Extract from My Great-Aunt's Diary by Laura Sweeney

Today it's my pleasure to share with you an extract from the Prologue for My Great-Aunt's Diary by Laura Sweeney. But first a little about the book. 

Heartbroken and searching for a new beginning, Emily is shocked to learn she has inherited her great-aunt Violet’s cottage. She remembers summers spent running through its rose garden, but she hasn’t seen her great-aunt in years… So why did she leave her Clifftop Cottage?

Deciding this is the fresh start she needs, Emily travels to the seaside village of Dovecote. Not long after she arrives, she bumps into her childhood love, Will. As he runs his hand through his chestnut-brown hair, she can’t help but think of what happened between them all those years ago…

When Will offers to help redecorate the cottage, Emily is unsure. He broke her heart once before; could he do it again? But she is soon distracted when she finds a leather diary dating back to the Second World War hidden inside an old desk. Turning the pages, she discovers a wartime romance she knew nothing about. Why did Violet keep this secret?

Extract from The Weekenders by David F. Ross

When I was contacted about taking part in The Weekenders blog tour, I knew I wasn't in a position to read the latest from David F. Ross as my reading mojo is still very hit and miss but I still wanted to show my support for the author and his publisher. So today I have an extract which you can read below but first a little about the book. 

Glasgow, 1966: Stevie 'Minto' Milloy, former star footballer-turned-rookie reporter, finds himself trailing the story of a young Eastern European student whose body has been found on remote moorland outside the city. How did she get there from her hostel at the Sovereign Grace Mission, and why does Stevie find obstacles at every turn?

Italy, 1943: As the Allies fight Mussolini's troops, a group of young soldiers are separated from their platoon, and Glaswegian Jamesie Campbell, his newfound friend Michael McTavish at his side, finds himself free to make his own rules…

Glasgow, 1969: Courtroom sketch artist Donald 'Doodle' Malpas is shocked to discover that his new case involves the murder of a teenage Lithuanian girl he knows from the Sovereign Grace Mission. Why hasn't the girl's death been reported? And why is a young police constable suddenly so keen to join the mission?

No one seems willing to join the dots between the two cases, and how they link to Raskine House, the stately home in the Scottish countryside with a dark history and even darker present – the venue for the debauched parties held there by the rich and powerful of the city who call themselves 'The Weekenders'.

Extract from The Murder Affair by Alice Castle

When Bookouture did a shout out for participants for their latest blog tour, we weren't in a position to sign up to review. Instead to offer our support we agreed to host an extract from The Murder Affair, the latest in the Beth Haldane Mystery series from Alice Castle but first a little about the book.

In a quiet little village, mourners gather for a church funeral. But some of the tears flowing are fake – and Beth Haldane suspects foul play…

On a rainy afternoon, Beth Haldane accompanies her elderly mother Wendy to the funeral of her boyfriend and local councillor Len. But as they gather in the church, Beth can’t help but notice how many women are there who look just like her mother.

As the service begins it soon becomes clear that all of the women thought they were Len’s special someone – and one of them even claims to be his distraught wife. Wendy suspects foul play and immediately asks Beth to investigate.

Extract from Dashboard Elvis is Dead by David F. Ross

Today I'm hosting our final blog tour post of the year, an extract from Dashboard Elvis is Dead by David F. Ross who I previously hosted in a debut spotlight feature back in 2015. 

Renowned photo-journalist Jude Montgomery arrives in Glasgow in 2014, in the wake of the failed Scottish independence referendum, and it’s clear that she’s searching for someone.

Is it Anna Mason, who will go on to lead the country as First Minister? Jamie Hewitt, guitarist from eighties one-hit wonders The Hyptones? Or is it Rabbit – Jude’s estranged foster sister, now a world-famous artist?

