Today I am so pleased to welcome Rayne Hawthorne to Joyfully Jay. Rayne has come to talk to us about their latest release, The Call of Azure. Please join me in giving them a big welcome! Exclusive Excerpt He’s tall and dark and handsome and dressed in skintight, shiny black pants and a magenta corset, of all things, and even though he looks sweaty and panicked and his hair is just a bit longer than it is in my memories and dreams, I know in the blink of an eye that this is the man who dragged me into the bathroom of the jazz club nearly a year ago.

A look at all the different crime and thrillers publishing in 2026!

A Literary Escape participates in the End of Summer Recap Book Tag, which is a look back at summer time superlative reads.

There's something almost irresistibly appealing about the musical biopic. It combines melodrama and genuine accomplishment. It conveys profo...

Book Review for “The Queens of Crime” by Marie Benedict. Summary: “London, 1930. The five greatest women crime writers have banded together to form a secret society with a single goal: to sho…

I have a news flash to share. Earlier this year, my fourteen-year-old granddaughter read Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. And guess what? She hasn’t jumped into an unhealthy and inappropriate relationshi…

Cover illustration by Davide Ortu © Usborne Publishing Limited, 2025 While many adults have grown out of the need for adventure and are quite happy to live quiet, predictable lives, in my experienc…

Source: Review copyPublication: 10th Anniversary Edition 23rd October 2025 from Orenda BooksPP: 340ISBN-13: 978-1916788947 My thanks to Orenda Books for an advance copy for review. I am thrilled to…

Book bans often target the stories about people we don’t regularly see in our communities and daily lives.

See what the fuss is all about.

Banned Books Week—October 5th to 11th—is an annual celebration of the freedom to read, and the aspiration that books should be accessible to all. In recognition of Banned Books Week 2025, Haymarket is...

YouTube video by Banned Books Week

From Pulitzer finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Cobalt Red: A notorious slave ship incident that led to the abolition of slavery in the UK and sparked the US abolitionist movement. This program is read by Dion Graham, narrator of over 300 audiobooks and an AudioFile Golden Voice. Dion has won multiple Earphones and Audie Awards. Most books mentioned in my reviews can be found at the affiliate links below. (Bookshop.org) (Biblio.com) (Better World Books-US) (Better World Books-UK) (