Saturday, October 3, 2026

#BookReview: Snowflakes Over Micklewick Bay by Eliza Scott #Romance

Snowflakes over Micklewick Bay



A wintry treat brimming with snowflakes, secrets and second chances!

When her beloved Aunt Colleen passes away, settling her affairs means doing the one thing Hannah Merryweather has spent years avoiding: returning to Micklewick Bay, the seaside town she fled years ago and has never quite found the courage to face again.

Coming home means facing the past too. Polly, her stepmother, and Darryl, her stepbrother, still loom large over the life she once knew, and the home she lost is never far from her thoughts.

Then, on her very first day back, she nearly collides with the one man she never expected to see again: Lachie, the kilted, green-eyed Scotsman who stole her heart last spring. His unexpected arrival in Micklewick Bay is the last complication Hannah needs – especially as feelings she thought she’d locked away start to resurface.

As Hannah slowly uncovers just how far her aunt’s plans for her future stretch – including one life-changing surprise waiting at the end of the pier – can she find the courage to claim the life, and the love, Auntie Colleen always believed she deserved?

A beautifully uplifting story of hope and second chances, set in the snow-globe charm of Micklewick Bay.

Perfect for readers who love:

· Cosy seaside fiction

· Slow-burn romance

· Stories about fresh starts

· Female friendship and found family

· Wintry settings

 My Review:

I enjoyed Snowflakes over Micklewick Bay. It's a heartwarming tale of loss, second chances, romance, and finding your place in the world. The place you always deserved.

Hannah's had tragedy in her life in spades. The latest is the loss of her dear Aunt Colleen. This forces Hannah back to Micklewick Bay, one place she fled and never wished to return. The author crafted a fantasic slow-burn romance in a beautiful setting. The characters are wonderful and likable. I love stories about found families, romance, and when the town rallies around the main character. 

The continued world building brings Micklewick Bay to life. Vivid imagery, flowing conversations, introductions of new characters, and strong relationships really bring this story to life. I've only read books 6 & 7 and plan to read the first 5 books as soon as possible.

I was provided with a copy of this book. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

My Rating:


Purchase Link: Amazon

Meet the Author:


Eliza J Scott lives in North Yorkshire with her family and has wanted to be a writer as far back as she can remember. She is inspired by her beautiful surroundings and loves to write heartwarming stories based on romance and friendship with a generous dollop of community spirit and a hint of humour.

When she’s not writing, Eliza can usually be found with her nose in a book or working in her garden doing a spot of plot wrangling (of the writing variety), and battling against the weeds. The weeds, unfortunately, are currently winning but Eliza is undeterred. Roses are amongst her favourite flowers and she doesn’t need much of an excuse to visit a plant centre, where a new rose always seems to mysteriously find its way onto her trolley much to her husband’s astonishment.

Eliza also enjoys having a catch-up with friends over tea and cake, as well as bracing walks in the countryside, rounded off by a visit to a teashop – for yet more tea and cake!

 Social Media Links:

Amazon author page: Eliza J Scott - UK or  Eliza J Scott - US

Website: Eliza J Scott

Twitter/X: @ElizaJScott1

Facebook: @elizajscottauthor

Instagram: @elizajscott

Bookbub: @elizajscott

Threads: www.threads.com/@elizajscott?hl=en

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Dreidels and Dead Ends (Bad Hair Day Mysteries) by Nancy J. Cohen #CozyMystery

 

Dreidels and Dead Ends (Bad Hair Day Mysteries) by Nancy J. Cohen

About Dreidels and Dead Ends:

 

Dreidels and Dead Ends (Bad Hair Day Mysteries)

Cozy Mystery

19th in Series

Setting - Florida

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Orange Grove Press

Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 23, 2026

Print length ‏ : ‎ 246 pages

Paperback ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1952886392

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1952886393

Kindle ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1952886409

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0GWQMWF7Y

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A daring holiday heist at the local history museum sends hairstylist Marla Vail on her most tangled case yet. When salon owner Marla Vail agrees to speak at the local history museum’s gala opening for a new exhibit, she expects applause—not a catastrophe. But shortly after she takes the stage, a thief steals the featured diamond-studded hairbrush, leaving behind an empty display case and a badly injured security guard. Marla’s friend, museum curator Becky Forest, begs for her help in recovering the prized heirloom before the mayor uses this scandal as an excuse to cut their funding. To make matters worse, the antique hairbrush comes with a curse, and suddenly bad luck is spreading through town faster than a botched dye job. As Hanukkah festivities begin, Marla would rather be lighting candles than chasing clues, but with Becky’s job at stake, she takes on the case. Her trail leads to a knot of suspects including the hairbrush’s owner, his greedy cousin, shifty museum staff, and a reclusive collector of mystical antiquities. Instead of enjoying menorah lights and latkes, Marla discovers murder, lies, and larceny. She’ll need sharp wits and a holiday miracle to save the museum and to keep the truth from being brushed aside.

