A Moment With… Stephen Cox
It’s a pleasure to welcome Stephen Cox to Novel Kicks as we say Happy Birthday to his book, The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder.
London 1881. Can two crooked women stop a murder?
Extravagant medium Mrs Ashton and her lover, blunt working-class Mrs Bradshaw, run a spiritualist scam. Mrs Ashton secretly reads minds.
Believing that Mrs Ashton is genuine, grieving Lady Violet craves the truth behind her mother’s untimely death. But Lady Violet’s powerful husband Sir Charles hates spiritualists. Has he killed before?
Uncovering this MP’s wicked crimes will put all three women in terrible danger…
To solve a shocking murder, look both sides of the grave.
“I loved this book! Victorian murder mystery meets “ghost” story, with delicious sprinklings of compassion and mischief…”
Caroline Day, author of Sunday Times Bestseller Hope Nicely’s Lessons for Life.
To chat about why he chose the 1880s, it’s over to you, Stephen.
Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901. That’s as long as the time between the end of the Second World War and the 2008 banking crisis. Or the Suez Crisis and the mid-Pandemic. Unless you are Disney, you need to pick an actual period.
I quickly decided on the early 1880s. It was a decade of great change, and yet as so often in Victorian times, a stubborn stasis. I’m always checking to see what type of bicycle or pen could be used, or when electric light might have reached a provincial town.
It gives me at least ten years as a playground. And maybe my dodgy medium Mrs Ashton might run into Mr Holmes, two such egos are bound to clash, and I know who I would bet on.
by 
Novel Kicks Book Club: The Guilty Couple by C.L. Taylor
Welcome back to the Novel Kicks Book Club.
Hello September.
The beginning of the ‘ber’ months is upon us. Although I am shifting to Autumn in my head, we are due another heatwave here in the UK apparently. Whether the weather is giving us warmth or showing us rain, there is always an excuse to settle down with a book. I am hoping you’ll enjoy this month’s book club pick.
The Guilty Couple by C.L. Taylor.
I have long been a fan of this author but am yet to read this novel from 2022. I can’t wait to get started. It sounds amazing.
So, how does our book club work?
It’s fully online so there is no reason to move from the comfortable spot you find yourself in to read. You can also join the discussion at any time in the month – whether you’ve already read it or, like me, will be reading it for the first time. I have put a question in the comments below to start the conversation.
I look forward to talking about this book with you.
About The Guilty Couple –
by Book Review: The Devil’s Debt by Rae Devine
I am so happy to be welcoming Rae Devine to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her book, The Devil’s Debt.
The Devil’s Debt is Episode Five of The Seven Gates, a short, high-heat dark paranormal romance series of vengeance, obsession and underworld power, featuring ritualised dominance and morally black and grey demons.
Ruthless. Sacred. Beautifully inevitable.
In the quiet hours of the Underworld, even faith begins to falter.
Lucien Vale – recruiter, collector of broken souls and reluctant heavy hand of Hell – has been stripped of his immortality through an act of betrayal from someone he once loved. Yet still loyal and devoted to Hell’s Queen, he accompanies her to locate a fallen prince of the Church whose devotion has long since curdled into complacency.
A cardinal who has heard every confession.
Forgiven every sin.
And slowly stopped believing any of it matters.
Every path leads back to the Devil’s bride.
Bella Blackwood. Gatekeeper. Devourer of sin.
A woman who turns confession into spectacle and indulgence into judgment.
The cardinal receives Bella and Lucien at the abbey with indifference and wariness.
But in their presence he is faced with a new kind of ritual.
Temptation.
And a force designed to test the limits of his faith.
At the Gates, apathy risks becoming the most damning sin of all.
Desire awakens what indifference tried to bury.
And Hell collects its debts with patient precision.
These stories are sins – brief, potent and cumulative.
Each episode is designed to be devoured in one sitting.
Seven Gates. One descent.
For readers who crave gothic atmosphere, infernal courts and dangerously seductive power.
Read free with Kindle Unlimited.