Three apparently unconnected people, who share a devastating secret, whose lives were forever changed by one traumatic night in Phoenix, forty years earlier…

Taking us back to a school shooting in her Texas hometown, and a 1980s road trip across the American West – to San Francisco and on to New York – Jude’s search ends in Glasgow, and a final, shocking event that only one person can fully explain…

4th June 1983: 

It is my birthday. Sweet sixteen. Delphine Toussaint, my mom, has allowed me to stay home from school. Larry is driving a car to Dallas for his boss. So Momma wants some company, I guess. She is in a good mood. Sober too. That will make it particularly memorable. We sit on the porch. We laugh about Gonzo chasing a rabbit. And Gonzo’s fat hairy ass getting jammed in a gap in Ed White’s fence. 

Aw Jeez, Jude, Ed wails. I’m gonna have to paint that again now! 

Extract from A Deadly Covenant by Michael Stanley

Sadly for me my reading mojo is still very much AWOL so I wasn't in a position to review A Deadly Covenant, the latest in the Detective Kubu series from Michael Stanley. However, I still wanted to offer my support to the authors as I've previously read and enjoyed a few of the previous books in the series, and now that I think of it I still have one to read in my TBR pile, so I have a short extract for you to enjoy but first a little about the book.

When a human skeleton is discovered at the site of a controversial new dam in remote northern Botswana, rookie Detective Kubu is drawn into a terrifying local feud, and discovers a deadly covenant that could change everything…

While building a pipeline near the Okavango Delta, a contractor unearths the remains of a long-dead Bushman. Rookie Detective David ‘Kubu’ Bengu of Botswana CID and Scottish pathologist, Ian MacGregor, are sent to investigate, and MacGregor discovers the skeletons of eight more men.

Shortly after the gruesome discoveries, the elder of a nearby village is murdered in his home. The local police are convinced it was a robbery, but Kubu isn’t so sure … and neither is the strange woman who claims that an angry river spirit caused the elder’s death.

As accusations of corruption are levelled and international outrage builds over the massacre of the Bushman families, Kubu and his colleagues uncover a deadly covenant, and begin to fear that their own lives may be in mortal danger…  

Extract from Other People's Husbands by Elizabeth Noble

Today it's our stop on the blog tour for Other People's Husbands by Elizabeth Nobel which Emma reviewed here. I also have an extract from Chapter 1 to share with you but first a little about the book.   

Sometimes friendship crosses a line . . .

A group of close friends, their bonds forged at the nursery gates two decades ago, have celebrated, commiserated and grown together: they thought they all knew each other so well.

Until the affair.

Now a crack appears in everything.

Could one betrayal really destroy it all?

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

It felt, to her, like she’d been initiated today. She was in this club. They were all founder members. If she was honest with herself, even though this was May and she’d known these people since the previous September, she’d had imposter syndrome almost up until this weekend. She wasn’t, couldn’t be, entirely sure she and Phil belonged with this gilded group. They were very ordinary people. She’d always thought so. It wasn’t pejorative. At least, she didn’t mean it to be. Not dull, she’d hoped, but ordinary nonetheless. She’d had what were almost crushes on these women she’d met at the nursery and school gates, and slowly, carefully, got to know over the last few months.

Extract from Deception by Lesley Pearse

Today as part of the blog tour for Lesley Pearse's 30th novel Deception, it's my pleasure to share with you an extract from Chapter 1 but first a little about the book. 

What happens when the person closest to you has led a life of deception?

After the funeral of her mother, Sally, Alice Kent is approached by a man named Angus Tweedy. He claims to be her father and tells her that he served time in prison for marrying Sally bigamously.

What does he hope to gain by telling her this now, thirty years on?

How can her adored dad Ralph not be her true father?

And why did her mother betray her so badly?

She had accepted Sally's many faults, and her reluctance to ever speak of the past. But faced with this staggering deception, Alice knows she must uncover the whole truth about her mother.

Whatever the cost.

As Alice journeys into the past she discovers her mother may never have been the woman she claimed to be . . .

Spring 2015

Alice Kent turned up the volume on her car radio as Eric Clapton, playing her favourite number, ‘Layla’, came on.