About Nancy J. Cohen

Nancy J. Cohen writes the Bad Hair Day Mysteries featuring South Florida hairstylist Marla Vail. Titles in this series have been named Best Cozy Mystery by Suspense Magazine, won the Readers’ Favorite Book Awards and the RONE Award, placed first in the Chanticleer International Book Awards and third in the Arizona Literary Awards. Her nonfiction titles, Writing the Cozy Mystery and A Bad Hair Day Cookbook, have won the FAPA President’s Book Award, the Royal Palm Literary Award, and IAN Book of the Year. When not busy writing, Nancy enjoys reading, fine dining, cruising, and visiting Disney World.

Author Links:

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Purchase Links - Universal Link - Amazon - B&N - Kobo - Bookshop.org - Apple - Google Play

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October 2 – Jody's Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
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October 7 – deal sharing aunt – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
October 8 – Christy's Cozy Corners – REVIEW, AUTHOR GUEST POST
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October 10 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
October 11 – Sarandipity's – AUTHOR GUEST POST

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Truthful Lies & Bent Realities by Stephen Foehr ~ @RABTBookTours #RABTBookTours #TruthfulLiesandBentRealities #StephenFoehr #Crime #thriller


Truthful Lies & Bent Realities by Stephen Foehr 

A Truly Believed Love Story

 Mystery, Thriller, Crime

Date Published: April 30, 2026

 


In a time when mythology as propaganda shapes the systems of society and government, two unlikely souls come together to question the reality of it all—what’s going wrong in the world, whether anything’s right, and their own perceptions of honesty, dishonesty, and who they are.

Chillee and Gordie meet in Big Town, where their connection flourishes despite the recognition that they could each be fatal to the identities they’ve created for themselves. Chillee is a realistic idealist, a problem solver who puts her faith in the truth. Gordie, too, is an idealist, but he thrives on uncertainty, posing as a criminal to bring justice to white-collar crimes. They vow to hold one another accountable, to push each other through the steps to being a better person—the best person they’re capable of being.

In Chillee’s neighboring hometown, a county commissioner’s election will determine the fate of the rural community—and unknowingly put relationships to the test. When her best friend Willi asks Chillee to help her run against her ex-husband, she returns to Colton Center with Gordie…who has his own motives in mind.

As the couple continues to work with and against each other, Chillee and Gordie begin to see the deepening cracks in the perceived rights and wrongs of their world. No matter the outcome of the election, life as they knew it may not be the life they continue to lead.

Truthful Lies and Bent Realities is a thought-provoking ride into learning to understand the self and challenge the mind to keep asking the existential questions: Who are we? Who do we think we are? Who do we want to be? And do those identities intersect in the right places?

About the Author:


Stephen Foehr, author of 14 fiction and nonfiction books, began his career as a police reporter in Chicago. His nonfiction books examines the relationship between music and culture, autobiography of the blues Taj Mahal, and travel. His fiction deals with submission and how to resist.


Contact Links:

Website

BookBuzz

 

Purchase Link:

Amazon


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Friday, October 2, 2026

#BookReview ~ Christmas at Honeycombe Bay by Lilac Mills #FoundFamily #HolidayRomance

 Christmas at Honeycombe Bay

Two Scrooges come together for a festive-free holiday season by the sea and find all their anti-Christmas plans going up in smoke when they decide to play Santa for a single mom and her child.

Eloise Garrett thinks Christmas is overpriced, overhyped, and overrated, and without any family to share it with, she feels sad, lonely and isolated. The “season for giving” is just a constant reminder that she’s single, sixty(ish), and staring down retirement. But not this Christmas. Determined to avoid the most magical time of the year, Eloise decides to spend Christmas in Honeycombe Bay. Surely a seaside village in the middle of winter won’t be too festive?

Ever since his wife passed away, Bartholomew Knott hasn’t felt up to welcoming visitors to his guest house. With the prospect of another long, lonely winter, and having become more Scrooge than Santa over the years, Bart is dreading Christmas. However, when he’s contacted by someone who dislikes decking the halls just as much as he does, Bart has the brilliant idea of opening the guest house to people who want to escape all things festive.

Christmas isn’t easy to ignore, though, not even in off-season Honeycombe Bay. So when fate forces Bart to give shelter to a single mother and child whose holiday has been devastated by a terrible fire, Eloise finds herself playing Mrs. Claus to Bart’s Santa—dragging the house’s other guest, a heartbroken teacher looking for a break during the holidays, into the action as well. But holiday cheer isn’t the only thing sparking under the mistletoe. Will the guests at Honeycombe Bay realize that, sometimes, the best way to escape Christmas is to let it into your heart?

My Review:

Christmas at Honeycombe Bay is a sweet story about finding love and family in unexpected places. Eloise and Bart are strangers brought together because of their disinterest in anything festive during the holiday season. The author crafted wonderful characters. I really felt their dislike and bah humbuggery but also when their attitudes flipped the switch.
 
The author crafted a wonderful world and built a wonderful world. I enjoyed the writing style, pacing, and vivid imagery. The characters are written with depth, emotion, and realism.

