Blog Tour: Guest Post: Dreadnought by Robin Bennett
Today I am sharing a guest post as a part of the blog tour for Dreadnought by Robin Bennett. This is a near-future thriller and Robin’s guest post is about the frightening things he didn’t invent while writing this novel! Dreadnought was just released last week on October 15th.
Book Description:
A child sees things she’s sure don’t exist. The adults call it trauma. They’re both wrong.
On a remote Yorkshire headland known as Dreadnought, seven-year-old Cass Delaval begins to glimpse figures and fragments tied to a past that refuses to stay buried.
As the world edges toward conflict, Cass is drawn into a family mystery stretching back to the Second World War: a missing boy, a hidden weapon, and a family secret.
Because whatever has lain dormant on Dreadnought goes deep into our past … and it isn’t finished with us yet.
Dreadnought is a story of loyalty and hope, where the courage of one small girl may be our last defence.
Buy Your Copy Here:
Amazon US
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The Frightening Things I Didn’t Invent
Writing a near-future thriller presents an awkward problem: that future (reality) has an irritating habit of rushing up and contradicting you as it flies past. I was very conscious from the off, then, that I shouldn’t get too far ahead of myself and overblow the geopolitical threats when I started to think about the backdrop to the family mystery, Indeed, when I started writing Dreadnought itself, the Middle East (Gaza, Iran, Trump) hadn’t yet happened. So, when it all started to unravel with alarming velocity in the middle east, I then worried that I hadn’t gone far enough – especially as the final draft was being edited.
However, I stuck to my guns: I hadn’t gone too far into specifics in the book, except to say the world seemed to be on a knife edge and was likely to get worse before it gets better. More degradation of diplomacy and an increase in conflict over the next ten or so years doesn’t seem far-fetched.
And this gave me enough for my purposes and their motivation: the family felt in real danger in London and took refuge on an isolated promontory in North Yorkshire. Sometimes I feel like doing that, too.
The other issue with action in the future is technology. Again, I hedged my bets: most of Dreadnought’s apparently far-fetched military technology is rooted in things already being developed or seriously contemplated. What I did was dramatise those articles you might read these days in Jane’s Defence weekly or military posts on Instagram.
Now a lot of my favourite books that dip a toe into the future have a strong sense of past. I don’t know why that is – at a guess, I’d say it acts as an anchor – a tethering point for all the futuristic stuff. AI-assisted warfare in the front half is linked to the secret WWII experiments on the promontory on Dreadnought – an unintended consequence was it shows that we don’t change: we have the urge to invent first and worry later.
But, most importantly, my intention was to write a literary thriller/mystery, not science fiction. Dreadnought has a strong World War Two theme, running through the second half of the novel, and this is (I hope) does keep the future in its place and within context – these are events, not the point of the story, which is the courage of a child, family loyalty. And how the truth will eventually out,
In the end, the unsettling thing about Dreadnought isn’t what I invented, it’s how little I had to. The suspense and the shocking things come from human nature that hasn’t – at least the last time I checked – changed for millennia and more.
About the Author:
Robin Bennett is an author and entrepreneur who has written over twenty-five books for children. He has also written books on the swashbuckling world of business: How to Make a Good Living Running Your Own Business, Kicking the Property Ladder and Start up Smart, all published by Harriman House.
In 2024 Cracking was shortlisted for a Week Junior Book Award and Sunday Times Sports Book of the Year for Children. His YA novel ‘XII’ was shortlised for a British Book Award in 2023 and his very popular Monster Max Series is a Book Trust pick and won Coventry Inspiration Book Awards in 2022. Picus the Thief, won the Writer’s News Indie Published Book of the Year Award in 2012.
When Robin grew up he thought he wanted to be a cavalry officer until everyone else realised that putting him in charge of a tank was a very bad idea. He then became an assistant gravedigger in London. After that he had a career frantically starting businesses (everything from dog-sitting to cigars, tuition to translation)… until finally settling down to write improbable stories to keep his children from killing each other on long car journeys.
When not writing or starting companies, Robin plays most sports. Poorly.
Contact Robin:
Instagram: @robinbennettauthor
Tiktok @robinbennettauthor
See the entire blog tour here:
Audiobook Review: The Survivor’s Guild by Gabriella Saab
The Survivors Guild
Author: Gabriella Saab
Narrators:
Saskia Maarleveld
Gail Shalan
Published: September 1, 2026
Audiobook: 12 hours 33 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: September 21-28, 2026
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
In 1912 aboard the RMS Titanic, Nabiha “Bea” Nohra is traveling to America to find work, eager to earn the funds necessary to afford passage for the family she left in Lebanon. On the same ship, heiress Marguerite Ashby sails home to celebrate her engagement to a dull British lord, a marriage that will secure her new-money family’s place in old New York society. But when the Titanic sinks, the two women’s paths are fused together when Bea saves Marguerite’s life and they are unexpectedly charged with the smallest survivor—a baby boy.
No one claims the infant, so the women form a committee to aid survivors and locate the baby’s next of kin. Bea works as the child’s nanny, desperate to bring her family to America before the difficulties in Lebanon overwhelm them. Meanwhile Marguerite hopes the committee’s charitable efforts will win society’s respect and render an advantageous marriage unnecessary, sparing her from marrying a man she does not love—unless her parents force her to fulfill the obligation no matter what society says. And when finding the child’s relatives proves to be no simple task, the women are soon enmeshed in deception and uncertainty as they seek to determine where the baby truly belongs.
