Release Day Blitz + Giveaway: Bed of Flowers by Erin Satie

Bed of Flowers
by Erin Satie
Published by Little Phrase
Release day: June 19th 2018
Historical romance

Bonny Reed is beautiful, inside and out.

A loyal friend and loving daughter, she’s newly engaged to her small town’s most eligible bachelor. She’s happy for herself—but mostly for her family, who need the security her marriage will bring.

An old enemy shatters her illusions. 

First Baron Loel cost Bonny’s family her fortune. Now he’s insisting that her fiancé has hidden flaws, secrets so dark that—if she believed him—she’d have to call off the wedding. 

How will she choose?

When the truth comes out, Bonny will have to choose between doing what’s right and what’s easy. Between her family and her best friend. And hardest of all—between her honor and the love of a man who everyone wants her to hate.

Get your copy

Amazon

iBooks

Google Play

Kobo

Excerpt

This is from Loel’s perspective; he’s just kissed Bonny’s wrist.

“You know that you are beautiful,” he said.

She began to shake her head, but he didn’t wait for her to contradict him. He would not offer the courtesy of pretense.

“I do not think you understand how beautiful.” How could she? She’d never seen much of the world. He’d circled the globe and he’d never met another woman who could compare. “If you wanted a husband who would prostrate himself at your feet and worship you, you would have no trouble finding one. If you demanded this of him every day of your married life, year after year until his knees crumbled to dust, he would still get down on those ruined knees to thank God that you chose him.”

Miss Reed tittered. “Don’t be absurd.”

He was dead serious and she knew that, too. “If Charles Gavin has convinced you that he is your equal, he is a liar. When you chose him, it was an act of grace.”  

Author bio

Erin Satie is the author of the dark and elegant No Better Angels series of historical romances set in the early Victorian period. She’s currently hard at work on her new series, Sweetness and Light.

Erin is a California native who’s lived on the coasts and in the heartland, in tiny city apartments and on a working farm. She studied art history in both college and graduate school—research is always her favorite part of starting a new book.

Her favorite part of finishing a book, whether reading or writing, is the happily ever after.

Connect with Erin: Author Site | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Newsletter

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Top Ten Tuesday: Summer TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week participating bloggers can create lists of topic given by the host, and share them with others!

I'm not a person who likes to read outside, and never on the beach or by the pool (and really, I don't spend time there either). So I'll go with my summer TBR; as always, this is just what I hope to read, it's a different story what I actually end up reading.

As my usual style, it's a mix; lots of fantasy, some crime, and classics.

 

Review: Foxes Unearthed by Lucy Jones

Foxes Unearthed
by Lucy Jones
Published by Elliott & Thompson
Non-fiction, natural history

As one of the largest predators left in Britain, the fox is captivating: a comfortably familiar figure in our country landscapes; and intriguing flash of bright-eyed wildness in our towns.

Yet no other animal attracts such controversy, has provoked more column inches or been so ambiguously woven into our culture over centuries, perceived variously as a beautiful animal, a cunning rogue, a vicious pest and a worthy foe. As well as being the most ubiquitous of wild animals, it is also the least understood.

In Foxes Unearthed Lucy Jones investigates the truth about foxes in a media landscape that often carries complex agendas. Delving into fact, fiction, folklore and her own family history, Lucy travels the length of Britain to find out first-hand why these animals incite such passionate emotions, revealing our rich and complex relationship with one of our most loved - and most vilified - wild animals. This compelling narrative adds much-needed depth to the debate on foxes, asking what our attitudes towards the red fox say about us - and, ultimately, about our relationship with the natural world.

"People both loathe and love the animal fiercely, and it stands apart from the rest of British wildlife because of its enemies and friends on both sides. The fox has never been a tabula rasa, but it has become more things to more people since attitudes towards animals shifted in the twentieth century."

Lucy Jones's concluding point sums up Foxes Unearthed perfectly. The British people and foxes have a complicated relationship, from the very beginning to the urban foxes nowadays. Easiest way to describe the relationship and history between them is passionate, whether it's passionate hate or love. Jones offers a valuable history here, and it's truly gorgeous because how dedicated Jones is to show both sides of the argument; there's chapters for historical and literacy point of view of foxes, as well as separate chapters for people who hunt foxes and think them as pest, and for those who fight to stop the fox hunting and care for foxes.

Fox has been vilified throughout history and not only in Britain. However, the topic has been highly debated and fierce for centuries because foxes are largest predator in Britain, since the wolves have been extinct since the eighteenth century (and even then, wolves mainly inhabited Scotland). I have a keen interest for wildlife natural history surrounding wolves and foxes. Last year I read The Last Wolf, and now I delved into the topic of foxes. Lucy Jones is engaging writer and the flow was smooth without loosing any credibility as Jones quotes her sources and there's extensive notes and bibliography included.

Foxes Unearthed offers an extensive insight to the story of love and loathing in modern Britain, and I highly recommend it to everyone who's interested in the topic.

4 of 5 stars

Add on Goodreads

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Awaken the Travel Bug In Me

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week participating bloggers can create lists of topic given by the host, and share them with others!

I don't think that the travel bug never leaves, because of the constant wanderlust in me (there can never be too many castles, ruins and cities/towns to see). However, these books just makes me want to travel places (real or fictional).

Nothing makes me want to wander around the English moors than Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.

V.E. Schwab's Shades of Magic trilogy just makes me want to travel to London - no matter in what world it is in.

Peter May's descriptions of the Western Isles makes me yearn to stroll on Luskentyre beach and Stornoway.

