Today, I am on the blog tour for Dean Koonts’z new release, The Bad Weather Friend.
The Blurb
Benny is nice – too nice – so much so that they feel compelled to destroy him.
But he has a friend who is going to scare the hell out of them …
Benny Catspaw’s perpetually sunny disposition is tested when he loses his job, his reputation, his fiancée, and his favourite chair. But he’s not paranoid. Someone is out to get him. He just doesn’t know who or why. Then Benny receives an inheritance from an uncle he’s never heard of: a giant crate and a video message. All will be well in time.
How strange – though it’s a blessing, his uncle promises. Stranger yet is what’s inside the crate. He’s a seven-foot-tall self-described ‘bad weather friend’ named Spike whose mission is to help people who are just too good for this world. Spike will take care of it. He’ll find Benny’s enemies. He’ll deal with them. This might be satisfying if Spike wasn’t such a menacing presence with terrifying techniques of intimidation.
In the company of Spike and a fascinating young waitress-cum-PI-in-training named Harper, Benny plunges into a perilous high-speed adventure, the likes of which never would have crossed the mind of a decent guy like him.
The Bad Weather Friend, by Dean Koontz, published by Thomas & Mercer, 1st February 2024; Hardcover, Kindle eBook, Audiobook
Maybe I am one of a few, but I haven’t read any of Dean Koontz’s books, so this was a first in itself for me. We have Benny, a really ‘nice’ guy, who suddenly finds his comfortable life crumbling around him, from his job going south to his fiancee ditching him because he isn’t now a viable option, seeing as he’s seen as persona non grata in the real estate world, through no fault of his own. Ever the optimist, he tries to remain positive, then is sent an intriguing note about an inheritance from a family member he didn’t even know existed. An intriguing crate arrives, and the contents are even more intriguing: a seven-foot being called Spike. Spike is an intriguing character. Sometimes, I think we all need a ‘Spike’! Other interesting characters joining Benny on his journey include a new love interest, Harper, and some boys from his past who hold meaning for him. It took me a little while to get into the swing of the story. Benny is a genuinely good person. The story twists and turns as we go back and forth as we are sent to various times in Benny’s past, then back to the present. But once I got in the swing of it, I was more and more hooked. It’s a great read with plenty of suspense!
About the Author
Dean Koontz is the author of many #1 bestsellers. His books have sold over five hundred million copies in thirty-eight languages, and The Times has called him a “literary juggler.” He lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, and their golden retriever, Elsa. www.DeanKoontz.com
PRAISE FOR AFTER DEATH
Most Anticipated Books for July – Gizmodo
“Riveting” – Audiofile Magzine
“Fans will be thoroughly engrossed” – SciFi Now
PRAISE FOR THE HOUSE AT THE END OF THE WORLD
Most Anticipated Books for 2023 – The Washington Post
“Readers should expect a twist or two in this one.” – The Real Book Spy
“THE HOUSE AT THE END OF THE WORLD really begins to soar and never comes down to earth again.” – Bookreporter.com
PRAISE FOR THE BIG DARK SKY
“A nonstop actioner with cosmic overtones”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Another A-plus thriller from a writer on a serious winning streak.”
—Booklist, (starred review)
“Koontz delivers another masterpiece in suspense infused with the creeping sense of horror he does so well. THE BIG DARK SKY is one to read with all the lights on and doors securely locked.”
—Authorlink
PRAISE FOR QUICKSILVER
“Sit back and enjoy what turns out to be quite a ride.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Positively twitching with suspense. Another sure-fire hit from a thriller master.”
Today, I am on the blog tour for Guy Kennaway’s soon-to-be released, Good Scammer.
The Blurb
Sometimes you must break the rules when your dignity and survival call for it.
With an unlikely partnership at its heart and based on true events, Good Scammer tells the extraordinary story of Clive ‘Bangaz’ Thompson, the local hero who has turned Campbell’s Cove into the scamming capital of the world, and Willy, a broke, middle-aged writer, who needs one more bestselling novel to save him from financial ruin.