She was speeding down from Bristol to her mother’s funeral in Totnes and she was late, delayed by wafflers at the meeting this morning. Now she’d have to go straight to the church in Dartington instead of meeting up with her family first. As that would give her enough time not to be late for the service, she relaxed a little and sang along with Eric.

Her mother, Sally Kent, had died of cancer ten days earlier. Alice had taken leave from work so she could nurse her mother for her last weeks and, sad as it was for her mother to die relatively young at seventy-five, Alice knew she was glad to go. 

Extract from The Secret of Karabakh by Fidan Bagirova

Today it's my stop on The Secret of Karabakh blog tour and it's my pleasure to share an extract from this debut novel from Fidan Bagirova.

You are not who you think you are. Your future is not what you think it will be. You are in danger...

Alana Fulton, the beloved only child of wealthy American parents, is bookish and passionate about the past. In the final stages of a PhD in archaeology at the University of Cambridge, Alana's future is bright and assured. Then comes the anonymous note: You are not who you think you are. Suddenly, everything in her life - including her sense of self - is under assault.

As Alana flees unknown pursuers and mounting danger, all that is familiar crumbles away. In time, it becomes clear to Alana why she's being pursued; and she must ask herself where her loyalties and her future lie.

Prologue 

High on a green hillside, by a rock outcrop shaped like a cat curled in sleep, lay a young mother, her face turned to the earth. The cold wind snatched at the blood-soaked hem of her embroidered headscarf. Her arm was outstretched toward a child, dropped like a sack a yard away. The eyes of the dead child, a little girl, were closed. Her hair was the color of licorice, matted with dirt and blood. Wrapped around her neck was a pink woolen scarf decorated with chocolate-brown rabbits and butter-yellow ducklings; its fringe trailed in the congealing puddle of gore thrown from her body by a soldier’s bullet. Between woman and child, like an umbilicus, was a twisted gray plaid blanket, twined round the woman’s torso and the child’s limbs. 

Extract from Her Perfect Family by Teresa Driscoll

Today it's my stop on the blog tour for Teresa Driscoll's latest book Her Perfect Family which was published this week. Sadly I knew that I wasn't in a position to read for review so I offered to host an extract instead but first a little about the book.   

It’s their daughter’s graduation and Rachel and Ed Hartley are expecting it to be one of their family’s happiest days. But when she stumbles and falls on stage during the ceremony, a beautiful moment turns to chaos: Gemma has been shot, and just like that, she’s fighting for her life.

PI Matthew Hill is one of the first on the scene. A cryptic message Gemma received earlier in the day suggests someone close to her was about to be exposed. But who? As Matthew starts to investigate, he finds more and more layers obscuring the truth. He even begins to suspect the Hartleys are hiding something big—from him and from each other.

While Gemma lies in hospital in a coma, her would-be killer is still out there. Can Matthew unravel the family’s secrets before the attacker strikes again?

I find that I am holding my breath. I trace the names with my finger. Walk, applause. Walk, applause. And then at last.

Gemma Hartley...

I see her appear at the back of the choir stall in her gown and her mortar board with her long dark hair loose over her shoulders. I take in the neutral shoes and the slightly tanned legs. And then there is this little punch of shock as she walks forward. 

Extract from The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser

Today it's my pleasure to be kicking off the blog tour for Jackie Fraser's debut novel The Bookshop of Second Chances by sharing an extract from Chapter One. 

Thea’s having a bad month. Not only has she been made redundant, she’s also discovered her husband of nearly twenty years is sleeping with one of her friends. And he’s not sorry – he’s leaving. 

Bewildered and lost, Thea doesn’t know what to do. But, when she learns the great-uncle she barely knew has died and left her his huge collection of second-hand books and a house in the Scottish Lowlands, she seems to have been offered a second chance. 

Running away to a little town where no one knows her seems like exactly what Thea needs. But when she meets the aristocratic Maltravers brothers – grumpy bookshop owner Edward and his estranged brother Charles, Lord Hollinshaw – her new life quickly becomes just as complicated as the life she was running from... 

I can’t look at him, or not full on. I keep glancing sideways at him, just catching glimpses. Our eyes never meet.