It's not a secret that I want to go to Greece, to see the ruins and wonder of ancient Greece. Both Stephen Fry and Madeline Miller have taken me there, but I'd love to see it all in person.

I love Anyta Sunday's books and especially Taboo For You just made me itch to travel to New Zealand.

I mean, I'd skip the dangers of a desert, but I'd love to go Australia and Sydney, where I almost could be just by reading L.J. Hayward's Where Death Meets the Devil.

JL Merrow painted such a vivid picture of a rural towns of Hertfordshire in The Plumber's Mate Mysteries series that I wanted to book a train there right then and there.

And of course, nothing made me want to travel around Scotland, England, and London than Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.

Stacking the Shelves (76)

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews, and is all about sharing the book you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!
This is just a small haul, mostly because I'm trying to control my book buying after hauling a lot of books in May.
Purchased

 

For Review

Review: I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells

I Am Not A Serial Killer (John Cleaver, #1)
by Dan Wells
Published by Headline
YA, mystery, thriller, horror

John works in his family's mortuary and has an obsession with serial killers. He wants to be a good person, but fears he is a sociopath, and for years he has suppressed his dark side through a strict system of rules designed to mimic "normal" behavior. Then a demon begins stalking his small town and killing people one by one, and John is forced to give in to his darker nature in order to save them. As he struggles to understand the demon and find a way to kill it, his own mind begins to unravel until he fears he may never regain control. Faced with the reality that he is, perhaps, more monstrous than the monster he is fighting, John must make a final stand against the horrors of both the demon and himself.

I Am Not A Serial Killer surprised me by how disturbing and creepy it was. I went in knowing it would be both, but I was taken aback just how much it made my skin crawl. There's gruesome murders and on page descriptions of embalming bodies. There's also the main character, John, who might be a sociopath and has obsession with serial killers. John might seem like an unlikable character with his lack of empathy, but it was surprising how he wasn't. I liked John! He tried his best to be good and do what's considered normal, and he had connection to a few around him.

Wells's writing style was very factual and straight to the point, which might not work for every book. However, it just made this one even creepier and more gruesome, and it fit perfectly for John as narrator. The cold facts and the lack of emotion in the writing style made John truly come alive on the page. I do have to confess that it also made me take breaks while reading, because it was creepy and made my skin crawl multiple times. The mystery, murders, and chasing a serial killer got my pulse racing and it was terrifying to wait and see what happens next. Absolutely a thrill.

If you like chilling thrillers and horror, I Am Not A Serial Killer is the right choice for you. I do recommend it, and I'm not one to usually read horror stories.

4 of 5 stars

Add on Goodreads

The Aesthetically Pleasing Book Tag

This tag was created by Book Syrup on Youtube (you can check out her video here) a few years ago. I just found it, and decided to get my camera ready and find some aesthetically pleasing books on my shelves!

1. Best colour combo on a book cover

Release by Patrick Ness

I love blue in every shade and I tend to gravitate towards blue covers. This one is particularly pleasing because it has so many shades of blue!

2. Best typography/font on a book cover

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

I love old typography, how detailed and intricate it is. This one just screams medieval typography, which I really like. So stunning!

3. Best simple cover

STAGS by M. A. Bennett

Can it get any simpler than this? Just the title, tag line and antlers; it's gorgeous.

4. Best endpages

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

I'm pretty much in love with every cover there is for Vicious (and I own three of them, oops), but the new UK Collector's Edition has also stunning endpages, which are perfect fit for the story.

5. Best map

Captive Prince trilogy by C.S. Pacat

I love maps because they help to visualize the world, and I especially love following the character's movements throughout the map. Most pleasing maps for my eyes are the ones which are both detailed and simple; easy to follow and depict but still offers plenty of information.

6. Best naked hardback

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

I don't own a lot of hardbacks because I prefer paperbacks - the only hardbacks that I own are usually special editions or just books that weren't available as paperback at the time. Those that I own, are all gorgeous. However, I chose this collector's edition of A Darker Shade of Magic, because I love the naked cover with only As Travars in stunning font.

7. Best back cover

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

I could have picked up any edition of Harry Potter books that I own (Slytherin house edition, Scots edition or original Bloomsbury UK editions) because each of them has beautiful back cover as well as front cover. I chose this one because of one of favourite characters;

8. Best chapter headers

A Light Amongst Shadows by Kelley York & Rowan Altwood

I adore the chapter headers/pages in this book! Absolutely gorgeous - I love how the whole page is grey, how the white headers stand out and the design of the first letter. It fits the story, which is set in Victorian England. The book design in this one is just so stunning!

9. Best illustrations

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell

I don't actually own a lot of books with illustrations, but even if I did, I'd pick Neverwhere. The illustrations (and cover!) are stunning and there's a lot of them. I also love how it varies; sometimes it's a whole page of illustrations and sometimes smaller ones within the page.

10. Best spine

Percy Jackson series & Trials of Apollo series by Rick Riordan

This box set of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians is stunning! I also love the Trials of Apollo covers and spine design, so I had to feature both of them.

11. Favourite cover on your shelves

Lost Boy by Christina Henry & Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë & The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan

I have so many favourite covers that I couldn't just pick one! So I chose three. Lost Boy is gorgeous with it's silhouette of Jamie, Peter and a hook. This edition of Wuthering Heights is the most stunning I've ever seen, I love the watercolour illustration of Heathcliff and Cathy. The Hidden Oracle just leaves me speechles. I mean, that cover is the reason why I ordered the US hardback online rather than getting the normal UK cover.

I don't tag anyone particular, rather just everyone who wants to do this! :)