Bangaz is an orphan born in West Jamaica, raised with no love, no education and no prospects of decent work. After losing his job within Jamaica’s booming hotel industry, and with a baby daughter to feed, Bangaz is forced to turn elsewhere for money. He devises an ingenious business model. For “a small handling fee”, wealthy Americans can avoid paying taxes on their recent surprise lottery win… His plan will bring millions of dollars to the little villages around the Jamaican coast each year, making Bangaz a very wealthy man – and a hero in his community.
But in building his empire, Bangaz has made some dangerous enemies, from local gangsters, to the FBI – and they’re closing in. Before it’s too late, Bangaz commissions Willy Loxley-Gordon, a washed-up English writer living nearby to write his story. Willy reluctantly agrees, recognising that this could be his last chance for success.
Compulsively readable and delivered with Guy Kennaway’s signature sense of quirky humour, Good Scammer is a transporting hymn of love to West Jamaica, which challenges our assumptions about the morality of crime, in an astute exploration of slavery, colonialism, theft and victimhood.
I love it when a book is written with the language or accent affectations of its setting. Good Scammer is a fantastic book set in Jamaica, sprinkled liberally with Patois. It tells the story of Clive ‘Bangaz’ Thompson, a local of Campbell Cove. He is not educated formally, with little literacy in English and only the minimal support of the aunt who begrudgingly brought him up. However, he has brains, which he uses to create a huge scam operation that brings prosperity to the community he lives in and provides for his family and partner, Pauline and their two daughters. All this is done with no violence or guns. Bangaz feels like he has found a way to gain repayment of generations of debt from slavery and colonialism. Things are never simple, and there are some real fixes he finds himself in, but I loved the way the story was told, with men showing that laidback attitude that is synonymous with the people of Jamaica. Bangaz finds an author whom he wants to tell his story, with the idea of getting it published, and the story goes back and forth from the past to the present with Willy, the writer in question, trying to make sense of this unimaginable life of the gentle gangster in front of him. I enjoyed this book.
Guy is best known for his novels One People, about village life in Jamaica; Bird Brain, about a bunch of optimistic pheasants, and for his memoirs Time To Go about killing his mother (with her permission) and Sunbathing Naked and Other Miracle Cures. His most recent novel, The Accidental Collector, won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction in 2021. His most recent memoir is Foot Notes, a broad comedy about race and nationality which he wrote with his daughter-in-law’s brother Hussein Sharif.
In Jamaica, Guy runs a campaign called Speak Properly: Chat Patwa, encouraging the promotion of patwa as an accepted language.
‘In all my writing my aim is to delight and amuse,’ Kennaway has said. ‘Hopefully I make people laugh out loud. Laughter is our most effective weapon in the battle against the difficulties and struggles of life. If I can transport my reader to a happy, joyful world, my mission is successful.’
Today I am bringing you a fantastic psychological thriller by four million copy best selling author Mark Edwards, Keep Her Secrets.
The Blurb
The perfect girlfriend. The dream holiday. The most deadly secret …
Standing on top of a mountain in Iceland, Matthew can’t believe his luck. Not only is he finally taking the trip of his dreams, but joining him for the trip is his college girlfriend, Helena. He knew the moment he saw her at their college reunion, after all those years, that he wanted a second chance. While they’ve only been back together for a week, he knows this is it. She’s the one. That is, until Helena takes one step back, trying to get the perfect picture, and falls … As Matthew scrambles to the edge he finds Helena precariously hooked by her rucksack belt on a small ledge. Desperate to get help, Matthew nearly misses Helena cry, ‘I deserve this’, just before she is rescued. Suddenly Matthew’s perfect girlfriend isn’t looking so perfect after all… but when she confesses her secret to him, he knows he’ll do anything to keep her safe. Only to discover that he wasn’t the only one listening to her confession.
With blackmail in the air, Matthew must decide – how far is too far to keep her secret?
