30 May 2024

I Love Spring Book Tag


First of all, thanks to Ashlee on Books Are 42 (what a great blog name!) for the tag, check out her answers here. I really wanted to make sure I got this one out while it was still spring and I'm done with just one day to spare 😁 It was created by Helene Jeppesen and as spring is almost over I won't tag anyone but feel free to have a go if you want!


How is spring where you live?

Here you can get all four seasons in Spring, sometimes even in one day! Gorgeous sunshine, miserable rain, fog, rainbows, we even had snow some years.


Most anticipated book release this spring?

I got my pre-order of Mina and the Cult by Amy McCaw which I am really looking forward to reading. Doesn't it look gorgeous along with the rest of the series???




Show us a book cover that makes you think of spring

Alyssa and the Spell Garden by Alexandra Sheppard. I haven't read this one yet but it's so pretty, definitely a nice flowery spring cover.




Where are you going to read this spring?

Depends on the weather but if it's sunny then I like to read on my balcony with a nice cocktail 💖




Find a cover with the sun on it

This was a tough one, I seem to have countless books with the moon but the sun was pretty rare. After scouring my shelves I eventually found Secrets of the Sun King by Emma Carroll. I read it ages ago but I remember it was soooo good!




What are your favourite spring reads?

I don't have anything particular I like to read in Spring, I just read a mixture of books all year round, I'm not really one for particular seasonal books.


Find a book with many different colours on it.

Black Hole Cinema Club by Christopher Edge. I thought of this one immediately when I saw this prompt.






27 May 2024

 Spotlight on...
Ghosts of Mars by Stuart White




This book was the 7th place finalist in the 2023 BBNYA competition. Find it on Goodreads here. For more information on the BBNYA competition, you can find details at the end of the post. 




Book Summary

Mars. 2045. 13-year-old Eva is the first Martian.

And world famous on two planets!

Fame, Type 1 diabetes and a sarcastic AI companion haunt her, but when her dad goes missing on the red planet, she must overcome the 'Ghosts of Mars' to save him.

The Martian for middle-grade, full of science, friendship and adventure, with elements of The Sword in the Stone.




Author Bio

Stuart is an award-winning author and secondary school teacher. He has a Masters Degree in Creative Writing and founded, and now runs, WriteMentor. In 2020 and 2022 he was placed on the SCWBI Undiscovered Voices longlist and named as an Hononary Mention for his novels ‘Ghosts of Mars’ and ‘Astra FireStar and the Ripples of Time’. In 2023, he won the WriteBlend award for his middle grade debut, Ghosts of Mars.

Stuart was included in The Bookseller’s 2021 list of Rising Stars in the publishing industry.



About BBNYA

BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner.

If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.