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Thursday, September 3, 2026
Release Blitz for Sweet Redemption by Bella Matthews
Book Blitz for Uprising by J.E. Rizzo with a GIVEAWAY
Uprising
J.E. Rizzo
(Fitzjohn Duology, #1)
Publication date: September 1st 2026
Genres: Adult, Historical
England, 1381 AD: Blanche Fitzjohn is an outcast in her small coastal village. Not only is she the illegitimate daughter of John of Gaunt, the man responsible for her neighbors’ over-taxation, but she possesses strange abilities: hearing sound from miles away and smelling people’s emotions.
She takes solace in her studies with the local wisewoman and in her friendship with Geoff, a groom at the local manor. Until the day Henry of Lancaster, Blanche’s half-brother, brings her news of an arranged marriage to Sir Thomas Prescott, Constable of the Tower of London. Although she smells cruelty on him, Blanche agrees to marry Thomas in the hopes that her influence may help better the lives of Geoff and all England’s villeins.
But soon, the peasants’ discontent turns to revolt. Though her heart is of the people, Blanche’s nobility makes her an enemy to the rebels. To save herself and Henry from the executioner’s ax, Blanche must use every power at her disposal, even those she once considered a curse.
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EXCERPT:
Something shifts, like summer’s green leaves transforming to autumnal gold. Speaking with Geoff about my marriage hurts like I’d never expected, a deep ache. The moon thrums, and an owl, perched in a nearby tree, shifts as she searches for prey. My temples throb.
“It seemed…” he begins again. “It seemed he didn’t want to marry you, after you…” I glare and cross my arms before lifting my face. He continues: “I thought perhaps you could get out of it because…”
“Because of what?”
“Because, ye’re…”
“What, Geoff, what am I?”
His mouth opens like a fish above water, and he doesn’t bother to shut it. In the tree, the owl flaps her wings and leaps into the air.
“Ye’re…” The tips of Geoff’s fingers flutter. “Well, I don’t know what you are, Dandy. Ye’re just…yerself. And I thought—”
“You thought he wouldn’t want me?”
His face falls. “He’s not like you, Dandy. That’s all. He’s not a good man. I heard him talking, when it was just the men…”
He drops his eyes and his cheekbones redden.
Neither of us seems to know what to say next. After a full minute of silence, he lurches forward and grasps my shoulders, crushing me to his chest. “Blanche, just consider.”
I gasp and have to steady myself. But within seconds, tears come to my eyes, along with a calming release of tension. I grip his forearms, inhale his familiar scent. He’s always smelled of horses, with a hint of bread dough and sugar from the manor kitchens he’s constantly raiding. There’s something different tonight. I sniff. It’s crisp, yet soft. Evergreens in winter, covered with fresh snow.
He buries his nose in my hair. “You could refuse,” he says, voice a gentle rumble against my face, “and stay with yer mother. She’d be angry, yes, but she wouldn’t throw you out. They can’t drag you to the church. For a marriage to be real, you must consent.”
Consent. The word ripples through me. It makes me see that I want more, from Maman, from my father, but most of all from Geoff. I need something I can’t identify, something I can’t express.
“If I marry Thomas…” My muffled voice breaks. “It will make the duke happy. He’ll…” I tense, regretting my words.
“He’ll what?”
I can’t answer, can’t tell him that by marrying Sir Thomas, I hope to earn my father’s love. To replace…something.
The moon moves behind a cloud and the trees shift, branches releasing a shower of rain. Geoff drops one hand to the small of my back and lifts the other to my cheek. His palms are warm, and I slide my own to clench his upper arms. When my fingertips brush hardened muscles, I almost snatch my hands back. Before tonight, I still thought of Geoff as a child, the lanky villein who could ride any horse, no matter how fierce. Now…my mouth goes dry, but I can’t resist running my hands up the length of his arms, letting them rest on his shoulders. The skin beneath his tunic is damp with sweat.