Another captivating read by best-selling psychological thriller author Mark Edwards! Matthew is in a good place, having rekindled his university romance with his old girlfriend, Helena. Only, on a trip to Iceland, faced with losing her life, Helena confesses to something which has far-reaching consequences for both their lives. I can’t say much more about the story because then I would give the twists away, but I can say that I was hooked from the moment I picked this book up! I was reading in the bath, as you do, and before I knew it, the water was cold, and I was nearly at page one hundred! Needless to say, it didn’t take me long at all to finish this book! I won’t say it was an easy read – which psychological thriller is? But it swallowed you whole, and you just want to keep reading to find out which twist will be revealed next! There were moments I felt so sorry for Helena, but then doubts crept in and would get swept away again… And I did feel for Matthew, dragged into a situation he would never have been in had he not met Helena again after all these years. But the ending. Wow. And I always thought rollercoasters had a firm end in sight…
About the Author
Mark Edwards writes psychological thrillers in which scary things happen to ordinary people. He has sold over 4 million books since his first solo novel, The Magpies, was published in 2013 and has topped the bestseller lists numerous times. His other novels include Follow You Home, Here To Stay and The House Guest. He has also published six books co-authored with Louise Voss. His most recent book is The Hollows, published in July 2021. Mark lives in the West Midlands, England, with his wife, their three children and two cats.
I am so pleased to be on the tour for my friend Leonie Mack’s latest release, A Taste of Italian Sunshine!
And she even joined me for a Book & A Brew, too!
Today, I have a lovely visitor to my Book & A Brew with Ritu segment, and that is Leonie Mack, talking about all things writing and her newest release, A Taste of Italian Sunshine.
Hello, and welcome to But I Smile Anyway, Leonie! Let’s get you set with a drink, first. What would you like?
I can offer you a typical English tea, or, if you fancy a little something different, I can always brew up some masala tea… or a coffee if you please?
Or do we skip the hot drinks and sip some prosecco? I feel that might be more appropriate, given your latest release! I have my usual samosas and pakoras, which might be an interesting combo with the prosecco, or there are always biscuits if you prefer a hot beverage.
If we were in Italy we’d probably be dipping our biscuits in coffee! But prosecco actually pairs very well with well-spiced food, so perhaps we should stick with a little tipple to accompany those samosas and pakoras (how much do I love pakoras by the way!)
I’m loving that idea! (pops a cork…)
Now,I think you and I connected first through Anita Faulkner’s FaceBook group, Chicklit & Prosecco. It’s a wonderful place to chat, isn’t it, and to get support from other authors and romance fans?
Yes, that group is also part of the reason I decided to write a book about the prosecco region of Italy! Writing is sometimes an isolating activity. You spend so much time in your own head, but it’s important to share the journey however we can. Finding people who write similar stories is so important, even if we often don’t live in the same places.
You are so right there. We need our little writerly community, especially for romance, nowadays.
I am amazed, six books in the space of the last three years. It took me eighteen years to write my first book! How have you managed to write so much over the last few years?
I was quite lucky with the timing of my first book contract. We’d not long moved countries, and I’d just settled my daughter into Kindergarten, so I could take some time out from working in the usual sense to kick-start my writing career. I’ve also been very lucky that my publisher Boldwood Books, has done amazing things in the industry and has been very supportive (I’m on my third contract). But I get quite obsessive about my research and writing, and once I’ve got a plot and some characters settled, they tend to pour out and I’ll sit at my laptop day and night until it’s finished (sorry, family!)
You’re lucky to have a supportive family. I do, too, though they don’t always get the other part of the writing and publishing process: the promotion and networking online… It is hard to explain that I am not just browsing Instagram and TikTok, but that I am actually having valuable interactions with like-minded folk and prospective readers of my own book!
So, do you have a favourite out of your book babies?
I love all of my characters for different reasons, but my favourites so far have been this book, Italian Sunshine, and We’ll Always Have Venice. These two were just super fun to write, and the characters kind of wrote themselves. Some characters take longer to become clear to me, and those books are always a bit harder to write.
I agree that if you connect personally with the characters and story, it flows so easily.
I always ask this question. Do you have a special place where you write? An office, writing room/nook, or are you someone who takes their laptop or notebook and pen everywhere, writing wherever you go?
I have written a lot of words on trains over the past few years! I find that, somehow, the best to get the words flowing. I wrote my first few books at a desk either in my bedroom or in the living room (with kids home during lockdowns, that wasn’t always easy). We moved last year, and our new house has a little room that’s supposed to be sort of storage off the kitchen or space for a sewing machine or something (old-fashioned housewife’s room!), but it’s become my office! It’s just big enough for bookshelves, my desk and the dog’s bed.