I was provided with a copy of this book. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

My Rating:


PERFECT FOR FANS OF

- Small-town Christmas vibes

- Later-in-life romance

- Forced proximity

- Grumpy x sunshine


Purchase Links:

Meet the Author:

Lilac Mills lives on a Welsh mountain with her very patient husband and incredibly sweet dog, where she grows veggies (if the slugs don't get them), bakes (badly) and loves making things out of glitter and glue (a mess, usually). She's been an avid reader ever since she got her hands on a copy of Noddy Goes to Toytown when she was five, and she once tried to read everything in her local library starting with A and working her way through the alphabet. She loves long, hot summer days in the garden, and cold winter ones snuggled in front of the fire, but whatever the weather she's usually writing or thinking about writing, with heartwarming romance and happy-ever-afters always on her mind.

Lilac also writes under the pseudonyms Liz Davies and Etti Summers

Social Media Links – https://www.instagram.com/lilacmillsauthor/ https://www.lilacmills.com/books

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The Hawk’s Lady by Colleen Shannon ~ @RABTBookTours #RABTBookTours #TheHawksLady #ColleenShannon #HistoricalRomance


The Hawk’s Lady by Colleen Shannon


Historical Romance

Date Published: July 4, 2026



A blond Barbary pirate captain of a xebec. . . Sinan Reis.

Who is he? Why did he desert his country?

His latest capture: a fine yacht. And its owner. . . Lady Victoria Grenville.

Who is she? Can an heiress to a fortune conform to harem life?

Amidst sea battles, kidnappings, and political menace from the Dey of Algiers, Sinan and Tory start as captor and captive. But their fierce battle of wills will transform them both.

Most importantly, if Tory can’t submit to him will he sell her at auction? Or can she escape before he does?

Kismet has other plans.

In 1799, Lady Victoria "Tory" Grenville, a willful English heiress, is captured at sea by Sinan Reis, a blond Barbary pirate captain secretly working for a cause he can't reveal. Aboard his xebec and within the walls of an Algiers harem, captor and captive wage a battle of wills that becomes a battle for the heart, set against real political intrigue between the new United States, the Dey of Algiers, and the warring Federalists and Democratic-Republicans of post-Revolutionary Philadelphia. Sweeping sea battles, kidnappings, and court machinations build to a richly satisfying historical romance grounded in meticulously researched 18th-century detail.

 

* New, expanded edition with a newly written epilogue extending the story into the events of 1814, bridging to the author's upcoming Regency-era trilogy.

* Bonus material: author's historical notes, a detailed bibliography/source list documenting the book's research, and a preview/teaser of Shannon's forthcoming "Fire, Wind and Earth" trilogy (Ashes, Burning Bright; Whirlwind, Burning Bright; Tiger, Burning Bright).

* Author Colleen Shannon was nominated by Romantic Times as Best New Historical Romance Author and has won/been nominated for multiple industry awards (including a Kiss Award) across an 18-novel career with over a million copies in print.

* Limited deluxe hardback printing released to mark the U.S. 250th anniversary with patriotic design features available on Colleen Shannon's author website.


The Hawk's Lady: a Deluxe 250th Anniversary Edition of Colleen Shannon's beloved 1989 Barbary Wars romance, now fully revised with new original content.

 

About the Author:


Colleen Shannon grew up in Midland, Texas where the skies are as limitless as the tales told by its many colorful residents, dreamers and entrepreneurs all, with some scoundrels sprinkled in. Colleen grew up reading and writing stories of every kind. She wrote her first short story at eight, began a novel at 14 and read authors like Ayn Rand and Clive Cussler at 13. After college when she married and expected her first child, she used a scrap computer assembled by her engineer husband, to write her first novel, Wild Heart Tamed (not posted digitally because she considers it a learning experience).

She sold it herself to Berkley in less than a year, and at the age of 26 began a new career and never looked back. The strength of her first book led to her nomination by Romantic Times as Best New Historical Author. She went on to win and/or be nominated for many other awards, including a Kiss Award for all three heroes of her Fairy Tale trilogy written for Dorchester Books. One of her six completed scripts is a modern, very different version to her Georgian England set beauty and the beast novel The Gentle Beast. It has not been shown as it needs heavy revisions but she moves easily between scripts and novels, including original screenplays like Full Circle, currently revised after two Blacklist evaluations. In the last two years, she has become one of Film Freeways’ top winning screenwriters internationally, per Film Freeway management.

Her 18 single title releases have appeared on many bestseller lists; she has well over a million books in print. Colleen’s recent works include thrillers and screenplays that combine her favorite novel story elements: romance, suspense, history and action. Most recently, she published three Kensington Lyrical Press romantic suspense. The first in the series, Foster Justice, was released in December 2014 and ranked #1 on Amazon’s Western Romance list. Colleen converted the story to a novel from the original script version she wrote at UCLA’s Advanced Professional Screenwriting program.

Colleen Shannon graduated cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.A. in Archaeology and more recently earned her Master’s in Real Estate Development from the University of Southern California. She currently lives in Austin, Texas.

 

Contact Links:

Website

Wikipedia

Authors Guild

Facebook

Goodreads

BookBuzz


Purchase Link:

Amazon


RABT Book Tours & PR

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If you make a purchase using my links, I will receive a small commission from the sale at no cost to you.
Thank you for supporting Sapphyria’s Books.