Corded muscles tense and stretch beneath my fingers, sending little jolts through me. He stoops, chin brushing my temple.
I touch the notch of his throat with my fingertips. He freezes. Tiny curls of dark hair peek above his collar, tickling my fingers. He lets his face linger on mine, and I feel him inhale.
A pleasant warmth spreads through my belly, then down. Something’s happening, something I don’t understand. I should run, should leave. But I don’t. Another breeze drifts through the tree branches, and he pulls me closer, pressing me to him.
I feel him, all of him, from feet to chin, in a way I never have. A tingling, heavy warmth settles on me, and I feel Geoff’s own need pressing against my belly.
It should make me uncomfortable, but I find myself pressing back, wanting more. Wanting it all.
I’m not well-versed in what happens between a woman and a man—that’s one area of my education Maman neglected—but I’m not completely ignorant. I know Geoff and I stand on a cliff, gazing into a deep ravine. One more step, and we’ll both be lost.
I’m still touching his throat, suspended in our odd dance beneath the shuddering tree branches, when he bends further. I close my eyes and focus on the sensation of his stubbly chin against my face. He exhales, and a shiver runs down my spine.
“Dandy…” he murmurs.
The owl swoops to snatch a mouse from the forest floor in sharp talons. Her screech is like a battle horn, ricocheting with painful deliberation in my skull, joined by the mouse’s squeal. My eyelids snap open and I step out of his embrace.
Author Bio:
J.E. Rizzo is a life-long history fanatic and writer of historical fiction whose work can be found in Vanity Fair, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, The Tudor Times, Tudor Life Magazine, Scary Mommy, and Ultrarunning Magazine. Additionally, her article, Past and Precedence: Abortion Law in the Middle Ages and Its Use to Overturn Roe v. Wade, won History Inquiry’s Medieval History Writing Challenge. Rizzo’s debut novel, Uprising, Book One of the Fitzjohn Duology, is forthcoming from Literary Wanderlust, and tells the story of Blanche Fitzjohn, a fourteenth century neurodivergent woman whose perceived disabilities become superpowers during England’s peasant uprising of 1381.
By day, Rizzo works in Human Resources—a field offering more than ample opportunity to observe the follies and fancies of humankind. Before her career in HR, Rizzo worked as an opera singer, a professional baker, and a dog walker. These days, when not writing she can be found running ultramarathons through the forests and mountains of New England, knitting, reading, sewing, baking, or performing any number of (what some might call) old-lady hobbies. She also keeps busing caring for her two children and forty-seven houseplants, making her husband carry heavy things and cook her gourmet meals, and rehabilitating her rescue dog and semi-feral ginger cat.
GIVEAWAY!
Uprising Blitz
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Book Review for Our Strange Duet by Erin A. Craig
Our Strange Duet by Erin A.
Craig
Published: September
1, 2026 by Delacorte Press
Genre:
Retelling, Gothic, Fantasy
Inspired by Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel, Le Fantôme de L’Opéra, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera tells the story of a mysterious masked figure who lurks beneath the Paris Opera House, exercising a reign of terror over all who inhabit it.
He falls madly in love with a young soprano, Christine Daaé, and devotes himself to nurturing her extraordinary talents, employing all of the devious methods at his command.
Our Strange Duet centres Christine’s emotional journey and her agency within this sweeping, atmospheric opera.
My Thoughts:
Phantom of the Opera is one of my favorite musicals ever. I could watch it weekly and never be tired of
it. When I saw Our Strange Duet was
released, I knew that I had to read this retelling. It stays very true to the musical and I love
that. The characters, the storyline, the
music was all much the same but still a unique and fun retelling.
This is my first book by Erin A. Craig and I cannot wait to
check out more of her books.
Thank you Delacorte Press for a copy of the book via
NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
Add to your MUST-READ list on Goodreads
Purchase your own copy on Amazon
After getting her B.F.A. from the University of Michigan, in
Theatre Design and Production, she stage managed tragic operas with hunchbacks,
séances, and murderous clowns, then decided she wanted to write books that were
just as spooky.