The committee might grant the acceptance Marguerite craves, connect Bea with the stability she needs, and lead them to the baby’s relatives. But a committee helmed by an American heiress and a Lebanese nanny is hardly customary. Surviving a shipwreck is only the start. As Marguerite’s wedding looms nearer and Bea faces the increasing hardships of adjusting to her new country, they must fight for survival once more. This time, to survive New York society.
Jessica’s Review:
I have always been intrigued by the Titanic and when I saw this book I wanted to read it and was so glad to be granted an audiobook copy to listen to! This was such an interesting premise with a fight for survival and the aftermath of the sinking with the focus on two women survivors of different classes.
We have Marguerite Ashby who was a first-class passenger new American wealth and we also have Nabiha ‘Bea’ Nohra who was third-class and a Lebanese immigrant. The Survivors Guild is comprised of their stories told in alternating chapters. We experience the terror of the sinking with both women, who also end up with a baby boy. Together in the aftermath in New York they create a committee to help survivors and hopefully find the baby’s family. But the story is so much more, the novel shows the issues women dealt with at the time depending on their class and status, and how choices that women make may seem seemingly small become huge.
I really enjoyed this novel and it was very apparent on the research that Saab did to prepare in writing this novel. And who would have thought that there were Lebanese immigrants on the Titanic?!?! And in addition to trying to survive these passengers also had a language barrier. Imagine how much more frightened they were with possibly no one to translate and help ease those fears.
I liked both Marguerite and Bea. Two different women from two different classes forming a friendship and a committee to help other survivors? These are two strong women and we see this in the various decisions they make. I was 1000% invested in finding ‘Baby Rémy’s’ family and how that story was going to conclude.
Due to my hearing issue, I believe it made it harder for me to understand the narrator portraying Bea. I did have to go back on those tracks from time to time and concentrate more on Bea’s chapters. This is no fault of the narrator. Otherwise they both did a fine job.
Be sure to listen to the author’s note at the end of the novel. This is my first novel by Saab, and it won’t be my last!
Thank you to the publisher Harper Muse Audiobooks for granting me a copy to listen to and review!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
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ALC Review: Wedlocked by Hillary Frank
Wedlocked
Author: Hillary Frank
Narrators:
Alexis Campbell
Fred Berman
Helen Laser
Ian Guerra
To Be Published: October 20, 2026
Audiobook: 8 hours 28 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened: September 29- October 3, 2026
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Audiobook Description:
Zara is one half of a fitness-influencer power couple. She has the upscale Philadelphia home, the dream husband, and millions of followers on the country’s hottest fitness app. But behind the bright lights and bumping music, Zara desperately wants a baby—a desire her husband does not share. Despite the stress of her “ticking clock,” she says she’s fine. Happier than ever, actually.
When Zara rekindles a friendship with Oscar, an old flame, he starts questioning her all-too-cheery demeanor. Zara wants to blame Oscar’s jealousy, but his pointed observations force her to reckon with the cracks she’s been trying to her eerie and erratic health episodes, as well as the strange and mysterious incidents terrorizing her. The further her life spirals out of control, the closer she comes to the sinister truth.
Featuring haunting sound design and original music, Wedlocked is an immersive audio experience that explores the space between the lives we post, the lives we actually lead, and the forces behind a woman’s choice.
An audio original from Macmillan Audio production.
Jessica’s Review:
Wedlocked is not just an audiobook listen, it is an immersive experience: The listener is pulled into the story. I felt like I was in the gym with Zara and the other instructors. This happens from the start of the novel. We experience a very high energy workout! Can you get tired from a workout by just listening to it?
Zara is under constant high stress: She is married to the boss and together they make a fitness instructor ‘power couple’. They are who everyone in the fitness world strives to be. Her job at the gym has its own stressors: The instructors are connected to an app and must log in basically everything in their lives. Instructors are also competing against each other and work to have the most followers. And highest score wins!
Another stressor that is not work related for Zara is that she is getting closer to 40 and feels that her biological clock is running out. She wants to have a baby, but her husband Ezzie seemingly does everything he can to avoid that conversation. This is what the ‘meat’ of the novel is about.
Wedlocked goes in its own unique and at times bizarre direction. You do have to suspend your belief in reality. Zara seemingly believes she has a stalker and then everything that goes on with her wanting a baby and her gynecologist appointments. The listener even goes in the room with Zara and the doctor, but all women know what that appointment is like. This novel deals with women’s health issues and just how we as women are at the liberty of a doctor. Especially in one of the most vulnerable positions a woman can be in.
This immersive listen has sound effects, music and the narrator’s amazing performances! All the narrators made you feel like you were involved in the story. Once this story really gets going you don’t want to stop listening, and I didn’t and I had no idea what direction it was going to go in, let alone the direction that it ultimately did go in.
Be sure to listen to the author’s note after finishing Wedlocked!
Wedlocked is released on October 20th and will only be available on audio. I listened to a sneak peek that was available and was intrigued enough to request the full novel. I was excited when I was approved to listen to the novel! Thanks so much Macmillian Audio!
Pre-Order Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK