Eerie Exhibits: Five Macabre Museum Tales by Victoria Williamson

On April 21, 2025April 20, 2025 By @f33lthesunIn Adult1 Comment

Blurb

Five unnerving tales of the weird and uncanny from award-winning author Victoria Williamson.

A room full of screaming butterflies.

An unsettling smile on the face of a carved sarcophagus.

A painting that draws its viewer into the disturbing past.

A stuffed bear that growls in the dead of night.

And a shell that whispers more sinister sounds than the sigh of the sea…

Dare you cross the threshold of the old Museum and view its eerie exhibits?

Review

Like individual exhibits found in the same collection, these five stories each have their own defining aspects but share an overarching link. In this case, they are all set in the same museum. However each story is individual in its focus and creepiness factor, as well as having different main characters.

As I read the stories, I could feel a couple of common themes emerging but then the author changes it up to keep readers on their toes. There are bo overarching themes, although class/money division does come up in a couple, as well as overbearing, controlling men.

For me, the most unsettling one was The Shape of the Beast, but having said that, all of the stories succeed in giving me the heebie-jeebies. The karma in Et In Arcadia Ego is *chef’s kiss*.

What I liked most was that the author does not go into minute detail and leaves so much to the imagination, especially with a couple of the endings, so much so that you need to spend time thinking about each story, not just move immediately to read the next one.

Look out for more blogs on Eerie Exhibts over the coming days.

Thanks to Silver Thistle Press and @The_WriteReads for the ebook copy to read and review for this tour.

About the Book

Genre: Supernatural Fiction

Age Category: Adult

Publisher: Silver Thistle Press

Number of Pages: 221

Publication Date: March 6, 2025

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223285412-eerie-exhibits—five-macabre-museum-tales

Storygraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/726acd31-6da8-449d-9f89-97b79db1f222

Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/1zD6rAT (UK) https://a.co/d/i8bjaBI (USA) https://a.co/d/cBSc7vE (Canada)

Or buy from your local independent bookshop.

The Half-Life Empire by Shami Stovall

On April 14, 2025April 14, 2025 By @f33lthesunIn Adult1 Comment

Blurb

Hacker Kita Yamasaki would do anything to escape the post-apocalyptic landscape that was the result of the Forever Winter. But for a normal person, the only options are the war-hungry nation-state of Ex Cathedra or the isolationist United California. Fortunately, Kita is anything but normal.

When she finds a faded brochure for the BC Oasis—an underground greenhouse capable of sheltering a quarter million people—she jumps at the opportunity, even going so far as to steal a fission battery the oasis requires to operate at full capacity. There’s just one problem . . . The battery belongs to the ruthless judges of Ex Cathedra.

Now Kita finds herself the target of a deadly chase. In her race to safety, she picks up three fellow travellers: Dallas; his mute daughter, Crouton; and Bishop, a junk hunter. But will they betray her and take the battery for themselves? Is one of them a member of the cultist Iron-Blooded who worship the few remaining alien invaders scattered across Earth’s wasteland?

Faced with certain death if they’re caught by the judges’ power-armored soldiers, Kita must put aside her suspicions and make a headlong dash for sanctuary—and the promise of a new life.

Review

Having read and loved a few of Shami’s other books, I was full of anticipation to read this first book in the series. I was not disappointed and it really deserves its place as a BBNYA 2024 finalist spot, coming 11th.

“I had been shot, beaten, attacked by aliens, and once left for dead … yet this was the second most stressful day of my life.” This is the opening line…what a start.

The world building in this post alien invasion, post apocalyptic dystopia is so well crafted, as are the well developed characters. The action is fast paced and there is hardly time to catch your breath before Kita throws us into the next scheme she has come up with to achieve her end goal. She likes to be in control and needs a plan before taking any action.

I really liked that as readers we are given scant detail and a few hints about Kita’s next moves and we learn the full extent of her plans as she executes them…or not in some cases.

The development of the relationships Kita has with the other people she meets is handled well and become an important part of her story. Kita likes to be in control, but cannot always be in control as her injuries sometimes let her down. She navigates meeting and learning whether or not to trust people with difficulty, having been mostly in hiding and surviving on her own for a couple of years.