‘Yes. It’s all right. Or no, it isn’t, it’s . . . but I know you didn’t exactly do it on purpose.’

‘No. I really didn’t.’ He looks knackered, almost as bad as I feel.

‘Anyway, I’d better go.’

He nods, and then says, ‘Oh, wait. There’s a letter.’

‘A letter?’

‘It only came yesterday. I thought, as I was going to see you . . . Hang on,’ he says, and disappears for a moment into the study. ‘Here. A solicitor’s letter, I think. Have you—’

‘Not my solicitors,’ I say, taking the envelope from him. I hesitate and then tear it open, rapidly scanning the contents. ‘Oh, weird.’

‘What is it?’ says Xanthe.

‘It’s Uncle Andrew.’ I look at Chris. ‘Great-uncle Andrew, I should say.’

‘The one who died?’

I nod. Great-uncle Andrew died last year. I didn’t go to the funeral; he lives – lived – in Scotland, and I’d only met him a few times. My grandfather’s eldest brother, he’d outlived Grandad by a good fifteen years and made it to ninety-three.

‘And?’

‘He’s left me his house,’ I say, rather stunned.

Extract from Song of the Nile by Hannah Fielding

Today it's my stop on the blog tour for Hannah Fielding's latest book Song of the Nile which is published today. Sadly I wasn't in a position to read for review so instead I have an extract for you to read below but first a little about the book.   

Luxor, 1946. When young nurse Aida El Masri returns from war-torn London to her family’s estate in Egypt she steels herself against the challenges ahead.

Eight years have passed since her father, Ayoub, was framed for a crime he did not commit, and died as a tragic result. Yet Aida has not forgotten, and now she wants revenge against the man she believes betrayed her father – his best friend, Kamel Pharaony.

Then Aida is reunited with Kamel’s son, the captivating surgeon Phares, who offers her marriage. In spite of herself, the secret passion Aida harboured for him as a young girl reignites. Still, how can she marry the son of the man who destroyed her father and brought shame on her family? Will coming home bring her love, or only danger and heartache?

Chapter 4 pages 133 - 135

The ballroom opened on to an immense walled garden, where an enormous marquee had been set up for dinner on one acre of land. Inside the marquee, a long, narrow buffet table, covered in velvet sirmas embroidered with gold thread, stretched almost out of sight. Standing behind it, suffragis wearing kaftans in the family colours of dark green and gold served guests who wandered in to sit at round tables. The tent was lit with Turkish blue mosaic drop lanterns, and beyond this pool of light the rest of the garden lay deep in shadow. 

Extract from Don't Turn Around by Jessica Barry

My thanks to Graeme Williams for the Don't Turn Around blog tour invitation. I’m delighted to be joining the road trip this lunchtime with an extract and my review will follow later this week. 

TWO STRANGERS. DANGEROUS SECRETS. THEIR ONLY CHANCE IS EACH OTHER.

Cait's job is to transport women to safety. Out of respect, she never asks any questions. Like most of the women, Rebecca is trying to escape something.

But what if Rebecca's secrets put them both in danger? There's a reason Cait chooses to keep on the road, helping strangers. She has a past of her own, and knows what it's like to be followed.

And there is someone right behind them, watching their every move...

CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, NEW MEXICO
217 MILES FROM ALBUQUERQUE

They’d been silent for the first couple miles back on the road, eyes trained on the mirrors, watching out for headlights, waiting for the man from the diner to appear on the road intent on killing them, but the lights of Clovis had faded and the road behind them had remained stubbornly empty. Rebecca felt herself breathe again.

Cait looked over at her. “Did you recognize him?”

“No.” It was the truth: Rebecca hadn’t recognized that man in the diner, but she’d known as soon as she’d seen him that he was there for her. The look in his eyes, caught in a fraction of a glance, was enough to tell her that.

Patrick must have called the house phone and realized she was gone. But how would he have found her so quickly? She looked at the dashboard clock. They hadn’t been on the road longer than a couple of hours. It wasn’t enough time for him to have sent someone to the house, let alone track her down like this.

