sky truly blue? Do our hearts really beat?

Perhaps existence is but a dream, a nightmare maybe I am merely unhinged but what is sane and what is normal?

Madness to one is normality to another and no person should judge so heed the following tale, should it ever be surfaced, with an open mind, for if it yo be closed then it surely has no function.

We are none of us perfect and I myself do not wish to befor what then would one strive for?

Still I have rambled enough, and so, good reader, I wish you well.

Both blessed and cursed.

Salis Everett.

ABOUT AUTHOR MANDI MARTIN

 

Information about the Book

Title: The Loss of Some Detail

Authors: Mandi Martin

Release Date: 17th March 2020

Genre: Historical Fiction

Page Count: 162

Publisher: Clink Street Publishing

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52044366-sully-s-glow

Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Loss-Some-Detail-Mandi-Martin/dp/1913340376

Author Information

I’m in my thirties and I live in Ryde on the beautiful Isle of Wight although I was born in Birmingham.

There’s not really a lot to say about me really. I have Aspergers and writing became my outlet, social situations terrified me so I spent a lot of time writing poetry, drawing and losing myself in worlds of my own.

I absolutely adore animals; I prefer them to people, so my two cats clearly get away with almost anything.

I live with my brother and my mother and spending time with them is another highlight of my day. Although, I could do without the trial of socks and others pieces the former leaves in his wake.

Weather and health permitting I enjoy walking and also looking around graveyards, it possibly sounds morbid but the history and the artistry fascinate me.

I also collect lapel pin badges, I think I have over ten thousand now but I couldn’t say, I gave up counting ages ago, it was taking too long!

 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MandiMartin1986

 



Hybrids, Volume Two: Vengeance by Jennie Dorny@jenniedornyauthor @LoveBooksGroup #Lovebookstours #Cover Reveal 

Hybrids, Volume Two : Vengeance By Jennie Dorny 

Cover Reveal 

Caught in a web of murder and vengeance, Theo must outsmart the Spylady to save her new friends. Imprisoned in a male appearance, can Nand survive deportation without losing herself?

Forced to leave Eridan after her mental battle with Keith of Rain Forest, Theo travels to Earth Metropolis with SpaceSS agent Jack Finch. When Jack is arrested for murdering his husband, Farren, Theo’s plans for a new future collapse.

To impress Declan, Nand face-changes into her cousin’s appearance on the day of the Face Changer Assembly. But her moment of triumph turns into a nightmare when Keith launches an attack against the Face Changers.

Deported to Gambling Nova, the federal prison, with Ashta and a few Face Changers, will Declan be strong enough to overcome his guilt in order to help Nand keep her male appearance and safeguard Eridan’s future?

Convinced that Farren is still alive, Theo must outsmart the Spylady if she wants to get Jack released from the penitentiary and find Farren’s whereabouts. Yet when Sheer, the Savalwomen leader, orders her to rescue the Face Changers, Theo faces a new challenge: is she ready to return to Gambling Nova? And risk her life?

About Author Jennie Dorny

Jennie Dorny was born in 1960 in Newton, Massachusetts. She lives and works in Paris with her three cats. She is both French and American. She studied American literature and civilization, Italian and history of art at three Parisian universities. She wrote her Master’s thesis about contemporary Irish poetry after spending a year in Dublin. She loves words and languages, and she can spend hours exploring a thesaurus. Over the years, she has studied Spanish, Japanese, Hindi and sign language, and recently took up Italian again. She has published in French Gambling Nova (1999), Eridan (2002) and Les Cupidons sont tombés sur la tête (Mischievous Cupids gone Crazy, 2007). Gambling Nova and Eridan are partial, earlier versions of Hybrids; science-fiction novels that in many ways deal with the question of gender.

Find more at http://www.jenniedorny.com and feel free to join the club.

Like Jennie Dorny’s Facebook page: facebook.com/Jennie-Dorny-Author-Auteur-

Instagram: @jenniedornyauthor

Buy link

WINK ROB HARRELL

WINK BY ROB HARRELL

Paperback published by Hot Keys Books 5th March 2020

Ross just wants to be normal.

But when his recent diagnosis of a rare eye cancer, blending in is no longer an option.