I am looking forward to continuing Kita’s journey in the second book of the series.

About the book

Length: 372 Pages

Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction

Age Category: Adult

Date Published: October 2, 2023

Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/i9zntEM (Canada) https://a.co/d/8WXpAWd (USA) https://amzn.eu/d/8cCr1rX (UK)

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199968167-the-half-life-empire

The Story Graph Link: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/42971cc8-6951-4b22-aa91-ed12da67d885

About BBNYA

BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists (16 in 2024) and one overall winner.

If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.

The Notorious Virtues by Alwyn Hamilton

On March 31, 2025April 1, 2025 By @f33lthesunIn #YALeave a comment

Blurb

A glamorous media darling, a surprise heiress, and the magical competition of a lifetime.

At sixteen, Honora “Nora” Holtzfall is the daughter of the most powerful heiress in all of Walstad. Her family controls all the money–and all the magic–in the entire country. But despite being the center of attention, Nora has always felt like an outsider. When her mother is found dead in an alley, the family throne and fortune are suddenly up for grabs, and Nora will be pitted against her cousins in the Veritaz, the ultimate magical competition for power that determines the one family heir.

But there’s a surprise contestant this time: Lotte, the illegitimate daughter of Nora’s aunt. When Lotte’s absent mother retrieves her from the rural convent she’d abandoned her to, Lotte goes from being an orphan to surrounded by family. Unfortunately, most of them want her dead.

And soon, Nora discovers that her mother’s death wasn’t random–it was murder. And the only person she can trust to uncover the truth of what happened is a rakish young reporter who despises everything Nora and her family stand for.

With everyone against her, Lotte’s last hope is hunting for the identity of her father. But the dangerous competition–and her feelings for Theo, one of the Holtzfalls’ sworn protectors–turns her world upside down.

Review

I do love a fairy tale inspired story and The Notorious Virtues does not disappoint. As it turns out, this is the first in a series, and whilst ending on somewhat of a cliffhanger, it felt an appropriate place to do so. I need the next book…NOW!

Told from multiple viewpoints, which works well to keep the reader on top of what is happening, this story at is heart is about family. The family in question being the powerful Holtzfall’s, who own and hold all the power in Walstad. The matriarch leader, Mercy, uses her power and magic to control the family and keep the traditions alive…but as the younger generation prepare and endure the trials to decide the next heir to the fortune, they start to uncover deep secrets and infighting. Whilst searching for answers and trying to outmanoeuvre each other, the girls must also be prepared for trials to win a chance to be heiress. These trials are undisclosed (but linked to the virtues) until they happen and can be anything from troll attacks, helping others or not being tempered in stressful situations.

The history of the family and the traditions they keep, including that of their sworn knight protectors, the Rydders, is told in chunks interspersed throughout the main storyline and is their own origins fairy tale, linked to an immortal being in the woods and an honest, hardworking woodcutter who asks no more than to be able to cut wood to help his family survive the winter. How the family has changed these ideals and their use of magic over the generations enables themes of capitalism, dictatorship, family secrets, resistance, betrayal and rebellion. As one of the characters whose point of view is shared with us is a journalist, we also see the power of the press being used to manipulate how individuals and situations are perceived by the general population.

All this sounds heavy, but believe me, this story is anything but. It is fast paced, builds intrigue, suspense and unforeseen twists, whilst also maintaining a fairy tale-esque style.

Thank you to @TheWriteReads, the author and Faber for a copy of this to read and review.

About the book

Genre: Fantasy

Age Category: Young Adult

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Number of Pages: 368 Pages

Publication Date: March 27, 2025

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38347283-the-notorious-virtues

Storygraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/3e6e7d9c-5b37-413b-9773-4550a1b42233

Amazon: https://a.co/d/8vVbAG9 (Canada) https://a.co/d/hLVzjdb (USA) https://amzn.eu/d/i8QYXs5 (UK)

Or my preferred method, buy at a local independent bookshop.

Look out for the other blogs on this tour.

Undine’s Blessing by Tessa Hastjarjanto

On March 31, 2025March 31, 2025 By @f33lthesunIn #YA1 Comment

Blurb

A dutiful daughter, a mystical archipelago, and a hidden power waiting to command the tides…

Marella spends her days caring for her sick mother and selling her father’s fish. Bound by duty and love, she dreams little of adventure. But when her mother must travel to the city for treatment, her father takes her out to sea, despite her fear of water.