An avid reader, decent quilter, rabid basketball fan, and
collector of typewriters, brass figurines, and sparkly shoes, Erin makes her
home in West Michigan with her husband and daughter.
She is represented by Sarah Landis at Sterling Lord Literistic.
Wednesday, September 2, 2026
Book Blitz for Dragon Descending by Jennifer Allis Provost with a GIVEAWAY
Dragon Descending
Jennifer Allis Provost
(Fire and Claw, #2)
Publication date: September 1st 2026
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Dragons value family above all else—but when a dragon shifter can’t shift, how will he protect the ones he loves?
Lochlyn Blackmoor, the last dragon shifter in Alessia, has lost his ability to shift. Heartened by a prediction that he will shift again, Lochlyn retreats to Dragon Ridge with his beloved wife, Rosalie. They’re content to enjoy a quiet life, until they receive unsettling news from the capital city.
The king’s seer has been marked for death, all because she helped him free Rosalie’s sister from the king’s clutches.
Despite his current weakness, Lochlyn embarks on a mission to rescue the seer with his brother-in-law and spymaster in tow. Almost immediately, one of their few allies—Arthus Flameborn, Grand Master of the Order of the Phoenix, who also happens to be Rosalie’s grandfather—abandons them. As they run out of time and options, Lochlyn turns to a former foe for assistance: Basilisk, the same rogue shifter he freed from the Order’s dungeon, and nearly killed him.
Basilisk proves himself a worthy ally, and his vast knowledge Alessia’s royal family comes in handy more than once. As more of Basilisk’s past is revealed, Lochlyn learns Alessia’s darkest, most dangerous secret, information so deadly It could unravel everything he’s ever known. To make matters worse, the ruthless Grand Master wants to form a relationship with his granddaughter, Rosalie, and he doesn’t care who he hurts in the process—not even Rosalie.
And only a dragon can overpower the Grand Master.
Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo
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EXCERPT:
Lochlyn Blackmoor hated waiting.
Yet it was all he’d done for months—waiting for blowback from Serpens about their daring rescue of Caterina and Curran. For news of the rampaging basilisk he and Curran had freed from the palace dungeons. Or for the Grand Master to appear in the courtyard demanding to see his family.
Waiting to be able to shift again.
Nothing happened.
Lochlyn set his hands on the balcony’s railing, and watched the early morning activity in the castle’s courtyard. While he appreciated the calm days and nights they’d enjoyed at Dragon Ridge, retribution was inevitable. He’d insulted the king, committed several acts of treason, and set the palace on fire. King Olivar wasn’t a forgiving man; he was more likely to take Lochlyn’s head and mount it on his wall.
Still. Nothing.
Perhaps Olivar was taking his time so Lochlyn would slowly descend into madness.
Laughter floated toward him, a bright sound that Lochlyn would know anywhere. He turned toward the gardens, and saw Rosalie walking with her sister, Caterina. They both carried baskets of flowers, but behind Rosalie’s basket was her rounded belly, and inside her belly was their child.
Their child’s birth was something else Lochlyn was waiting for, and for that he was most impatient of all.
He and Rosalie already had three adopted children, and he loved them and his nephew, Jonathan, dearly. Somehow, he found yet another measure of love in his heart for this child he’d yet to meet, a babe who would be a dragon, like him.
As the strongest of the Otherworldly creatures, Lochlyn’s own dragon blood meant the child would definitely take after him, but they wouldn’t know if the child would be able to shift until he was around a year old. While Lochlyn could attain both dragon and warrior forms, his eldest brother could only shift to warrior, and his middle brothers couldn’t shift at all.
Whether the child could shift or not didn’t matter to Lochlyn. Either way, he couldn’t wait to meet their baby. Before Rosalie fell pregnant, Lochlyn had been the last living dragon in Alessia. Now both his kind and his name would live on, thanks to his beautiful wife.
