The KC Warlock Weekly: Accused by M.N. Jolley

Welcome to the blog tour for the 3rd Place BBNYA 2021 Finalist! More details of the competition at the end of this post.

Book Summary

My name is Levi. I’m a journalist, I’m autistic, I’m bad at magic, and I swear I didn’t kill her.

Research for the paper usually falls into a few basic patterns. Someone in the city says there’s a troll under Buck O'Neil Bridge, or they’ll call just so a friendly ear will listen to them complain about a pixie infestation.

That sort of content carries me through slow news weeks. It’s rare that I uncover a murder.

Being framed for murder, though? That’s a first.

With the Wizard’s Council hunting me for a crime I didn’t commit, I’ve got no choice but to solve the murder and clear my name. If I don’t unravel this case, nobody will, and I’ll go down for it so hard I might never see the light of day again.

 

Levi (which no one knows how to pronounce but eventually is explained as rhyming with Chevy) is in trouble with the magical law and is trying to talk himself out of it. We're pretty much dropped into the middle of this and gradually the story is revealed. It is extremely suspenseful as the story builds and you start to realise maybe he does actually have a plan here somewhere. Levi is such a cool character and really smart, you can't always tell what he's up to. There are some other interesting characters who we don't get to know much just yet but I'm hoping they will reappear in future books.

The book was so gripping, I didn't want to put it down. It was quite fast moving which I love, but not so fast that I couldn't keep up. I loved the start of this series and can't wait for book 2!

To make a Warlock cocktail, fill a glass with ice and pour in 45ml vodka, 15ml Strega, 10ml lime juice. Give it a stir and enjoy!

I received this book to read and review as part of the 2021 BBNYA competition and the BBNYA tours organised by the TWR Tour team. All opinions are my own, unbiased and honest.

BBNYA is a yearly competition where Book Bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors. If you are an author and wish to learn more about the BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website www.bbnya.com or twitter @bbnya_official. 

The sign-ups are now open for the 2022 BBNYA competition, be it for authors to enter their books, or for bloggers wanting to be part of the new panel, so keep your eyes peeled!!!

 Princess Ever After by Connie Glynn

Finally the conclusion I have been waiting for ever since I started this series and fell in love with Lottie and Rosewood! The book looks and sounds so wonderful, I can't wait to read it 😍 Please also check out my review of book 1 - Undercover Princess to find out how it all began!

Book summary

Return to the magical world of The Rosewood Chronicles in the fifth and final instalment of this gorgeous series for fans of The Princess Diaries and Harry Potter.

Ellie is a rebellious princess who is no longer hiding her real identity.

Lottie is her Portman, wishing that she could shield Ellie from the threat of Leviathan.

Jamie is Ellie's Partizan, a lifelong bodyguard sworn to protect the princess at any cost - but has mysteriously disappeared.

Not all of the trio have made it back to Rosewood Hall. Can they be reunited? And at what cost?

With the crown at risk, the stakes have never been higher...

About the Author

Connie Glynn has always loved writing and wrote her first story when she was six, with her mum at a typewriter acting as her scribe. She had a love for performing stories from a young age and attended Guildhall drama classes as a teenager. This passion for stories has never left her, and Connie recently finished a degree in film theory. It was at university that Connie started her hugely successful YouTube channel Noodlerella (named after her favourite food and favourite Disney princess). After five years of publicly documenting her life and hobbies to an audience of 900,000 subscribers on YouTube, Connie closed the book on the Noodlerella project in a bid for more privacy and to pursue her original passions in the performing arts. Connie now writes music and fiction full- time. Follow Connie on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr @ConnieGlynn

 The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs

Book Summary

When Eliza Acton is told by her publisher to write a cookery book instead of the poetry she loves, she refuses. But after her father is forced to flee the country, Eliza must earn a living. 

Despite never having cooked, she is determined to learn. She hires young, destitute Ann Kirby to help in the kitchen - and together they discover a mutual talent and passion for cooking and for recipe writing. But as Ann find a voice of her own, their radical friendship starts to fray.

This is definitely not a book to read while on a diet! I just love the descriptions of food, ingredients and all the different tastes and flavours. Even food I don't like sounds wonderful, the way it is described so lovingly here. It's amazing how pictures, descriptions and memories come to mind with the mention of different foods.

Ann and Eliza are both brought to life wonderfully. They are in such different situations in life but still have a lot of similarities too. Both pretending to have lost a parent, due to the difficult times they are going through. But the love of cooking seems to comfort them and carry them through. Dreaming of different dishes and how to combine things.

There are some very interesting and unexpected twists, keeping me surprised throughout the book. I really enjoyed reading all about Eliza and Ann.

I was lucky enough to be chosen to join the Tandem Collective UK readalong for this book and received this book as part of it. It was a lot of fun reading with others and having discussion prompts plus a few creative tasks to do too. I think reading with others really brings out the enjoyment of a book which is probably why I enjoy buddy reading so much (shout out to Noly!).

