Blog Tour: The Redwood Bargain by Markelle Grabo

To free her cousin from an indentured contract, Katrien agrees to fulfill their lord’s bargain with the fabled “Redwood Man.” Three maids before her have posed as his stepdaughter, Lady Zaviera, and met this lord of the forest as promised. But Katrien means to be the first to fool him—and live.

Impersonating a Lady is no easy feat, especially one as beautiful and aloof as Zaviera. With six weeks before she’s sent off, Katrien is put through endless lessons, even as The Redwood Man’s suffocating vines overtake the manor and threaten its staff.

Zaviera takes a special interest in her training, and their shared interests grow into shared affections. But The Redwood Man awaits his prize. Caught between duty and desire, her future and her past, Katrien must navigate a tricky bargain—or risk failing those she holds dearest.

Andromeda by E. S. McLeod

Blessed by the gods with unparalleled beauty, Andromeda lives a life of ease within her Aethiopian palace walls. Content with her sanctuary, the young princess has no concerns other than the royal expectations her parents have for her – until a single, fateful proclamation changes everything.

When the queen defies the gods with a blasphemous claim, Poseidon, fearsome God of the Seas, delivers a deadly ultimatum that puts the queen’s life in Andromeda’s hands. Poseidon sends his loyal servant, the shape-shifting Ceto, to seal the princess’s fate.

But Ceto is not just a servant. With a sharp tongue and hardened heart, she has little interest in the princess’s appearance – and even less in the games of gods. Yet an undeniable tension begins to bloom between them, and both quickly realise Andromeda’s beauty is not only a gift, but a weapon to wield. As Poseidon’s judgement draws ever closer, the two women find themselves pulled into something far more passionate – and dangerous – than either could have predicted...

Love by the Book by Jessica George

Friendship is the love story you can count on.

Remy is lucky. Her debut novel, based on her three best friends, became an instant bestseller when it was released, and her agent and publisher are clamoring for a follow-up. But just as Remy’s creative inspiration seems to leave her, so too do her friends: one moves to New York, one gets pregnant, and one gets back together with her (awful) boyfriend. After an ill-advised one-night stand complicates matters further, Remy is left deeply alone—and unable to find her next book idea.

Simone is successful. A Kindergarten teacher with a passion for kids, and a well-paying side hustle that affords her all the material comforts she desires, she doesn't have time for a robust social life. All Simone needs is her close-knit family—but after the true nature of her work is revealed, they cut her off, and she realizes for the first time just how isolated she is.

When Simone and Remy bump into each other (literally) in a bookstore, it isn’t exactly soulmates at first sight. Simone is guarded and prickly, Remy is insecure and heartbroken, and each woman is harboring a secret. And yet they might just be the missing piece the other has been searching for—if only they can let each other in.

Can Simone help Remy make one of the most important decisions of her life—and can Remy help Simone recover all that she’s lost? In Jessica George’s heartwarming, funny, and soulful second novel, she explores the restorative nature of female friendship and the life-changing power of platonic love.

Seek Immediate Shelter by Vincent Yu

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On an otherwise unremarkable morning, the residents of a small town in Massachusetts all receive the same alert: BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

Confronted with the options of fight or flight, planning or panicking, the people of Beckitt are stripped to their basest instincts and revealed as their truest selves. Russ squeezes his family into the bathtub, leaving his own survival in question; Nina sends an unforgivable text to her daughter; Milly confesses her unrequited love; and David hits the gas, speeding away from his wife and child.

Then the second message comes in: FALSE ALARM. PLEASE DISREGARD. ALL CLEAR. First comes relief, then comes the reckoning, as each person is forced to face the unforeseen aftermath of decisions they thought might be their last.

Vincent Yu’s searing debut follows this eclectic cast of characters over a period of many years, suggesting that the conflicts the missile exacerbated were simmering under the surface long before, and proving the ripple effects of the false alarm will be felt for years to come.