“Lochlyn,” Rosalie called from the courtyard, waving to get his attention as if he hadn’t already been entranced by her every move. “There were some daisies in bloom, and the birds spared us some blackberries.”
“And elderberries,” Caterina added, holding up her basket. “Madchen can make more of her famous wine.”
Lochlyn laughed softly; there were enough casks of Madchen’s elderberry wine in the castle’s cellar to get half of Alessia drunk. “Are you two coming in for lunch?”
Rosalie opened her mouth to reply, but whatever she said was drowned out by the thunder of a dozen hooves. Lochlyn looked toward the gate and saw three gigantic stags enter the courtyard. The central and largest stag approached Rosalie and bowed.
“Hello, Cervus,” Rosalie said as the stag’s antlers scraped the ground near her feet. “And you really don’t need to be so dramatic. Will you join us for lunch?”
Cervus raised his head, and after he glanced at the balcony, he and his two companions went toward the stables. Lochlyn watched them depart, then he returned his gaze to his wife. His leisurely afternoon with Rosalie would have to wait. As Lochlyn’s spymaster, Cervus had been in Serpens for the past three weeks, gathering information. For him to personally return to Dragon Ridge instead of sending one of his messengers, he must have learned something especially dire.
Author Bio:
Jennifer Allis Provost writes books about faeries, orcs and elves. Zombies, too. She grew up in the wilds of Western Massachusetts and had read every book in the local library by age twelve. (It was a small library.) An early love of mythology and folklore led to her romantic fantasy series, Fire and Claw, and her degree in environmental science helped shape her urban fantasy, Poison Garden. When she’s not writing about murderous plants or sexy dragon shifters she’s working on her MFA in Creative Nonfiction.
Website / Goodreads / Instagram / Newsletter
GIVEAWAY!
Dragon Descending Blitz
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Spotlight for The Treasure House by Amy Matthews
The Treasure House by Amy Matthews
Published: September
1, 2026 by Dell
Genre: Contemporary
Romance
Zoe Copeland and her daughter Florence need a new start. The only problem is she can’t really afford one. . .
So when Zoe stumbles across a listing for a charming cottage in Maine that is in their price range, she has no choice but to seize the opportunity. The catch? It’s a treasure house—filled to the brim with junk, and being sold as is.
Eight-year-old Florence, who’s always longed for a room of her own, loves the old house full of cat figurines and other people’s memories, but Zoe is daunted by the mess and the cost of fixing the place up. Her grumpy new neighbor, Jake, thinks she’s crazy for undertaking this task—though that doesn’t stop him from lending a hand, and it’s not long before Zoe starts daydreaming about the handsome handyman.
As the air turns crisp and fall sets in, Zoe becomes increasingly intrigued by the woman who lived there before them. Who was Marly, and how did her beloved home end up in such disrepair? As she digs for more information, Zoe can’t help but draw parallels between herself and Marly . . . but what does it say about her future if she’s still stuck in the past?
This was supposed to be a fresh start, a chance to give Florence the security she never had. But as Zoe uncovers Marly’s secrets and her own past comes crashing into the present, Zoe’s life is quickly becoming even messier than the coastal house she’s renovating. With her heart and her home on the line, can Zoe put all of the broken pieces of her life back together?
Add to your MUST-READ list on Goodreads
Purchase your own copy on Amazon
Book Review for The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies by Kate Westbury
The Oxford
Guide #1
The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies by Kate
Westbury
Published: September
1, 2026 by Minotaur Books
Genre:
Historical Fiction, Mystery
Oxford, England, 1951 - The Honorable Ginevra Bishop likes red lipstick, clever retorts, and earning top marks in her tutorials. She’s following her mother’s footsteps by studying at Oxford, eager to prove she’s more than a debutante.
Sidney Braithwaite likes brooding, Latin, and ignoring his nightmares. He’s determined to forge a new life for himself at Oxford, far from his childhood mining village and free from memories of the war.