I love that! A little secret… my writing room wasn’t meant to be mine, either! It was earmarked as my Hubby’s home office, since he works from home more often, and a smaller box room would have been my cubby hole. When we moved in, the internet connection wouldn’t reach upstairs where this room is, and so he had to camp out in the downstairs room, and I nabbed it! It worked out quite well, thought because if he is in there for long periods of time, he has a nice view of the garden, whereas even though I ‘d like to be in here more often, I don’t have a much time, so the lack of windows isn’t a problem for me! It is an attic conversion so there are a couple of velux windows…
I’ve read some of your books (others are on my Kindle waiting to be read!), and there is a heavy focus on other countries, Italy especially. Is there any reason for the Italian fancy?
I love travel in general, so I always included interesting places in my writing, even before anything of mine was published. My first book takes readers to Miami, Mexico and the Caribbean coast of Colombia! After I wrote my second book, Italy Ever After, where my publisher suggested I might want to try writing about somewhere more well-known, the books kind of spawned each other! I had already done a lot of research about northern Italy, so Venice was a logical next choice (so much inspiration there!). The Venice books actually sparked the idea for A Taste of Italian Sunshine. Northern Italy isn’t too far from where I live, in central Germany, and we’ve been down there quite a few times now, so that’s another reason for the northern Italian settings.
Let’s bring it back to your latest Italian offering, A Taste of Italian Sunshine. Did you set this somewhere you visited? I found the descriptions extremely evocative.
This is the only book where I managed a dedicated research trip while I was still drafting. But I live in a wine region, too, so I watch the progress of the vines every day on my dog walks, which helped give this book some context, too. But it’s a fascinating region and is now recognised as UNESCO World Heritage because of the uniqueness of the hills and the way the vines are cultivated there. But yes, I dragged my kids down there with me last year in the school holidays, and we had a fun week hiking in the hills and paddling in the Piave River.
And has the research for the book made you more of a wine expert? Your main character, Jenn, is an expert in all things wine, and I can only imagine that you had to do a bit of tasting yourself to really get into the character.
Yes, there was tasting involved!! I get a little obsessive about everything that goes into my books, so I had a lot of fun reading up on prosecco, the flavour notes and the different ways the bubbles are produced. Reading descriptions of wines is also fascinating – a challenge like writing fiction, in some ways, to help people to imagine a taste. It was a lot of fun.
I can imagine that was fun!
I always ask this, too. What next? Is there a project you are working on now that you could drop some hints about?
I seem to be on a schedule of winter and summer books, so you can guess it’s a winter book coming up next! I’m just emerging from my writing cave on that one and will be going through edits soon. There’s a hint of a family mystery, which was something new for me, but of course, as usual, a heart-stopping romance as well, in a unique and superlative landscape…
That sounds intriguing! Peeps, you heard it here first! Something very interesting coming from Leoni, next!
Thank you so much for visiting me here on my blog, Leoni! We’ll have to do it again, soon!
Thank you for having me. 😊
The Blurb
Jenn has always prided herself on being a city girl – she insists on easy access to good coffee, great food from around the globe, not to mention an easy commute. So, when her job takes her to one of the most famous Italian wine regions in search of the perfect Prosecco, travelling to meetings on a tractor is a bit of a culture shock. Tiziano hates the city. He was made for the mountains and vineyards of Veneto, and generations of his family have earnt their living from the land. But times are changing even in the Italian countryside, and the arrival of Jenn at his grandmother’s B&B opens up a window on a different world. Jenn has two months to persuade the Prosecco producers to trust her with their business, and Tiziano has one summer to persuade Jenn that there’s more to life than the rat race. But can a city girl and a country boy ever find enough in common to see a future beyond one long summer of sun… Let Leonie Mack magic you away to the vineyards of Veneto for one hot summer in Italy. Perfect for fans of Mandy Baggot, Jo Thomas and Sarah Morgan. ‘This book was very heartwarming, with a great set of characters, all taking place in a wonderful setting – what more could you want from a book…’ ‘This is one of those books where you want to get to the end, but you also don’t want it to end because you know you’re going to miss it when it’s done. A great read.’ ‘Ah, the romance – I really loved every moment, as the two main characters I’d really taken to my heart fought that magnetic pull between them when you really, really wanted them to have their happy ending. This was one of those perfect summer reads, but with a depth and emotion that was particularly satisfying – most definitely one I’d recommend to others.’ ‘A burst of pure joy… It has all the feel-good elements needed for an irresistible romance you can’t help but root for, even though you know the odds aren’t in their favour! ‘Beautifully written, this is a great take on the opposites attract theme.’