Unless he already knew where they were headed.

Cait shook her head. “I didn’t recognize him, either. Well, he’s gone now, anyway. Are you okay?”

“A little shaken up. You?”

“I’m fine,” Cait said, a little too quickly. She was still rattled and trying hard to hide it. “Honestly? He was probably just some creep.” She sneaked a glance Rebecca’s way, testing out whether she was buying it.

“Probably,” Rebecca said vaguely. She didn’t want to let Cait in on her suspicions, not until she knew for sure what was out there. She couldn’t risk Cait deciding it was too dangerous. They’d read a disclaimer to her over the phone when she’d set up the appointment. “Sisters of Service holds the right to terminate a drive at any point if the client’s safety or the driver’s safety is in immediate danger. If a direct threat is made to the client or driver, Sisters of Service will contact the authorities immediately.” Rebecca had agreed to the terms because this was her only choice. She couldn’t afford to lose it.

Extract from Until We're Fish by Susannah R. Drissi

Today as part of the blog tour organised by Anne at Random Things Tours I'm sharing an extract from Until We're Fish by Susannah R. Drissi. 

In Until We’re Fish, Rodríguez Drissi investigates the complicity between Cuba’s Americana and the 1959 Cuban Revolution to reckon with the emotional, psychological, and historical forces that drive Cubans away from their island. To shape her novel the author reached deep into her real family’s feelings of love and bitterness for what they left behind in Cuba. 

Stunning and  elegiac, Until We’re Fish juxtaposes powerful images of landscapes, playful meditations on life, and penetrating  insights into the human heart to richly bring to life the story of mischevious dreamer Elio, a Cuban teen whose  unbridled confidence is severely tested after a near-fatal shark attack. Elio longs for freedom from the dreary  home he shares with his mother. He spends his days and nights fantasizing about an American bike and Maria,  his vivacious next-door neighbor. Two obstacles stand in his way: the 1959 Cuban Revolution and Maria’s dream  of moving to Chicago. Yet Elio is steadfast in believing that somehow, some way he will get both the girl and the  Schwinn. When an injury leaves him terrified of the sea, he’s faced with an impossible choice: to overcome his fear  and do whatever it takes to realize his vision, or to stay safe and risk losing everything he’s been living for.  

CHAPTER 12

SUMMER OF 1969 came in wet. Rain had been continuous since June. But to trace out the history of the whole summer in terms of rain, Elio thought, to say how it was raining at any given moment, to determine how yesterday’s drizzle was different from today’s showers, was utterly impossible. 

Elio had always loved the rain. Regardless of its type, rain always came with impunity, drenching clotheslines, drumming on rooftops, seeping through crevices, and dropping with a tin-tin-tin into cooking pans in someone’s living room. It was the one thing on this island no one could control. In revolutions, everything shifted and nothing changed. Reform after reform replaced the names of things with newer, shinier names, but the things themselves remained the same. Teatro Blanquita in Havana became the Karl Marx Theater, but continued to be what it had always been: the largest movie theater in Havana. The Hilton Hotel in Vedado was renamed Hotel Habana Libre, but its standing as Latin America’s tallest and largest hotel was left unaltered. And as far as Elio was concerned, he could no more get his hands on a bicycle now than he could have years earlier. But he could always count on the rain to make him feel—well, hopeful. And there was hope. Ten Million Tons of hope, to be exact.

Extract from You Don't Need Therapy: 7 Steps to Sort Your Sh*t Out by Alan Lucas

Today I’m pleased to share an extract from You Don't Need Therapy: 7 Steps to Sort Your Sh*t Out by Alan Lucas. 

The SYSO System is a one-stop self-improvement system that can be applied wherever you are on your journey. You can change your life by following 7 simple steps and the book's 70 practical exercises help you DO the changing, rather than just read about it.