Though Gin and Sidney have little in common, the British Security Service is keen to unite her charm with his espionage experience: there’s a Soviet spy at the university, and the agent tracking them down was poisoned. MI5 wants Gin and Sidney to pick up the trail and identify the informant before more sensitive information is compromised. As a team, the pair of undergraduates clash in personality, upbringing, and taste––but have a connection neither can deny. Gin and Sidney must unite their respective talents to follow the clues before they’re caught in the traitor’s crosshairs…if the sparks flying between them don’t blow up the operation first.
My Thoughts: Spies,
espionage, and mystery. Sounds
wonderful! The Oxford Guide to Scandal
and Lies has a lot going on. Gin and
Sidney are college students trying to live life as they get pulled into a
murder mystery involving a campus employee.
I enjoyed Gin and Sidney’s adventures. I am not always sure that they were going
about their spy work in the right way and a few times I was sure they were on
the wrong path, but it always seemed to work out for them. Their relationship had a light romance feel,
and I am excited to see where that will head.
These two are characters that I need to know more about and see where
the future heads for them.
The Oxford Guild to Scandal & Lies is not a quick
read. There is a lot of attention to
details, sometimes too much attention, which slows the book down. But the storyline is fun and I enjoyed
reading it.
Thank you Minotaur Books for a copy of the book via
NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
Add to your MUST-READ list on Goodreads
Purchase your own copy on Amazon
Tuesday, September 1, 2026
Release Blitz for The Black Orchid by Loreth Anne White
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Book Review for Library of Forbidden Books by Mario Escobar
Library of Forbidden Books: A sweeping historical fiction
novel about a librarian protecting banned books in Nazi Germany by Mario
Escobar
Published: September
1, 2026 by Thomas Nelson
Genre:
Historical Fiction
Berlin, 1933. The vibrant cultural heart of Germany is darkening under the shadow of the Nazi regime. For Helene Nathan, one of the first female librarians at a prestigious German library, the books she cherishes are no longer just sources of knowledge--they are targets. As the government begins its systematic purge of literature, compiling lists of "forbidden" works and orchestrating public book burnings, Helene realizes she cannot stand by as her world turns to ash.
Determined to resist the encroaching tyranny, Helene and her colleagues embark on a perilous mission of secretly collecting and hiding the very books slated for destruction. It's a dangerous act of defiance in a city where every neighbor could be an informant and the Gestapo are a constant, looming threat. Her quiet rebellion is especially complicated by the fact that Helene is half-Jewish, and Rudolf Kummer, a ruthless Nazi official, seemingly has a personal vendetta against her.
As the stakes escalate and friends and neighbors begin to disappear, Helene must decide how much she is willing to sacrifice. Her fight is not just for the pages she saves, but for the very soul of her country and the freedom to think.
Based on the heroic true stories of librarians who fought back, Library of Forbidden Books is a gripping tale of courage, the profound power of literature as resistance, and one woman's struggle to preserve humanity in the face of absolute evil.
My Thoughts: A
librarian wanting to save books from the Nazis, sounds simple enough but
nothing involving Germany and Hitler is simple.
Helene is a hero. The way that
she consistently fights for what she believes in while trying to protect her
family and herself makes her a hero of WWII.
She is a quiet hero, not well known, not being seen, just doing what she
needs to do.
I enjoyed learning about how the libraries were targeted
during WWII. It was eye opening as to
how the Nazi’s viewed books and the way that they got rid of them. My heart broke at the thought of so many
great books being lost to the world. The
number of people who worked together to save them is incredible. They put themselves at risk of great harm
but understood that they had to save the books, they are part of a great
history.
WWII is my favorite era to read about. Library of Forbidden Books is a wonderful
look at a different way the war affected Germany. War is not only about the actual fighting and
killing, it affects so many aspects of life.
Thank you Thomas Nelson for a copy of the book via NetGalley
in exchange for my honest review.