A storm steers them to Emberrain, home to a tribe of magical nymphs and a place of secrets, where Marella discovers a startling truth: her father is a frequent visitor to these mysterious islands. Soon she learns that Emberrain isn’t the only secret he had kept from her.

Marella has the power to control water and communicate with aquatic animals.

Overwhelmed by the magical but dangerous islands, and the secrets of her father, Marella must learn to harness her powers to save herself and her new aquatic friend before they are separated from their parents forever.

Undine’s Blessing is a journey of wonder, where fears are faced and mysteries unravel, and a young girl learns that true adventure begins when you dare to embrace who you truly are.

Review

Undine’s Blessing is a fairy tale like story that mixes human and magical worlds through Marella and her father.

Marella’s childhood is spent looking after her poorly mother and doing chores to help them earn enough money to get by whilst her father takes his boat out for long periods, fishing and bringing back intriguing fruits they have never seen before. Where do they come from? Her father is evasive on that.

Marella is caught between her over protective mother and her adventurous father. She questions why her mother does not want yer hear the water but her wish to obey her mother clashes with her joy of swimming and her father’s wish to see her enjoy life more and not be bound to the home by chores.

When he takes Marella on one of his boat trips, she discovers where the fruit comes from…a magical land of nymphs. But what dark secrets lie beneath the surface? How can this place be linked to Marella’s apparent affinity with water and water based creatures?

You will have to read this to find out. Join Marella in this wonderfully crafted world as she discovers her talent for water magic and takes on the village elders to help nature recover from their actions.

About the Book

Length: 298 Pages

Genre: Fantasy

Age Category: Young Adult

Date Published: January 27, 2024

Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/3A6CTUC (Canada) https://a.co/d/cFNzg3k (USA) https://amzn.eu/d/iR6Injk (UK)

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199001923-undine-s-blessing

The Story Graph Link: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/acdc824e-225e-40be-9778-03566593b1cb

About BBNYA

BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists (16 in 2024) and one overall winner.

Fallen Knight by Ceril N Domace

On January 20, 2025January 20, 2025 By @f33lthesunIn AdultLeave a comment

Blurb

Leon Quinn has two goals in life: stay out of the reach of the Templesbane and drink himself unconscious whenever he can afford it.

The first is because the Templesbane wiped out his home and family among the Knights Vigilant when he was a child, destroying everything he knew and loved in one night. The second is to help him sleep when the memories of the first overwhelm him.

But he can’t avoid his past forever. His mercenary work has brought him back to Mezeldwelf, the city he fled to after the downfall of the Knights Vigilant, and to his estranged father just in time to get embroiled in a scheme that threatens the very foundation of the city. A scheme that could see Mezeldwelf, its people, and its gods handed over to the Templesbane.

To protect the city and man that adopted him, Leon will need to confront the ruins of the life he left behind and the horrors that threaten the life he’s cobbled together since then.

Review

It took me a couple of chapters to get my head round who was who and who stood for what, but once I did, what a story! The world building is superb, the characters are deep, idiosyncratic, and Leon is a fabulous main character.

There are several themes running through the book including found family, war, revenge, loss, the weight of expectation and, mainly for Leon, perception not only of himself but how others see him.

Leon grew up knowing certain facts about his early life and thinking he knew other things, which continue to influence the decisions he makes and what he keeps secret from others. He is tortured about what has happened in the past and also what he thinks others want of him. This is not helped by the group of ghost Knights Vigilant who appear to him uninvited, telling him what he should do. Because of this he distances himself, both physically and emotionally, in what he sees as his only way of protecting the people he loves.

Despite perceiving thoughts about him by others mostly incorrectly, he does have some self awareness and when he finds himself responsible for the safety of a teenage girl, he changes his approach to things in order not to scare her.

I love the wide ranging characters that surround Leon, looking out for him despite his best efforts to distance himself, and really look forward to the next book in the series to meet them again, especially Jackie…like Leon, we just never know where she is going to turn up next!