An urgent, fiercely heartfelt exploration of relationships in all forms, Seek Immediate Shelter explores the balance between love and loyalty, betrayal and forgiveness. What choices would you make if you thought your life were on the line? And if you survive, can you ever redeem yourself?

Room 706 by Ellie Levenson

When mother of two Kate goes to meet her lover James in a hotel room, she watches in horror when she switches on the TV and realises their hotel has been taken under terrorist siege. Told to stay silent and hidden, Kate is trapped in a room with a man she’s been having an affair with for years – her escape hatch, her release valve – but who she doesn’t really know at all.

In one room, with the possibility of death looming, Kate is left to contemplate what has led her here. She reflects on the grief and heartbreak of her young life, the complexities of her relationship with her husband, Vic, and the pure, unadulterated love she feels for her children. Intricately weaving Kate’s past in with her present, Room 706 follows one woman taking stock of her life, and considering what life might hold in store – if she makes it home.

Cabin by Patrick Hutchinson

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Wit’s End isn’t just a state of mind. It’s the name of a gravel road, the address of a run-down off-the-grid cabin, 120 shabby square feet of fixer-upper Patrick Hutchison purchased on a whim in the mossy woods of the Cascade Mountains in Washington state.

To say Hutchison didn’t know what he was getting into is no more an exaggeration than to say he’s a man with nearly zero carpentry skills. Well, used to be. You can learn a lot over six years or renovations.

CABIN is the story of those renovations, but it's also a love story; of a place, of possibilities, and of the process of renovation, of seeing what could be instead of what is. It is a book for those who know what it’s like to bite off more than you can chew, or who desperately wish to.

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A love story between a man, a mossy patch of woodland, and 120 square feet of “what have I gotten myself into?”

Pre-Reading Thoughts

I love a good “taking on a project I have no business attempting” story — whether it’s watching someone build a shed or bingeing renovation shows. This sounded like the book equivalent of that, so I was curious to see if it would capture the same mix of chaos and charm.

Post-Reading

As I thought…
This really is a story of learning by doing (and sometimes re-doing). Hutchinson’s account of transforming a shabby cabin into a livable space is funny, reflective, and filled with the kind of details that will appeal to anyone who’s ever thought “how hard can it be?” only to find out: harder than expected.

It surprised me by…
How lyrical it is. At times it felt like every chapter circled back to the joys of going off-grid and building something with your own hands — which could feel a little repetitive — but it also reinforced just how deeply he loves both the process and the place. That earnestness makes the book sing.

For fans of:
I don’t usually do recommendations for nonfiction, but if you enjoy Grand Designs or any of those house-renovation shows that make you simultaneously inspired and exhausted just watching, this book will hit the same sweet spot.

Disclaimer

Cabin publishes on the 6th of November, 2025. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.

The Final Shelter by Rob Ramos

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Former conservation scientist Phoebe Jones is weary of humanity's descent into a dystopian society. When a mysterious silver card arrives with an invitation, Phoebe learns she's been chosen to take shelter in a secret bunker and help rebuild humanity. Skeptical but intrigued, Phoebe begins to investigate.

What catastrophic event are they preparing for?

Why are people already being chosen?

What do they know... that we don't?

The search for answers leads her to fascinating biblical prophecies, clairvoyant predictions, and alarming signs of the end of days, such as earthquakes, a blood-red moon, and broad public disorder. As global tensions rise, Phoebe realizes she must act. However, the journey to the bunker becomes an extreme test of her principles, trust, and faith.

Layered with mystery, suspense, and intrigue, The Final Shelter is a thought-provoking dystopian novel that blends realism with mysticism, culminating in a provocative story that unfolds into a powerful mystery-thriller twist.

Hollow by Taylor Grothe

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When Cassie Davis returns to her hometown in upstate New York, she's eager to mask her new autism diagnosis from her old friends. The group take a backpacking trip together to Hollow Ridge to celebrate her homecoming, but after the first night, Cassie wakes to an abandoned campsite - her friends all gone.

