#BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub @cathiedunn / #PromoPost : Pagan King (Gods and Kings #2) – M.J. Porter @coloursofunison #TalesOfMercia #TheSeventhCentury

– The Magic of Wor(l)ds is a hobby, reviews and other bookish stuff on this site are done for free.
I’m grateful of receiving a free copy from the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review of this book. –

Today I’m delighted to be on the ‘Pagan King’ blogtour, organised by The Coffee Pot Book Club.
To promote this book I’ll be sharing a

About the Author :

MJ Porter is the author of many historical novels set predominantly in Seventh to Eleventh-Century England, as well as three twentieth-century mysteries. Being raised in the shadow of a building that was believed to house the bones of long-dead Kings of Mercia, meant that the author’s writing destiny was set.

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From bestselling author, MJ Porter comes the tale of the mighty pagan king, Penda of Mercia.
The year is AD641, and the great Oswald of Northumbria, bretwalda over England, must battle against an alliance of the old Britons and the Saxons led by Penda of the Hwicce, the victor of Hæ∂feld nine years before, the only Saxon leader seemingly immune to Oswald’s beguiling talk of the new Christianity spreading through England from both the north and the south.
Alliances will be made and broken, and the victory will go to the man most skilled in warcraft and statecraft.
The ebb and flow of battle will once more redraw the lines of the petty kingdoms stretching across the British Isles.
There will be another victor and another bloody loser.

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#BlogTour #RachelsRandomResources @rararesources / #Review : King of Kings – M.J. Porter @coloursofunison @BoldwoodBooks

– The Magic of Wor(l)ds is a hobby, reviews and other bookish stuff on this site are done for free.
I’m grateful of receiving a free copy from the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review of this book. –

Today I’m delighted to be on the ‘King of Kings’ blogtour, organised by Rachel’s Random Resources.
To promote this book I’ll be sharing my review, but first I have some information

About the Author :

MJ Porter is the author of many historical novels set predominantly in Seventh to Eleventh-Century England, and in Viking Age Denmark. They were raised in the shadow of a building that they believed housed the bones of long-dead Kings of Mercia – so their writing destiny was set. The first novel in their new Anglo-Saxon series for Boldwood Son of Mercia was published in February 2022.

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In the battle for power, there can be only one ruler.
AD 925
Athelstan is the king of the English, uniting the petty kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia, the Danish-held Five Boroughs and York following the sudden death of his father, King Edward.
His vision is to unite the realms of the Scots and the Welsh in a peace accord that will protect their borders from the marauding threat of the Norse Vikings.
Whilst seemingly craving peace and demanding loyalty with an imperium over every kingdom, Athelstan could dream of a much bigger prize.
But danger and betrayal surround his best intentions, namely from his overlooked stepbrother, Edwin, who conspires and vies for what he deems is his rightful place as England’s king.
As ever, powerful men who wish to rule do not wish to be ruled, and Constantin of the Scots, Owain of Strathclyde, and Ealdred of Bamburgh plot their revenge against the upstart English king, using any means necessary.
An epic story of kingsmanship that will set in motion the pivotal, bloody Battle of Brunanburh where allies have to be chosen wisely…

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And now it’s finally time for my

Being from Flanders myself I know some stuff about Athelstan and his predecessors/successors, but not a lot I must confess.
That’s why I was intrigued to start reading ‘King of Kings’ by M.J. Porter and learn more about the history of the English which always held my interest.
I admit that I was quite flabbergasted when I saw all the characters/names at the beginning of the book, but I needn’t to be worried as the author did a great job on telling who is who through the whole story.
By using multiple POVs M.J. Porter not only drives the readers on to read, but also makes them acquainted with all the players in this intricate chess game.
You get to know what they think, how they feel and how they see each other and more importantly how they see themselves!
A very well-written and well-researched book on the intrigues at court and how everything is played out, not only in battle, as in fact there’s not a lot of fighting going on in this part of the series, but more in words and invitations and strategies.
An interesting game to watch and of course read about and one I definitely want to see developing further as the ending left me wanting for the next installment right away.

The Magic of Wor(l)ds

#BookBirthdayBlitz #RachelsRandomResources @rararesources / #Review : The Automobile Assassination (The Erdington Mysteries #2) – M.J. Porter @coloursofunison

– The Magic of Wor(l)ds is a hobby, reviews and other bookish stuff on this site are done for free.
I’m grateful of receiving a free copy from the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review of this book. –

Today I’m delighted to be on the ‘The Automobile Assassination’ blogtour, organised by Rachel’s Random Resources.
To promote this book I’ll be sharing my review, but first I have some information

About the Author :

MJ Porter is the author of many historical novels set predominantly in Seventh to Eleventh-Century England, as well as three twentieth-century mysteries. Raised in the shadow of a building that was believed to house the bones of long-dead Kings of Mercia, meant that the author’s writing destiny was set.