Jenn is a woman on a mission. Having landed in Italy, she must prove to her boss (and crush) that she has a wealth of knowledge and ‘the nose’ to root out the perfect prosecco for the hotel chain she is working for. There are several issues, though, including where she has to stay and that her ‘nose’ isn’t all that friendly with bubbles. Oh, and there is a moody farmer, Tiziano, who keeps popping up wherever she is. A farmer with his own deep-rooted secrets and nightmares. I loved our Korean heroine, fighting to balance her mother’s expectations for her life and career, as well as navigating certain cultural expectations that kept on popping into her mind at inopportune moments, with her true desires for her life and future, that became clearer as she spent the summer in Veneto, among the farming community and in the bosom of Tiziano’s family. Lovely arcs for both main characters and fun to read! I enjoyed this and read it pretty much in one sitting! Many thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an ARC.
About the Author
Leonie Mack is an author of romantic comedies with great international locations and big feelings. She loves a happy ending and shares that love in every book she writes! She is a journalism graduate, a language nut and loves to travel, particularly on foot, by bike and by train. After growing up in Australia and living most of her adult life in London, she now lives in Germany, among the vineyards on the Main river.
Today I am bringing you a beautiful story written by Jo Leevers, Tell Me How This Ends.
The Blurb
Can Henrietta find out what happened to Annie’s sister—before it’s too late?
Haunted by the past, Henrietta throws herself into a new job transcribing other people’s life stories, vowing to stick to the facts and keep emotions at arm’s length. But when she meets the eccentric and terminally ill Annie, she finds herself inextricably drawn in. And when Annie reveals that her sister drowned in unexplained circumstances in 1974, Henrietta’s methodical mind can’t help following the story’s loose ends…
Unlike Henrietta, Annie is brimming with confidence—but even she has limits when it comes to opening up. Ever since that terrible night when her sister left a pile of clothes beside the canal and vanished, Annie has been afraid to look too closely into the murky depths of her memories. When her attempts to glide over the past come up against Henrietta’s determination to fill in the gaps, both women find themselves confronting truths they’d thought were buried forever—especially when Henrietta’s digging unearths a surprising emotional connection between them.
Could unlocking Annie’s story help Henrietta rewrite the most devastating passages in her own life? And, in return, can she offer Annie a final twist in the tale, before it’s too late?
A book I found I wanted to get back to as soon as I was able, every time, I had to put it down. Henrietta is a woman with a quirky personality. She sees things in very specific ways. When she get a job at a centre for the terminally ill, helping them to write their life stories, I wondered how she would cope with the sensitive nature of the job. And there were a few hiccups. But she meets her first candidate, Annie, and how the story unfolds, and their relationship develops is beautiful. It is not straightforward at all, though. Annie has secrets. She has also suffered heartache through family situations and in her marriage. But Henrietta has her own skeletons, too. Some sensitive issues are dealt with throughout the book, and the story is told in an engaging manner. It’s a centre for the terminally ill. There will be sadness, but there are spots of brightness which make the read so worthwhile.
About the Author
Jo Leevers grew up in London and has spent most of her career working on magazines, most recently writing features about homes and interiors for leading newspapers and magazines. This means she gets to visit people around the country and ask them about all the things in their homes. Some might call this a licence to be nosey… Tell Me How This Ends is her debut. Whether writing fiction or interviewing people for articles, she is fascinated by the life stories that we all carry with us. She has two grown-up children and lives with her husband and their wayward dog, Lottie, in Bristol.
But I Smile Anyway... 