You'll learn how to expand your awareness, manage your mind, take charge of your emotions, meet your needs in healthy ways, have a crystal-clear philosophy for the purpose of your life, understand that everything is interconnected, and how to make your life more enjoyable by enhancing the lives of others. You'll light up and lighten up, leading more from your heart than your ego, being focused on feeling fulfilled by being useful. By following the steps, you will change the filter through which you experience life and by changing the filter, everything will look different.

Changing your life isn't that complicated when you know how, and when you know how, you don't need therapy.

In Western society, we’re generally encouraged to be achievers and achievement is seen as the high marker of success. We celebrate people who we identify as having made great achievements and this is commendable in many ways and has a huge part to play for society and for the individual, but ‘achievement’ and ‘fulfilment’ are very different. Most of us are striving for achievements in our life. We have goals for our career, our finances, and the possessions we want, and achievement in this sense is just a science. It follows certain steps and if we apply the steps, we’ll increase the probability of ‘achieving’. However, for all the achieving and all the progress we have made as human beings, we seem to be unhappier than ever. Statistics on depression and unhappiness show no precise link to money or material achievement, and we regularly hear about the high-flying career executive, business person or celebrity who seemingly has everything they wanted to achieve, but who is deeply unhappy and ‘depressed’. 

Extract from Fallen Angels by Gunnar Staalesen

Today it's my stop on the blog tour for the latest book in the Varg Veum series, Fallen Angels by Norwegian author Gunnar Stallesen, which has been translated into English by Don Bartlett. 

Exploring his own dark memories may be the only way to find a killer

When Bergen PI Varg Veum finds himself at the funeral of a former classmate on a sleet-grey December afternoon, he's unexpectedly reunited with his old friend Jakob guitarist of the once-famous 1960s rock band The Harpers and his estranged wife, Rebecca, Veum's first love.

Their rekindled friendship is thrown into jeopardy by the discovery of a horrific murder, and Veum is forced to dig deep into his own adolescence and his darkest memories, to find a motive and a killer.

Tense, vivid and deeply unsettling, Fallen Angels is the spellbinding, award-winning thriller that secured Gunnar Staalesen's reputation as one of the world's foremost crime writers.

Although the latest to be published in English, it is actually one of the author's earlier books which is now available in English for fans of translated fiction to read and enjoy. As part of the blog tour I have an extract for you to read below.

The part of the room I was in now was full of contrasts. The majority of the furniture was old-fashioned, in a kind of imitation baroque style, with ornate legs and upholstered in a smooth, brown-and-green patterned material. Two modern, black leather armchairs, two others in a burlap fabric and a child’s spindle-back chair completed and reinforced the impression of a lack of system. 

In the traditional sixties style wall shelving were a radio, a record turntable, a CD and cassette player and in the middle of the floor a TV set with a VCR underneath. Beside the bowlegged baroque sofa was a rack crammed full with newspapers, and in all the free spaces, on the wall shelving, the table, floor and shelves were piles of newspapers, magazines, books and sheet music. Strewn across the floor were Lego blocks, dolls, Playmobil pieces, sketch pads and crayons in the most delightful chaos I had experienced since I was divorced. 

Extract from The Last Days of Ellis Island by Gaelle Josse

Today I’m pleased to share an extract from The Last Days of Ellis Island by Gaelle Josse which has been translated into English by Natasha Lehrer. 

New York, November 3, 1954. In a few days, the immigration inspection station on Ellis Island will close its doors forever. John Mitchell, an officer of the Bureau of Immigration, is the guardian and last resident of the island.

As Mitchell looks back over forty-five years as gatekeeper to America and its promise of a better life, he recalls his brief marriage to beloved wife Liz, and is haunted by memories of a transgression involving Nella, an immigrant from Sardinia.

Told in a series of poignant diary entries, this is a story of responsibility, love, fidelity, and remorse.

Extract: The Mersey Estuary: A Travel Guide by Kevin Sene

Today I have something a little different for you, an extract from The Mersey Estuary: A Travel Guide by Kevin Sene.

Stretching for around thirty miles to the coast, the Mersey Estuary is perhaps best known for Liverpool’s spectacular waterfront and the Mersey Ferry. But there are many other hidden gems along its shores, including waterside parks, sandy beaches and poignant reminders of the days of steamships and sail.