Along with the book, I also got some recipe cards and just had to try out the lemon creams, which also inspired me to create my cocktail (see further down for my recipe)

To make Eliza's cocktail, mix the following in a shaker with ice and strain into a glass. 60ml lemon cream (see recipe card above), 25ml gin, 15ml grand marnier

 

As a bonus I used the sugary peel from Eliza's recipe as a delicious garnish for my gin & tonic, which really added to the citrus flavour.

 Undercover Princess by Connie Glynn

Book Summary

When fairy tale obsessed Lottie Pumpkin starts at the infamous Rosewood Hall, she is not expecting to share a room with the Crown Princess of Maradova, Ellie Wolf. Due to a series of lies and coincidences, 14-year-old Lottie finds herself pretending to be the princess so that Ellie can live a more normal teenage life.

Lottie is thrust into the real world of royalty - a world filled with secrets, intrigue and betrayal. She must do everything she can to help Ellie keep her secret, but with school, the looming Maradovian ball and the mysterious new boy Jamie, she'll soon discover that reality doesn't always have the happily ever after you'd expect...

Lottie has spent her life trying to live up to her ideal of a princess, she has her motto to be kind, brave and unstoppable. Lottie promised her mother, before she died, that she would be happy and do her best to go to Rosewood Hall school. However we don't yet know why this is so important! She's so determined to keep her promise and through her hard work she manages to get a rare scholarship, though she never expected that she would have a real princess as a roommate and that she would end up pretending to be her. Ellie is exactly what Lottie wants to be, a real princess. But Ellie is trying to escape her duties and wants nothing more than to be ordinary like Lottie! The two girls are in some ways opposites and others very similar, this makes them perfect for each other and their growing friendship is wonderful to read.

This is the first book in the Rosewood Chronicles series and I could already tell there would be plenty more to the story and to the mystery of Rosewood Hall.

I've just come back from Madrid and had an amazing Mimosa at the hotel there. To recreate it, first of all rim a glass with sugar by dipping the edge of the glass in a saucer of grand marnier and then in sugar. Pour the remaining grand marnier from the saucer into the glass with a couple of ice cubes. Then fill the glass half with champagne and half with orange juice. To finish, add a drizzle of grenadine. 

 Mix & Match 12

Today I made a Last Laugh cocktail. It's a variation on the Last Word cocktail but I think this one is a bit more easy going. 20ml each of gin, green chartreuse, maraschino and lemon juice. Shake with ice and strain into a champagne glass. Top with Cava.

Breathing Underwater by Sarah Allen

All Olivia wants is to help her big sister Ruth, to make her smile again. She even has a plan to recreate a road trip they took, which she believes was the last time they were really happy. 

There are so many touching moments. The author really manages to express how the characters are feeling and makes the reader feel it too.

Squire by Sara Alfageeh, Nadia Shammas

Aiza dreams of being a knight, a way to make a better life for herself. Finally she gets the opportunity, though it's not exactly what she was expecting. She meets lots of new people and learns a lot about what she is capable of too.

Aiza is such a compelling and lovable character. She's so positive despite everything she goes through, I really love how she never gives up. The book has lots of interesting twists and a very unexpected ending. My only complaint was that the ending was quite sudden, but the pacing of the rest of the book was excellent.

A Hunter's Moon by Danny Weston

Callum is stuck working for Fraser to cover his father's debts. Until recently all he needed to do was keep his head down and follow orders, but now there's an important job for the local Lord and Fraser needs his help. A huge wolf has been killing and the people of the village are terrified they or their animals could be next.

There's a supernatural element as the creature is rumoured to be something supernatural and a creepy forest which everyone is warned to keep out of, but of course they have to go in! This book was very fast paced, short but action packed and gripping.

Hexed by Julia Tuffs

What do you do when you're fed up of boys' behaviour and getting angry just isn't doing working?

I loved Jessie's voice from the start. She's so wry and self deprecating, but also somehow quite stoic in some ways, she just powers through times when most people would want to run away and hide.

Her reaction to magic really surprised me as I would have loved to find out I was a witch and had magic powers! I liked that everything wasn't necessarily all magically perfect at the end, it was more realistic. This was a really strong and uplifting book.

Escape Room by Christopher Edge

Ami is excited to get the chance to play The Escape, as she absolutely loves escape room games. There she meets 4 other kids to team up with and find The Answer, though none of them even know what the question is. However, as they play it seems to get more and more dangerous and less like a game at all.

Some lessons on awareness and environment but they didn't feel preachy at ll.

I could feel the excitement, intrigue and suspense right from the first page. I thought I knew what was going to happen at one point but I was so wrong, I definitely didn't expect what actually happened!

The Mermaid in the Millpond by Lucy Strange

Bess is determined that she is not going to care about anyone else any more. She is going to be tough and hard hearted so she won't be hurt again.  But someone won't give up trying to break through, and is there really a mermaid in the pond?

This is such a charming story with wonderfully lovely writing. My only complaint is that it is so short and I would have loved it to be longer! Trying to avoid spoilers, but I would really like to know what happens next. Maybe this could be made into a longer book sometime in the future???