What a super evening I had last night at the Headline Blogger Evening at Carmelite House. I’d like to say thank you to all those involved, and especially the wonderful Georgina Moore whom you should follow on Twitter here.

With the fabulous Georgina Moore!

It’s so lovely to meet those wonderful publicists who send we bloggers fantastic books to read. I always relish meeting up with fellow bloggers and this time I met in real life a couple I’ve followed since I started blogging: John from The Last Word blog and Jackie from Never Imitate.

With Adam Handy, John (The Last Word)  and Tina (Trip Fiction)

We had wine and nibbles as well as the opportunity to talk with several authors before walking away with fantastic books. I so enjoyed speaking with Alison Weir and Colette McBeth, both of whom signed books for me and I have to admit to having a bit of a fan girl moment talking with Adele Parks whose latest book The Stranger in My Home was also published in paperback yesterday. Equally brilliant was having the chance to speak at length with  Adam Handy and Felicia Yap.

Authors attending or featured last night were:

Adam Handy and Pendulum

You wake. Confused. Disorientated.
A noose is round your neck.
You are bound, standing on a chair.
All you can focus on is the man in the mask tightening the rope.
You are about to die.
John Wallace has no idea why he has been targeted. No idea who his attacker is. No idea how he will prevent the inevitable.
Then the pendulum of fate swings in his favour.
He has one chance to escape, find the truth and halt his destruction.
The momentum is in his favour for now.
But with a killer on his tail, everything can change with one swing of this deadly pendulum…

You have one chance. Run.

Pendulum is available here

Adele Parks and The Stranger in My Home

Alison is lucky and she knows it. She has the life she always craved, including a happy home with Jeff and their brilliant, vivacious teenage daughter, Katherine – the absolute centre of Alison’s world.

Then a knock at the door ends life as they know it.

Fifteen years ago, someone else took Alison’s baby from the hospital. And now Alison is facing the unthinkable.

The daughter she brought home doesn’t belong to her.

When you have everything you dreamed of, there is everything to lose.

The Stranger in My Home is available here.

Alison Weir and Six Tudor Queens: Katherine of Aragon

A Spanish princess. Raised to be modest, obedient and devout. Destined to be an English Queen.

Six weeks from home across treacherous seas, everything is different: the language, the food, the weather. And for her there is no comfort in any of it. At sixteen-years-old, Catalina is alone among strangers.

She misses her mother. She mourns her lost brother.
She cannot trust even those assigned to her protection.

Katherine of Aragon. The first of Henry’s Queens. Her story.

History tells us how she died. This captivating novel shows us how she lived.

Six Tudor Queens: Katherine of Aragon is available here.

Amanda Reynolds and Close to Me

When Jo Harding falls down the stairs at home, she wakes up in hospital with partial amnesia – she’s lost a whole year of memories.

A lot can happen in a year. Was Jo having an affair? Lying to her family? Starting a new life?

She can’t remember what she did – or what happened the night she fell.

But she’s beginning to realise she might not be as good a wife and mother as she thought.

Close to Me is available for pre-order here.

Colette McBeth and An Act of Silence

These are the facts I collect.

My son Gabriel met a woman called Mariela in a bar. She went home with him where they had sex. They next morning she was found in an allotment.

Mariela is dead.

Gabriel has been asked to report to Camden Police station in six hours for questioning

Linda Moscow: loving mother to Gabriel. Linda promised herself years ago that she would never let her son down again. Even if it means going against everything she believes in – she will do anything to protect him. She owes him that much.

Gabriel Miller: the prodigal son. He only ever wanted his mother’s love, but growing up he always seemed to do the wrong thing. If his mother could only see the bad in him – how could he possibly be good?

How far will a mother go to save her son? Linda’s decision might save Gabriel, but it will have a catastrophic impact on the lives of others. What would you do if faced with the same impossible choice?

An Act of Silence is available for pre-order here.

Felicia Yap and Yesterday

There are two types of people in the world. Those who can only remember yesterday, and those who can also recall the day before.

You have just one lifeline to the past: your diary. Each night, you write down the things that matter. Each morning, your diary tells you where you were, who you loved and what you did.

Today, the police are at your door. They say that the body of your husband’s mistress has been found in the River Cam. They think your husband killed her two days ago.

Can you trust the police? Can you trust your husband? Can you trust yourself?

Yesterday is available for pre-order here.

G X Todd and Defender

‘On the cusp of sleep, have we not all heard a voice call out our name?’

In a world where long drinks are in short supply, a stranger listens to the voice in his head telling him to buy a lemonade from the girl sitting on a dusty road.

The moment locks them together.

Here and now it’s dangerous to listen to your inner voice. Those who do, keep it quiet.

These voices have purpose.

And when Pilgrim meets Lacey, there is a reason. He just doesn’t know it yet.

Defender pulls you on a wild ride to a place where the voices in your head will save or slaughter you.

#HearTheVoices

Defender is available here.

Jen Williams and The Ninth Rain

The great city of Ebora once glittered with gold. Now its streets are stalked by wolves. Tormalin the Oathless has no taste for sitting around waiting to die while the realm of his storied ancestors falls to pieces – talk about a guilt trip. Better to be amongst the living, where there are taverns full of women and wine.

When eccentric explorer, Lady Vincenza ‘Vintage’ de Grazon, offers him employment, he sees an easy way out. Even when they are joined by a fugitive witch with a tendency to set things on fire, the prospect of facing down monsters and retrieving ancient artefacts is preferable to the abomination he left behind.

But not everyone is willing to let the Eboran empire collapse, and the adventurers are quickly drawn into a tangled conspiracy of magic and war. For the Jure’lia are coming, and the Ninth Rain must fall…

The Ninth Rain is available for pre-order here.

Julia Crouch and Her Husband’s Lover

She stole her husband. Now she wants to take her life.

After the horrors of the past, Louisa Williams is desperate to make a clean start.

Her husband Sam is dead. Her children, too, are gone, victims of the car accident in which he died.

Sam said that she would never get away from him. That he would hound her until she died if she tried to leave. Louisa never thought that he would want to harm their children though.

But then she never thought that he would betray her with a woman like Sophie.
And now Sophie is determined to take all that Louisa has left. She wants to destroy her reputation and to take what she thinks is owed her – the life she would have had if Sam had lived.

Her husband’s lover wants to take her life. The only question is will Louisa let her?

Her Husband’s Lover is available here.

Mary Torjussen and Gone Without A Trace

No one ever disappears completely…

You leave for work one morning.

Another day in your normal life.

Until you come home to discover that your boyfriend has gone.
His belongings have disappeared.
He hasn’t been at work for weeks.
It’s as if he never existed.

But that’s not possible, is it?

And there is worse still to come.

Because just as you are searching for him someone is also watching you.

Gone Without A Trace is available here.

Nikola Scott and My Mother’s Shadow

It is 1958. Elizabeth has been sent away from her London home to the beautiful Hartland House in Sussex. Over an idyllic summer by the coast, she grows close to the confident young Shaws, who treat her like one of their own. A lovely but innocent girl, Elizabeth is ready to fall in love – but her dreams are dangerously naïve.

Decades later, Elizabeth’s daughter Addie is stunned when a stranger appears on her doorstep, claiming that they are sisters. Addie doesn’t believe it. Until her beloved father admits that everything she’s been told about her early life is a lie.

For Addie and her new sister Phoebe it’s the beginning of an emotional journey back to a time of fallen women and domineering fathers, as they discover the extraordinary truth about how their lives began…

My Mother’s Shadow is available for pre-order here.

I think my spring reading might just be sorted!