The Mersey Estuary is hugely varied. Docks and industrial works sit alongside nature reserves and waterside parks. Even its appearance is transformed during the day as mudflats and sandbanks are covered by the incoming tide.

The headwaters lie in the hills of the Peak District, but the tidal influence begins in Warrington. Here a tidal bore arrives on the highest tides, and there are many signs of the town’s seafaring past.

Extract from The Coral Bride by Roxanne Bouchard

When I was contacted by Anne at Random Things Tours about taking part in this blog tour, I knew that realistically I would not be in a position to read Roxanne Bouchard's latest book The Coral Bride but still wanted to support this author and book so instead I have an extract to whet your appetites.  

But first a little about the book which is available now in eBook format with the paperback being published next week. 

When an abandoned lobster trawler is found adrift off the coast of Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula, DS Joaquin Moralès begins a straightforward search for the boat’s missing captain, Angel Roberts – a rare female in a male-dominated world. But Moralès finds himself blocked at every turn – by his police colleagues, by fisheries bureaucrats, and by his grown-up son, who has turned up at his door with a host of his own personal problems.

When Angel’s body is finally discovered, it’s clear something very sinister is afoot, and Moralès and son are pulled into murky, dangerous waters, where old resentments run deep.

Monday 24th September

Leeroy Roberts insisted his sons keep scanning the sea, again and again, with the radar and searchlights. They were aboard the Ange-Irène, his eldest’s shrimp trawler. Bruce and Jimmy, and Guy Babin were out on deck with spotting scopes, but Leeroy stayed inside the wheelhouse to watch the radar and automatic pilot. Even with the naked eye, he could see a long way when the moon was that full. 

Leeroy ducked into the galley and emerged with a thermos of coffee, packet of cupcakes and four mugs. He set these down on the ledge inside the front window, then he opened the door and called the men over. They filed inside from the cold night air to rub their hands, pour themselves a coffee and wolf down a sugary snack or two. Bruce peered at the computer screen to check the chart and the heading they were on. 

His younger brother was still grumbling. ‘We’re way off course! I told you, we’re not going to find anything here. We should be looking further north.’ 

Jimmy had been going on like that for an hour or more. Bruce kept his mouth shut. This was his boat and he knew best how to navigate these waters. He had weighed all the possibilities and persuaded his father to head south, the way the tide was going, then follow the Labrador Current. Leeroy trusted his eldest son’s wisdom. 

But the youngest wouldn’t give up. ‘Stop messing around with your fancy calculations, will you?’ 

Spotlight feature: Summer Island by Natalie Normann

Today it's my stop on the blog tour for Natalie Normann's first book written in English, Summer Island, for which I have a short extract below to share with you.

'If you follow the shoreline to the other side, you'll come to a small cliff wall with nesting birds. You're not allowed to get too close because the birds might freak out, but it's nice to see.'

'Unless I can eat them, I'm not into birds,' Jack said. 

'Really? I thought that was a British thing. Lying in fields, gawking at birds through binoculars and writing it down in a little book.' 

Jack looked at her. 'Sorry?'

Ninni was surprised. Apparently they had got the only Englishman with no sense of humour. How sad, she thought.

Extract from How to Marry Your Husband by Jacqueline Rohen

Today it's my pleasure to be kicking off the blog tour for Jacqueline Rohen's debut novel How to Marry Your Husband, eBook out next week with paperback to follow in July. 

He broke her heart. Now it’s her turn.

Rachel has just seen her husband David kissing another woman and she knows her marriage is over.

To make matters worse, she has just discovered that her romantic destination wedding wasn’t exactly legal.

No marriage means no divorce. Heartbroken and angry, she and her friend hatch a foolproof plan:

Step one - Make David fall back in love with her.

Step two - Marry him

Step three - Divorce him and break his heart.

Simple enough.

Rachel just has to be careful that she doesn't get swept up in the romance and end up falling in love with him...