Add to your MUST-READ list on Goodreads
Purchase your own copy on Amazon
Book Review for A Time of Witches by Madeline Martin
A Time of Witches by Madeline
Martin
Published: September
1, 2026 by Hanover Square Press
Genre:
Historical Fiction, Witches, Historical Fantasy
Lilith Legare’s life is unraveling. Since her mother’s death, strange things have been happening - plants turn toward her touch, animals linger in her path, and the birthmark on her arm has started tingling. Worse still is her recurring nightmare of being burned alive at the stake.
Her search for answers brings her from Savannah to England, to the decaying Brackenmere Manor where the past blurs with the present. There, Lilith discovers a legacy she never asked for and along with it, the threat of peril. History must be rewritten, or she too will die.
In 1645 Suffolk, Sybil Brantham stands accused as a witch. An educated, wealthy widow, she is branded a threat by men who fear her independence. As arrests begin and suspicion abounds, Sybil must protect her younger sister, even as betrayal takes root within her household.
Across centuries, Lilith and Sybil are bound by blood and by danger. To save themselves, and each other, they must confront the silence that has stolen women’s power for generations—and dare to claim their voices before it’s too late.
My Thoughts: Madeline
Martin wrote a book that brought me right into the time of the witch
trials. I was living alongside Lilith
and Sybil. I felt the chills when Lilith
was searching for a way to save Sybil.
The pain that Sybil felt while being accused of being a witch was real
to me.
A Time of Witches is a phenomenal book. The paranormal parts of the story were my
favorite. I love seeing today’s
characters interact with yesterday’s characters. The twist of Lillith desperate need to save
Sybil is unique. Both POV’s kept me
entertained and wanting to read more.
Thank you Tall Poppy and the author for a copy of the book
via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
Add to your MUST-READ list on Goodreads
Purchase your own copy on Amazon
Monday, August 31, 2026
Audiobook Review for Wild About You by Madison Score, Emma Wilder (Narrator)
Audiobook Review for Wild About You by Madison
Score, Emma
Wilder (Narrator)
Published: August 27,
2026 by That's What She Said Publishing, Inc.
Genre: Force
Proximity, Romance
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Veterinarian Cassie Thompson wants one simple to completely start over. New town. New job. New family. That’s not asking too much, is it? It’s almost as if the universe is conspiring in her favor when an escaped tiger—yes, you heard that right—and the two half-sisters she just discovered lead her to a fresh start. She’s ready to start rebuilding her life one Maryland crab cake at a time. It would be smooth sailing if it weren’t for the rapidly escalating neighbor war with her grumpy lumberjack of a landlord.
Noah Reed has no time for distractions—especially not a spunky, house-stealing veterinarian who won’t stop making suggestions for saving his mother’s exotic animal sanctuary. He has work to do, tenants who keep clogging their toilets, and a literal ton of emotional baggage that he’ll get around to addressing someday.
Cassie would rather neuter a rabid chihuahua than get entangled with another life-ruining jerk. But when one night—and one girthy bottle of wine—changes everything, their contentious professional relationship gets a lot more personal. With the fate of the sanctuary and Cassie’s career hanging in the balance, these neighbors with benefits will have to put aside their differences and their begrudging mutual attraction.
My Thoughts: Wild
About You is a fun meet cute. Cassie
and Noah are neighbors with Noah being her landlord. The attraction between them is intense and
steamy, but they (of course) fight it.
This is my first book by Madison Score and I cannot wait to
enjoy more. The story is cute and
unique. The characters are fun and
relatable with real life issues. There
are some heavy topics but they were handled with respect and care.
I really enjoyed listening to the audiobook. Emma Wilder, the narrator, is the perfect
person to tell this story. Her voice is
perfect for both main characters and she did an amazing job changing her tone
to feature them. Narrators are so
important to an audiobook and Emma Wilder is on my list of those I must listen
to.
Thank you Hambright PR for an audiobook copy of the book in
exchange for my honest review.
Add to your MUST-READ list on Goodreads
Purchase your own copy on Amazon