With severe weather approaching, and nearing sensory overload, Cassie meets a boy named Kaleb, who leads her to safety, to a place he calls The Roost - an off-the-grid compound lived in by a group of artists and outcasts. There, with Kaleb, Cassie begins to feel, for the first time in her life, that she can truly be herself.

But as the days pass, strange things start happening. Crows surround them, there are odd noises... But are the dangers in the eerie forest that surrounds them, or inside the Roost itself?

Body of Water by Adam Godfrey

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Don't let the water drag you down...

It's been six years since Glen Masters lost his wife in a tragic accident. In hopes of reconnecting with his grieving teenage daughter, Lauren, he decides to take her on a road trip through the Appalachian mountains, where he has fond memories of their past as a family. But what was supposed to be a quick diner pit stop suddenly transforms into a nightmare when armed men stumble in, ranting about a mysterious and deadly "living water" that attacked several people up the road. The story the men spin seems to be the rantings of drunken lunatics, but soon Glen, his daughter, and the other diners find themselves hostages to both the gunmen and the inexplicably terrifying entity.

Because there's truly something wrong with the water, and it has no mercy.

Panic grows as the diners play witness to a nature-defying being that seeks only to swallow everything in its path. With help nowhere in sight, the group of strangers must work together to devise an escape, and ultimately, Glen will have to face his worst fears to reconcile with the past or risk losing everything.

I Killed the King by Rebecca Mix and Andrea Hannah

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After a decade of war, the kingdoms of Avendell and Istellia have finally agreed to peace. As nobles and magic-wielders from both countries arrive at remote Castle Avendell for an historic, all-night masquerade to celebrate, King Costis summons an unlikely group to his chambers: the crown prince, his Istellian bride-to-be, his personal guard, a wild beast tamer, and the palace’s questionable new healer. But before Costis can reveal why he has gathered them, the castle goes dark.

When the lights come back, the king is dead—murdered with the princess’s knife, in a weak spot only his guard knew of, and with venom from one of the beast tamer’s monsters lacing the blade.

With no clear killer—and everyone a suspect—they make a risky pact: tell no one until the treaty is signed. But when a winter storm seals everyone inside, and someone aware of the king's untimely death begins to pick off guests one by one, the six suspects must work together to discover who killed the king . . . before one of them is next.

When we were Monsters by Jennifer Niven

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At an elite New England boarding school, eight students are selected for an exclusive storytelling workshop with the one and only Meredith Graffam—an enigmatic writer, director, and actress. For sixteen days, they will live in the isolated estate of the school’s founder, surrounded by snowy woods and a storm-tossed seas. Only one of the chosen will walk away with a lifechanging opportunity to realize their creative dreams.

Everyone, including Graffam, has a compelling reason to be there—Effy, the orphan, Isaac, the legacy, Ness, the wallflower, Ramon, the outsider, and Arlo, whose unexpected arrival leaves Effy spiraling—but only the most ambitious will last the term. Graffam’s unorthodox methods push the students past the breaking point, revealing their darkest secrets, taking unthinkable risks, and slowly starting to turn on one another. But Graffam never expected they would turn on her . . .

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of All the Bright Places comes a psychological thriller about the monsters who walk among us—even in the glittering upper echelons of society—and the ways in which we seek redemption for the wrongs we’ve done.

Soulmatch by Rebecca Danzenbaker

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Two hundred years after World War III, the world is at peace, all thanks to the soul-identification system. Every eighteen-year-old must report to the government to learn about their past lives, a terrifying process known as kirling. Good souls leave the institute with their inheritance, a career path, and if they’re lucky, a soulmate. Bad souls leave in handcuffs.

It’s a nerve-wracking ordeal for Sivon, who, given her uncanny ability to win every chess match, already suspects her soul isn’t normal. Turns out, she was right to worry. Sivon’s results stun not only her, but the entire world, making her the object of public scrutiny and anonymous threats.