Thank you to the author , Ceril N. Domace, and @The_WriteReads for a copy of the book including order to take part in this blog tour.

About the book

Genre: Fantasy

Age Category: Adult

Number of Pages: 351 Pages

Publication Date: January 24, 2025

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218368070-fallen-knight

Storygraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/5d13c73d-29d9-4caa-b799-c8eb6379e2b7

Amazon: https://a.co/d/379YB4Y (Canada) https://a.co/d/g3uGmmv (USA) https://amzn.eu/d/e6UwdPK (UK)

The Way By by Holly Walters

On December 2, 2024December 2, 2024 By @f33lthesunIn AdultLeave a comment

Blurb

Fairies are real. Or they ought to be, at least, according to Madame Bel Carmen’s best hypotheses. Her problem, however, is that after searching the world over for the lore to prove it, she hasn’t uncovered anything that someone didn’t already know. Out of options, she knows her only chance to prove the existence of the Fae is to find someone who’s met them, and she’s just heard tell of a reclusive scholar who has reportedly done just that. This folklorist is more than just withdrawn; she’s nowhere, an academic ghost known only by a few obscure writings.

Review

I was intrigued by the blurb, but this book is so much more. I also love this quote, as I have never stopped reading fairy tales. This has folklore, fae, fae deals, riddles in rhyme, ghosts, a fabulous cat called Noseworthy and a group of curious women needing to get to the crux of what is happening in the Way By and stop it being destroyed.

I will admit to struggling a bit with the pace of the first half of the book, but once the ladies involved were in the Way By, the liminal world between our world and the fae, the story took on a much quicker pace and I loved it.

Being from the UK, it was strange getting used to so many place names in Massachusetts being the same as some English towns.

This passage from the book is an excellent description of the lives of the five different women who find themselves working together to save the world they know and love, as well as the Fae world. They have all had different life experiences and were all looking for something, they just did not know what that something was. Their knowledge and understanding of the Way By is wide ranging, from being a Waysmith to never having even heard of it until something brought them into the liminal space, without them knowing they were even there.

Finally navigating their way around, confronting their own demons, as well as the one who wanted to bring chaos and destruction to the world, brings them the understanding they seek, as well as more questions. They all have a reason for being there and they all have knowledge and skills that put together can hopefully resolve the situation.

The scenes at the end, where the women are battling Clarisant, made me think of this sculpture by Damien Hirst.

Myth by Damien Hirst, at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

To its credit, this book gave me a lot to think about and it is still with me, a few weeks after reading it.

Thanks to @The_WriteReads and author for the ARC to read and review for this blog tour.

About the Author

Holly Walters originally hails from a small, rural, town in Minnesota. A life-long storyteller, Holly is also a cultural anthropologist with a PhD from Brandeis University working in the high Himalayas of Nepal. While her ethnographic work focuses on fossil folklores and sacred ammonites in South Asia, her creative work pays homage to the dragons, unicorns, and fairy tales of her youth.

When not writing, she can be found perfecting her Medieval archery skills, theorizing about movie plots, and forgetting where she left her tea cup. Today, she makes her home in Boston, Massachusetts, with a very unruly garden, a few equally cantankerous pets, a clever spouse, and a resident house ghost. And since her creepy sculpture hobby hasn’t panned out thus far, she is looking forward to the publication of her first novel and the writing of many more.

Kavithri by Aman J Bedi

On November 13, 2024November 13, 2024 By @f33lthesunIn AdultLeave a comment

Blurb

Kavi is a Taemu. Her people, once feared berserkers and the spearhead of a continent-spanning invasion, are the dregs of Raayan society. Their spirits crushed. Their swords broken. Their history erased.

But Kavi has a dream and a plan. She will do whatever it takes to earn a place at the secretive mage academy, face the Jinn within its walls, and gain the power to rise above her station and drag her people out of the darkness.

Except power and knowledge come at a cost, and the world no longer needs a Taemu who can fight. So they will break her. Beat her down to her knees. And make her bleed.

But if blood is what they want, Kavi will give them blood. She will give them violence. She will show them a berserker’s fury.

And she will make them remember her name.

Review

This is a debut dark fantasy novel that pulls no punches. The world building is assured and confident, the characters full and vibrant and the story deep and intriguing. It is also gruesome in parts.