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Erdington, September 1944
As events in Europe begin to turn in favour of the Allies, Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station is once more prevailed upon to solve a seemingly impossible case.
Called to the local mortuary where a man’s body lies, shockingly bent double and lacking any form of identification, Mason and O’Rourke find themselves at Castle Bromwich aerodrome seeking answers that seem out of reach to them. The men and women of the royal air force stationed there are their prime suspects. Or are they? Was the man a spy, killed on the orders of some higher authority, or is the place his body was found irrelevant? And why do none of the men and women at the aerodrome recognise the dead man?
Mason, fearing a repeat of the cold case that dogged his career for two decades and that he’s only just solved, is determined to do all he can to uncover the identity of the dead man, and to find out why he was killed and abandoned in such a bizarre way, even as Smythe demands he spends his time solving the counterfeiting case that is leaving local shopkeepers out of pocket.
Join Mason and O’Rourke as they once more attempt to solve the impossible in 1940s Erdington.

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And now it’s finally time for my

Having read ‘The Custard Corpses’ I couldn’t wait to dive into ‘The Automobile Assassination’ and luckily for me I had the Audible version right at my disposal.
Starting to read, euhm listen, I was immediately hooked not only by the storyline, but also by the voice.
I never heard of Matt Coles before, and although a bit slow for my liking (I read faster!) he’s a terrific voice actor, even when it comes to female voices.
He made all the characters come so alive it was easy to keep on going and even like Mason and O’Rourke even more.
They form a formidable team together and O’Rourke is definitely a woman to be reckoned with in this all male police team.
Another lovely mystery set during WW2 with more of an historical experience for me than the first book as I now learned more about stuff like the Automobile Association and couponing during the war.
If they found out the culprit(s) of the multiple cases on their plate I’m not going to spoil, but I can say it was a nicely tied up story that has a lot going on to keep you glued from start till finish.
I definitely hope there will be more books to follow in this 1940s mystery series!

The Magic of Wor(l)ds

#Review : The Custard Corpses (The Erdington Mysteries #1) – M.J. Porter @coloursofunison

– The Magic of Wor(l)ds is a hobby, reviews and other bookish stuff on this site are done for free.
I’m grateful of receiving a free copy from the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review of this book. –

Today I’m delighted to promote ‘The Custard Corpses’ by sharing my review of this book, but first I have some information

About the Author :

MJ Porter is the author of many historical novels set predominantly in Seventh to Eleventh-Century England, as well as three twentieth-century mysteries. Raised in the shadow of a building that was believed to house the bones of long-dead Kings of Mercia, meant that the author’s writing destiny was set.

Social Media Links:
Website
Twitter 
Facebook
LinkedIn
Instagram
Pinterest
BookBub
Amazon Author Page
GoodReads
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About the Book :

Birmingham, England, 1943.
While the whine of the air raid sirens might no longer be rousing him from bed every night, a two-decade-old unsolved murder case will ensure that Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station is about to suffer more sleepless nights.
Young Robert McFarlane’s body was found outside the local church hall on 30th September 1923. But, his cause of death was drowning, and he’d been missing for three days before his body was found. No one was ever arrested for the crime. No answers could ever be given to the grieving family. The unsolved case has haunted Mason ever since.
But, the chance discovery of another victim, with worrying parallels, sets Mason, and his constable, O’Rourke, on a journey that will take them back over twenty-five years, the chance to finally solve the case, while all around them the uncertainty of war continues, impossible to ignore.

Purchase Link

And now it’s finally time for my

As I’m on the ‘The Automobile Assassination’ tour organised by Rachel’s Random Resources and I don’t have enough books on my to read list 😂 I thought it would be a good idea to read the 1st book in this series too.
I’m glad I did as it’s a great read and a lovely murder mystery set in the 1940s which I couldn’t put down from page one.
It’s an old case that needs to be solved and to come up to speed with the whole thing you’re getting it told by the lead investigator through his memories.
A great way to do so, but the whole thing really gets going when the actual investigation starts and Mason and O’Rourke get together.
They, with the help of some other excellent characters, form a great team and by getting around the country they piece everything together in a nice way.
I maybe wanted some more on the motive part of the killer, but otherwise it’s a very good tied up story with some interesting main characters I would love to read more about.
Lucky for me of course I’m still up for book 2 on Rachel’s Random Resources blogtour soon! 😉

The Magic of Wor(l)ds