Saddled with an infuriating and off-limits bodyguard, Sivon is thrust into a high-stakes game where souls are pawns and rules don’t exist. As deaths mount, Sivon must decipher friend from foe while protecting her heart against impossible odds. One wrong move could destroy the future lives of everyone Sivon loves, and she can’t let that happen, even if they’ll never love her back.

The Namaste Club by Asha Ellas

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Just inland from Florida’s sun-splashed Treasure Coast is the Namaste Club yoga center. An exclusive oasis of palms, lakes, and adorable guest villas, it’s perfect for getaways where Shakti, a serenely blond Instagram influencer, holds yoga retreats for well-heeled Miami ladies. The Namaste Club is a place of reflection, a place of release and redemption…or at least, that’s the sales pitch.

This weekend, however, is Transcendence Week, and a new bunch of South Florida burnouts have arrived. There’s Indira, fabulously wealthy after her divorce from the fast-frozen fruit king of Florida. There’s Indira’s bestie Jessica, also divorced and trying to get her groove back. There’s Barbara, heir to a massive family fortune, who’s taken a vow of silence for the retreat that will be sorely tested. And then there’s Carol Anne from Vero Beach, a happy tradwife and proud gun owner who recently did something...inadvisable; she’s just here while things cool off in her hometown.

And then, of course, there’s Daniel, the toned, man-bunned apprentice yoga instructor. He’s cute if you like that sort of thing. And many of the rich ladies do.

Last but not least, there’s Bubba, the retreat center’s resident twelve-foot American alligator. Before Transcendence Week is over, Bubba will have his moment of glory as well—when one of the visitors winds up in his jaws.

Who will be living their best life? Who will get their comeuppance? Pour yourself a spicy margarita and settle in for your new favorite read!

Time After Time by Mikki Daughtry

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Nineteen-year-old Libby has always been inexplicably drawn to the old Victorian house on Mulberry Lane. So much so that when she sees a For Sale sign go up in the front yard, Libby uses all the money her grandmother left her to pay for college to buy the house instead, determined to fix it up herself--even though she knows her parents will be furious. Soon after moving in, she discovers a journal written by a young woman, Elizabeth Post, who lived in the house nearly a century earlier. It doesn't take long for the journal to reveal that Elizabeth was madly in love with her personal maid, Patricia. A love that was forbidden and dangerous, especially at that time.

Enter Tish, a brash, broke fellow college student, who passes by the house one day and is mysteriously compelled to knock on the door. Soon Libby offers Tish a room in exchange for her help in fixing up the old house, and the two young women quickly find themselves falling for each other. But as Elizabeth's journal entries delve deeper into her secret love affair with Patricia, uncanny similarities between that young couple and Libby and Tish are revealed, and it becomes clear that this may not be their first time in this house, or in this love. Is this their chance to get it right?

The Quiet by Barnaby Martin

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A mother's love can be deafening . . .

Isaac is Hannah’s entire world. She knows that her son is gifted, and that those gifts make him vulnerable. To keep him safe, she spends every waking moment by his side. If she lets her guard down, lets him out of her sight, lets him show what he’s capable of, he will be taken from her.

When the Soundfield arrived twenty years ago, the world changed with it. Now, people are forced to live at night due to the deadly heat of the day, food and water are scarce, and everyday life is punctuated by the constant and disconcerting hum from the Field. A brilliant scientist, Hannah spent her early career working on the enigma of the Soundfield, looking for answers; now, resigned, she has focussed all her energies on keeping Isaac living, not just alive.

To do so, she will have to lie to the people she knows and hope she can trust the ones she doesn't. Because the only thing more dangerous than her lies, is the truth of what she has done.

The Magickal Summer of Evie Edelman by Harriett de Mesquita (spoilers in review)

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People at Synagogue say she is weird. A psychiatrist says she has Asperger’s. But Evie knows she is a witch.