Filled with humour, heart and batpig, this is a story about surviving one wink at a time. 

MY REVIEW 

The author Rob Harrell, in October 2005 was very sadly diagnosed with a cancer above his right eye. Brave Rob took his eye cancer ordeal and made It into a page turning fiction book, for young people to read and adults. Much of the character Ross cancer treatments are based on Rob’s experience with cancer. 

In Wink a character Ross suffers from eye cancer. The story is very educational as it takes readers through the steps of radioactive, where Ross has to wear a mesh mask with an eye hole and has to keep his eye on a Red Cross. I loved the little illustrations showing what the mesh mask looked like and the red cross. 

Children can be quite inquisitive. We are taken through the question what school friends ask Ross and the ones that really care about Ross. 

Wink is quite a heartbreaking read as Ross suffers from a puffy eye and surgery with a slot scar and hair loss. Just like the author went through, with his eye cancer. 

By Doctors orders hats are an important part of life for Ross to keep the sun off his face which he has to wear inside and outside. Once again this fact why Ross had to wear hats became educational. The drawings of all types of hats were amazing. 

I highly recommend Wink as it’s a page turner fiction novel being, very educational. Everyone is talking about Wink. It’s the perfect type of book you can sit and read your self what ever your age or read to your child. This is a perfect choice for schools and book club to talk about. 

If there is a caregiver in your life, drop everything and go give them a huge bear hug. Seriously. Go do it now before you forget.

MY THANKS TO 

I would like to say a huge thank you to Hot Keys Books for sending me a uncorrected proof copy of WINK to read and review. 



ABOUT AUTHOR ROB HARRELL 

Rob Harrell is a syndicated cartoonist and his illustration clients include Mad Magazine, Time Inc and Volkswagen. He lives in Austin Texas, with his wife and dogs. 

In October 2005 Ross was diagnosed with a cancer right above his right eye, in the gland that provides tears. It was rare, aggressive and nearly unpronounceable a muscoepidermoid carcinoma of the lacrimal gland. A good deal of what happens to Ross in WINK came from his own experience. The biopsies, the surgeries, the initial  plan to take Rob’s eye and blind him. The last minute reprieve by way of proton radiation. The hat . Fortunately he was 37, old enough that he could handle it. Kind of. He was living in Austin at the time, so goofy straw  Cowboy hat didn’t stick out that much. And he had his wife, Amber to help him through it. But it was an incredible hard time. 

LOT stories BRYAN WASHINGTON

   

LOT Stories by BRYAN WASHINGTON 

Hardback published by Atlantic Books

In an apartment block in the city of Houston, the son of a black mother and a Latino father is coming of age. He’s working at his family restaurant, trying to dodge his brother’s fists and resenting his older sister’s absence. He also discovering he likes boys.

All around him his friends and neighbours experience the tumult of living in the margins, the heartbreak of ghosts and the braveries of the human heart. The stories of others living, thriving and dying across the city’s myriad neighbourhoods are switched throughout the boy’s life to reveal a young woman caught out in an affair, the fortunes of a rag-tag baseball team and a group of young hustlers, the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, a local drug dealer who takes a Guatemalan teen under his wing, and the fate of a camera-shy mythical beast.

Bryan Washington’s brilliant, viscerally drawn world leaps off the page with engery, wit and the infinite longing of people searching for home. With soulful insight into what makes a community, a family and a life, Lot is about love in all it’s unsparing and insteady forms.

My review 

Lot by Bryan Washington, is a short story collection that centres in the city of Huston. I found it very well written. It’s a raw read, with coming of age, drugs and race, and being unfaithful.  The scene is set well, in an apartment block in the city of Huston, the son of a black mother and a Latino father. 

The passage that I found raw and heartbreaking.

For a while our father kept this other woman in the Heights. It was tough luck seeing him most nights at best. He’d snatch at his keys from the kitchen counter, nod to all of us at once, spit something about how he had business to handle, and of course he never thought to tell us what it could be but we figured it out. 

About author Bryan Washington 



Bryan has written for the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, BuzzFeed, The Paris Review, Boston Review, Tin House, One Story, GQ, FADER, The Awl and Catapult. He lives in Huston, Texas. 

You can find Bryan Washington on 

Twitter@brywashing