There is a lot of back story, both for the main characters and the politics of the world, but this is divulged by different characters at various points in the story, so no long info dumps.

Kavi is an orphan, a Taemu (the lowest of the low in this world’s caste system) and has no one. She doesn’t even trust her own memory about where she comes from and what happened to her family. A chance encounter when she helps someone unexpectedly opens up her world in a way she could not have hoped for, despite it being her goal.

Whilst feeling Kavi’s disappointment, I was pleased that the “expected” ending to the first set of tests in her attempt to become a Mage did not happen and this story took Kavi in a less anticipated direction towards her ultimate goal.

On the way, Kavi meets a wide variety of people who bring their own baggage and history, linked in both good and bad ways to Kavi’s. There are things she will find out that will not make sense to her and will shake her beliefs and what she thought she knew.

Kavi is a loner, an underdog and an outcast who has been treated abominably by society but she is determined in her search for her family. The learned helplessness and capitulation that the Taemu employ to survive is something else she needs to get her head around if she is to make any progress towards becoming a Mage, so her struggle is mental and physical. Years of being kind and not hurting anyone, the fear that if she does she will let out the inner berserker of her ancestors and not get able to control it is to the forefront of her mind and the biggest hurdle to her success.

Warning: The final third of the story is extremely violent and brutal. There are gladiator style confrontations, one on one combats, battles and a gruesome torture. If you liked Joe Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy, then you will like this. I am now waiting excitedly for the next part of Kavi’s story.

Thanks to the publishers, Gollancz, and @The_WriteReads for the ARC for me to read and review.

About the Author

Aman was born in Mysore, India. He grew up in Vizag, studied in Bangalore, lived in Bangkok, completed a PhD in experimental psychology at the University of Canterbury, and has settled (for now) in Melbourne, Australia. His writing draws from modern Indian history and is influenced by writers and artists like David Gemmell, Brandon Sanderson, Takehiko Inoue, and Kentaro Miura.

Terra Electrica by Antonia Maxwell – A Spotlight Post

On October 23, 2024October 20, 2024 By @f33lthesunIn Upper Key Stage 2+Leave a comment

I am shining a spotlight on the fabulous Terra Electrica by Antonia Maxwell, to celebrate its publication in the US on October 22 2024.

I really enjoyed reading this when it came out earlier this year in the UK and reviewed it here.

Book Info

Genre: Dystopian, Science & Nature, Environment

Age Category: Middle Grade

Page Count: 272 Pages

Publication Date: July 4, 2024 (October 22nd US)

Publisher: Neem Tree Press

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/204929195-terra-electrica

StoryGraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/19fb6fe4-15c8-4cc3-a151-35e6fb0126b1

Amazon: https://a.co/d/0ekqkIpP (USA) https://amzn.eu/d/0dUDASJ3 (UK) https://a.co/d/0euPP4sr (Canada)

Or buy it from your local independent bookshop, which is my preferred option.

Blurb

Book 1 in an action-packed dystopian adventure series set in the near-future post-melt Arctic.

The last ice cap has melted, and the world is on the brink of collapse. A deadly force—Terra Electrica—has been unleashed. It feeds on electricity. It is infecting civilization.

In this chaotic, rapidly changing reality, 12-year-old Mani has lost her family and community to the Terra Electrica. Armed only with some ancestral wisdom and a powerful, ancient wooden mask she was never meant to inherit so soon, she suddenly finds herself responsible for the fate of the world.

Can Mani piece everything together and harness her newfound powers in time to save humanity?

About the Author

Antonia Maxwell is a writer and editor based in North Essex and Cambridge, UK. With a degree in Modern Languages and a long-standing career as a book editor, she has a lifelong curiosity for language and words, and a growing fascination in the power of story – the way it shapes our lives and frames our experience.

Please look out for other spotlights and reviews on this tour to celebrate the US release of Terra Electrica.

Hermit of Paradise by Kim Sanders

On October 21, 2024October 20, 2024 By @f33lthesunIn Adult1 Comment

Blurb

Detective Auby Midnight is retired. Or so he imagines. Jaded and transformed by a long career of witnessing degeneracy, tragedy, and true evil, he reflects on the place that first nurtured him: Paradise Cove, Lake Texoma, and the rich, endearing memories of mischief, adventure, and friendship that shaped his childhood. That is, until the day a violent feud brought irrevocable trauma for his best friend, Sunny.