Leeds, England 1982. After the sudden death of her eccentric aunt Mim, Evie Edelman is left with a sizeable fortune, a yellow Alpine Sunbeam and a chihuahua named Peggy. Seizing her chance at independence, she escapes the claustrophobia of her parents’ house and the disapproval of her tight-knit Jewish community and moves to the country to practice her true calling: witchcraft.

But trouble follows Evie in the form of her first-love Alex, and property developer Malcolm who just might be Satan himself. As Evie finds herself increasingly torn between magick and reality, and the past and present, rumours begin flying about what exactly a single young woman is doing in a remote village on her own. Soon, Evie starts to wonder whether she is always destined to be misunderstood – and if she will ever figure out who she truly is.

What Comes After by Katie Bayerl

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No one could be more disappointed about Mari’s sudden death than Mari, herself. And if she ever thought about the afterlife, she certainly didn’t think it would be a suburban enclave called Paradise Gate or that the biggest problem to plague her in life would follow her into the great beyond: her recently deceased mother, Faye. But that is exactly who greets her when Mari opens her eyes in the In Between—where the newly dead with no religious affiliation come to work out the unfinished business of their lives so they can ascend to whatever’s next.

Mari realizes quickly Faye is her unfinished business and in order to ascend and join her loving grandparents, she’ll have to make peace with and forgive her dysfunctional mother for being no mother at all But there’s too much to forgive: never holding down a steady job, never having a stable home, Mari having to constantly change schools and in the end, Faye choosing her criminal boyfriend over Mari.

It's a lot to sort through, but Mari tries to keep her eye on the ball—attending classes at the Center like Youga and sending grief scarves sailing in Expressive Arts to move her vibe tracker from an angry unsettled red to an ascend-worthy green—all the while trying to remember how she died and deal with Faye, who, of course, is in danger of being kicked out of Paradise Gate altogether. But then Mari discovers in addition to mother drama, there’s even friend drama and boy drama to be found in the afterlife and none are good for her vibes. Even worse is the suspicion that Paradise Gate isn’t at all what it purports to be...and revolution may be afoot.

Murder Land by Carlyn Greenwald

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Seventeen-year-old Billie feels like she is on top of the world. She gets to spend the summer with her best friend, sparks are flying with her crush, and she has received a promotion to ride operator for one of the most buzzworthy new attractions in the theme park she works at. But the first night on the new job takes a dark turn when her creepy coworker mysteriously dies…on her ride, when she isn’t authorized to be running it.

At first, it seems like he died by heart attack, but by the time she returns to the body with help, it looks like a broken neck. Had she just imagined him sitting upright a few minutes ago? It’s as if someone is trying to pin his death on her, and she has one night to figure out who is really responsible before she is blamed.

Billie recruits the help of her friends to sneak around the park after-hours and search for the truth. But as the night stretches on and more people wind up dead, Billie realizes she may not make it out of Murder Land alive. And her friends may know more than they’re letting on.

Perfect by Cecelia Ahearn

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“I’m Flawed. But I’m a survivor. And I’m not about to give up.”

Celestine North lives in a society that demands perfection. After she was branded Flawed, her life has fractured completely.

Since Judge Crevan declared Celestine the number-one threat to the public, she has been on the run with the complicated Carrick, the only person she can trust.

But Celestine has a secret—one that could bring the entire Flawed system crumbling to the ground. Now she must make a choice: save only herself, or risk her life to save all the Flawed…

Flawed by Cecelia Ahearn

“I cannot fathom how I can be here. I can’t be Flawed. I am perfect.”

In Celestine North’s world, perfection is paramount and mistakes are punished. So Celestine lives a perfect life, as a model daughter, student and girlfriend.

But then Celestine breaks a rule and faces life-changing repercussions. She could be imprisoned. Branded. Found FLAWED.