⚠️ Contains explicit sexual content, power exchange, violence and dark religious imagery.
*****
Having been stripped of his immortality through a betrayal, Lucien accompanies Bella as they pay a visit to a priest who is struggling with his devotion.
by Book Review: The Cotswold Christmas Bookshop by Jill Steeples
I am so happy to be welcoming Jill Steeples back to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her new book, The Cotswold Christmas Bookshop.
Isla Stewart has a glittering publishing career in London, but when she’s unexpectedly made redundant, she faces an uncertain future.
Licking her wounds, Isla heads home to the Cotswolds. Keeping her devastating redundancy a secret from her proud parents, she seeks refuge at Finch’s, the enchanting bookshop she worked in as a teenager. With the owners struggling with their health, Isla steps in to manage the shop hoping to convince them that the business has a future.
Isla likes nothing more than chatting to people about books, but her safe haven is soon disturbed when she comes face-to-face with her first love, Charlie Brace, made worse by the arrival of Guy Madley, the incredibly handsome property consultant who has advice for owners Jon and Miriam.
As Christmas approaches, Isla has decisions to make. Does her future lie in London or can a whole heap of books and a sprinkling of festive magic offer a life that she could never even have dreamed of?
*****
Isla’s life in London lays in ruins after being made redundant. She heads home to the Cotswolds defeated, not wanting to tell anyone her news. When she begins to help at the bookshop she spent much of her teenage years in, she starts to remember why she loved publishing and literature in the first place. Little by little, can books, a guy named Guy, and a cat called Heathcliff help bring some magic back into Isla’s life right in time for the festive season?
by Book Extract: Paper Over It by Ruth Gresty
Please join me in welcoming Ruth Gresty to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her book, Paper Over It.
Jennifer Jones is in control.
Jen is confident she has complete control over the things that are trying to control her. Until she isn’t. Until she hasn’t. Until she realises she has never been in control at all. She’s been papering over it for years.
It’s the start of the year 2000. A new millennium has arrived. For Jen and her three friends, university life in Manchester is full of possibility and endless fun. Sassiness, spontaneity, marvellous mayhem and youthful optimism reign in the Manchester rain.
But beneath the sometimes brash bravado sometimes even the most resilient, carefree, fun-loving characters who, on the surface look like they are living their best lives, are perilously close to falling apart. Over the course of one unforgettable year, the young women confront their own realities and truths. Some make foolish mistakes and others life changing choices.
Sometimes heartwarming and other times heartbreaking, but always brutally honest. This is a story of friendship, mistakes, self-discovery and acceptance; identity, love and the messy reality of becoming an adult. It’s about the masks we wear, the mistakes and choices we make, and the courage it takes to stop papering over it and face ourselves when everything feels like it’s falling apart.
It’s real, raw, raunchy, sometimes random and frankly rude at times. Just like Jen and her friends.
Ruth has shared an extract from Paper Over It with us all today. Make that drink, find those biscuits, head to that comfortable chair and enjoy.
(Warning: mild language).
*****beginning of extract*****
I have chosen this extract as it hopefully sums up how twenty-one-year-old single mum Jen (the main protagonist of four key characters) is feeling and why she knows she has to somehow evolve and enhance her life. She doesn’t fit into her old one (or her friends) on a day-to-day basis. She is lonely, however much she loves her baby boy. She is also being dragged back into her un-named eating disorder just to try and feel a little control over something.
She has hit a crossroad, on a road in her much-loved Manchester, and knows she needs to make some changes. She just doesn’t really know how yet.
This extract is towards the end of the book and only features one of the four main characters, and I appreciate it gives away the spoiler of Jen having a baby, but hopefully it makes sense why I have chosen this.
End of Chapter 49 – ‘Show me the meaning of feeling lonely’
Joseph is fast asleep, only taking a single suck of his dummy occasionally. She suddenly feels sightly uneasy in her beloved city. Detached in a weird way. She drives south, out of it.
As she crosses the inner ring road and onto the Princess Parkway, a strange cloud descends over her.
by Book Club