Now Sunny implores the wearied Auby to right the wrongs of the past and return to the case that has haunted him and his childhood friends for years. Older, wiser, and far more experienced, they set out to defeat the evil that stole their innocence and restore the magic of Paradise Cove.

Inspired by the author’s own life events as a sixth-generation Texan and a former member of the Dallas Police Department with decades of experience under his belt, Hermit of Paradise explores meaning, morality, and the fight to stay human in the face of a grim and complicated world.

Review

After reading the blurb, I had in my head how I thought this story would unfold…but I was wrong. Yes, there is some police procedure but as part of Auby’s backstory, rather than the main chunk of the tale, and that is no bad thing.

Overall, it is a story about Auby retiring from the police and finally facing up to what happened one summer when innocence was lost and a group of young teens is caught up in a feud between local family factions, underworld gambling, war veterans, and family ties that are either blood or bands of brothers.

There are a lot of characters to keep track of and the author does a superb job of creating fully formed characters and integrates their story arcs seamlessly.

I can get frustrated when information about the past is drip fed in a dual timeline narrative but in this case, Sanders does it pitch perfect. So much so, the sucker punch hits its target.

This story will sit with me for a long time to come.

Thanks to @The_WriteReads and Brown Books for the eARC to read and review for this blog tour.

Looking for Lucie by Amanda Addison – A Spotlight Post

On September 30, 2024September 30, 2024 By @f33lthesunIn Young AdultLeave a comment

I am shining a spotlight on the wonderful Looking for Lucie by Amanda Addison, to celebrate its publication in the US on October 1st 2024.

I really enjoyed reading this when it came out earlier this year in the UK and reviewed it here.

Book Info

Genre: Contemporary YA

Length: 272 pages

Published: April 2024 in UK and Oct 1st 2024 in US

Or buy it from your local independent bookshop, which is my preferred option.

Blurb

Looking for Lucie is a contemporary YA novel that explores identity, self-discovery, and newfound friendship as an 18-year-old girl sets out to uncover her ethnic heritage and family history.

It’s a question every brown girl in a white-washed town is familiar with, and one that Lucie has never been able to answer.

All she knows is that her mother is white, she’s never met her father, and she looks nothing like the rest of her family. She can’t even talk about it because everyone says it shouldn’t matter!

Well, it matters to Lucie and—with her new friend Nav, who knows exactly who he is—she’s determined to find some answers.

What do you do when you question your entire existence? You do a DNA test.

About the Author

Amanda Addison is an award-winning author of books for adults and children. Her writing has been translated into German, Greek, Italian and Ukrainian. Her picture book, Boundless Sky, was nominated for The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal, and her YA novel, Looking for Lucie, was listed for the Searchlight Writing Novel Opening Award. A graduate of Chelsea school of Art, her writing and artwork are inspired by travel, textiles, and the natural world. Amanda holds an MA in Writing the Visual and lectures in Art & Design and has also led workshops in Creative Writing at the National Centre for Writing. Amanda lives in Norfolk, UK, with her family.

Her writing includes flash fiction, short stories, picture books and novels. She explores themes of home and belonging, and enjoys using the juxtaposition of rural and city life. Her characters are often artists or scientists, as their curiosity about the world around them are two sides to the same coin, and the exploration of art and science can give us meaning and purpose in life with its infinite avenues of discovery. Amanda’s debut YA novel, Looking for Lucie, Neem Tree Press 2024, explores the above. It is a contemporary story of identity, self-discovery, and newfound friendship. Lucie, an 18-year-old art student sets out to uncover her ethnic heritage and family history with her new scientist friend Nav. Together they unravel family secrets.

Amanda believes in the power of stories as a window on the world, and a mirror to better see ourselves and is passionate about stories which are empowering and inclusive. When not writing she can be found swimming in the North Sea or running in the countryside, and that is when she gets some of her best ideas!

Please look out for other spotlights and reviews on this tour to celebrate the US release of Looking for Lucie.