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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Aug 20, 2021  
Today, author Julia Daily stops by my blog with a fascinating interview about her women's fiction novel NO NAMES TO BE GIVEN. Watch the book trailer, and then enter the giveaway to win a $100 Amazon gift card!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/08/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-no-names-to.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
1965. Sandy runs away from home to escape her mother’s abusive boyfriend. Becca falls in love with the wrong man. And Faith suffers a devastating attack. With no support and no other options, these three young, unwed women meet at a maternity home hospital in New Orleans where they are expected to relinquish their babies and return home as if nothing transpired.

But such a life-altering event can never be forgotten, and no secret remains buried forever. Twenty-five years later, the women are reunited by a blackmailer, who threatens to expose their secrets and destroy the lives they’ve built. That shattering revelation would shake their very foundations—and reverberate all the way to the White House.

Told from the three women’s perspectives in alternating chapters, this mesmerizing story is based on actual experiences of women in the 1960s who found themselves pregnant but unmarried, pressured by family and society to make horrific decisions. How that inconceivable act changed women forever is the story of No Names to Be Given, a heartbreaking but uplifting novel of family and redemption.
     
The Protector (William Falkland #2)
The Protector (William Falkland #2)
S.J. Deas | 2022
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is the second - and, to date, last - of S.J. Deas's William Falkland series (after The Royalist, at the end of which, and having discharged his investigative duties to Cromwell, William Falkland returned home in search of his wife and family.

As this starts, he has yet to find them.

It's into far into the novel before Cromwell again pulls Falkland into his orbit, offering his (and, by extension, Parliament's) help in discovering just what happened to Falkland's family and where they may be (perhaps in Oxford, the King's new capital?) as the First Civil War draws to a close - help that is, of course, contingent upon Falkland again carrying out an investigation for Cromwell: this time into just what happened to the sister of a prominent supporter of Parliament who has disappeared (abducted?): one Anne Agar, this sister of John Milton.

Yes, that John Milton. The author of Paradise Lost. Although that is never once mentioned here - I think (am nearly sure that) the setting here may be before he wrote that poem.

Once again, the narrative is told in the first-person view, with - once again - a warts-and-all picture given of life at the time, and with Falkland being both incredibly astute and incredibly blind at the same time! In other words, coming across as a 'real' person rather than as a literary construct.

I'm now going to go on record as saying: more, please!
  
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Mar 1, 2023  
Sneak a peek at the romantic suspense mystery novel COPPER WATERS by Marlene M Bell, Author on my blog, and enter the amazing #giveaway for a chance to #win a signed ARC paperback of the book; a leather bucket bag; a 100% New Zealand gray wool throw; a Hagestad hammered water bottle; a Lucy Pittaway notebook; and a $50 VISA gift card!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2023/03/reviewapalooza-and-giveaway-copper.html

**ABOUT THE BOOK**
A rural New Zealand vacation turns poisonous.

Antiquities expert Annalisse Drury and tycoon Alec Zavos are at an impasse in their relationship when Alec refuses to clear up a paternity issue with an ex-lover.

Frustrated with his avoidance when their future is at stake, Annalisse accepts an invitation from an acquaintance to fly to New Zealand—hoping to escape the recent turbulence in her life.

But even Annalisse’s cottage idyll on the family sheep farm isn’t immune to intrigue.

Alec sends a mutual friend and detective, Bill Drake, to follow her, and a local resident who accompanies them from the Christchurch airport dies mysteriously soon after. A second violent death finds Annalisse and Bill at odds with the official investigations.

The local police want to close both cases as quickly as possible—without unearthing the town’s dirty secrets.

As she and Bill pursue their own leads at serious cost, the dual mysteries force Annalisse to question everything she thought she knew about family ties, politics, and the art of small-town betrayal.
     
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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2504 KP) rated The Raven Thief in Books

Jan 25, 2024 (Updated Jan 25, 2024)  
The Raven Thief
The Raven Thief
Gigi Pandian | 2023 | Mystery
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Who Made the Impossible Possible?
Tempest Raj’s family’s specialty construction company has just finished a project for a family friend. Lavinia Kingsley wanted to redesign a space her ex-husband had used. She’s planning an open house followed by a séance, overseen by Tempest’s friend Sanjay, to ceremonially get her ex out of her life. However, when the lights come on in the middle of the séance, the group finds Lavinia’s ex’s very real body on the table in their midst. With the police looking at her grandfather, Tempest jumps into the case. But she realizes there are four impossible things that she needs to figure out in order to solve the case. Can she figure out not only who did it, but how?

I’m not sure why I didn’t get to this book sooner, but I’m glad I finally did. I was quickly hooked, and the locked room aspect really added to the plot. The complications and twists just made the book harder to put down, but I was completely satisfied when I turned the last page. I fell in love with the characters even more here, as well. We get some advancement to the overarching storyline related to Tempest’s family, which made me glad the next book is coming soon. There are even three recipes at the end. If you haven’t read this book yet, fix that today.