Fiona's Fury - Roxy Blue

Fiona’s Fury
Roxy Blue
Publication date: March 12th 2024
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Contemporary, Romance, Suspense

This chilling but hysterically sardonic thrill-ride is hard to put down. Smart, sexy, and deeply revelatory, it will send you on an enthralling emotional journey you won’t forget.

Fiona Turner, CEO of Fiona’s Flowers floral shop, hasn’t the time nor inclination to bother with men until she finally meets the face on the other end of the phone. Having remained friends, she never suspected her ex-husband, Quade, would morph into a terrifying, controlling, law-bending monster. When Fiona exhibits the first signs of wanting to move on in life, he threatens to take everything from her. A long weekend at a conference answers all of Fiona’s questions about floral supplier, Bo Thompson, except how she can possibly have him. She’ll never know what she’s missing unless she risks everything for love.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Author Bio:

Raised in the South and transplanted to a midwestern New Age community, Roxy Blue writes about the types of down-to-earth characters that dispel the notion of romance being rubbish. After thirteen years as an exotic dancer, she developed a rare autoimmune arthritis that gave her an excuse to settle down and focus more on writing, although she still hoopdances and hikes on the good days. Roxy lives in Asheville, NC with the kind of hunk she likes to read about, and their two ridiculous cats.

Website / Goodreads / Instagram / Facebook

My Review

Fiona's Fury is one of those books that has you simultaneously wanting to scream at the heroine for being so foolish and desperate to know what's going to happen next. Fiona is described as being a strong and capable woman. She is far from that. Since separating from her husband (nine years ago?) she has let him be a big part of things, never fearing that when she finally moves on, he might not be so keen. When she meets and begins to fall for farmer and flower grower Bo, her ex turns psycho.
While I don't hate the idea of remaining friends with an ex in a book like this and sometimes even people we've known for a long time don't show their true colours, when they do, I like my heroines to listen. Time and time again Fiona went back for more. I was almost shouting at her, for goodness sake woman, show some self-preservation!
This isn't a bad read, as I say I was keen to know what was going to happen next. I liked Bo and Fiona together, her foolishness was frustrating though. I also couldn't decide how old the characters were supposed to be. At times they seemed to be almost childlike and then at others almost retirement age.
I think that this was a good debut novel and worth a read, even if you do find yourself despairing at Fiona like I did.

GIVEAWAY!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

—

A Country Wedding Murder - Katie Gayle

The joyous crowd applauds as the happy couple strides down the aisle. This Cotswolds country wedding has everything – friends and family, beautiful flowers and… murder?

When Julia Bird’s ex-husband Peter and his lovely partner Christopher decide to get married in Berrywick, Julia is delighted – after all, who doesn't love a country wedding? Little does Julia know that normally calm and collected Christopher will turn into a full-on Groomzilla – and that by the end of the night, someone will end up dead.

The morning after the big day, the jolly nuptial mood turns grim when Julia discovers the lifeless body of the caterer, Desmond. Someone locked him in the cold truck and the poor man froze to death. Now looking for a murderer, all eyes are on Christopher who, mid-tantrum, had publicly threatened to kill him. Convinced that Christopher is innocent, Julia vows to find the real culprit.

Julia soon discovers Desmond had a long list of enemies as she races against the clock to clear Christopher’s name. Could his death be the work of the respected wedding planner who was heard exchanging choice words with the victim? Or perhaps it was his wife – ‘til death do them part – who didn’t shed a single tear at his funeral?

But just when Julia thinks she’s cracked the case, her prime suspect is found dead with a knife in their back. Can Julia find the murderer before they strike again?

An utterly gripping, charming cosy mystery set in the English countryside. Fans of M.C. Beaton, Faith Martin and Betty Rowlands will love the Julia Bird Mysteries.

Book Review

I do enjoy these Julia Bird mysteries. There's always a danger that the stories will get too predictable and boring by book five. That's far from the case here. Yes, they are of a type and you might just be able to work out what's going to happen and 'whodunnit' but it doesn't matter, because these are well-written and entertaining books. I love going back and seeing what Julia, Sean, Jake and her other friends are getting up to.
This time we get to meet Julia's daughter Jess. Although she has been overseas in Hong Kong for quite some time and no doubt intends to return, I suspect we might see some more of her in the not-too-distant future.
Having said that it is possible to work out 'whodunnit' I have to admit that this time I didn't. I'd managed to put some parts of the puzzle together, but I followed too many red herrings and ended up completely on the wrong track. I did finally figure it out in the last little bit, but it was very close to the end and just as Julia was realising the same thing, so I don't think that I can really claim that one.
This was a really enjoyable read and I'm looking forward to my next visit to see Julia and her friends.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and given voluntarily.

Author Bio:

Katie Gayle is the writing partnership of best-selling South African writers, Kate Sidley and Gail Schimmel. Kate and Gail have, between them, written over ten books of various genres, but with Katie Gayle, they both make their debut in the cozy mystery genre. Both Gail and Kate live in Johannesburg, with husbands, children, dogs and cats. 

https://www.facebook.com/KatieGayleWriter

https://twitter.com/KatieGayleBooks

Sign up to be the first to hear about new releases from Katie Gayle here: https://www.bookouture.com/katie-gayle

Buy Link:

Amazon: https://geni.us/B0CLL1T12Qsocial

You can sign up for all the best Bookouture deals you'll love at: http://ow.ly/Fkiz30lnzdo