A Winter Kiss on Rochester Mews by Annie Darling

A Winter Kiss on Rochester Mews by Annie Darling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


But on Rochester Mews, two unlikely lovebirds are struggling to find their festive cheer.

Star baker Mattie has hated Christmas ever since she had her heart broken on Christmas Eve. The only thing she hates more is the insufferable Tom, who has rubbed her up the wrong way since she started running the tearoom next door to his bookshop. So when Mattie and Tom are left in charge in the frantic festive days before Christmas, it might be cold outside but things are sure to heat up.

Can a bookshop full of romantic novels, a life-sized reindeer and a mistletoe kissing booth persuade two scrooges to fall in love with Christmas… and each other?

Romantic heart-warming rom-coms don't come a lot better than this one. Funny, poignant, good likeable characters and a real feel good factor at the end. Mattie Smith a successful patisserie chef has been running the café in London since she left Paris when her heart was broken at Christmas. She hates Christmas and the endless season of good will, she has no time for men in her life and always wears depressing black outfits. Next comes Tom, and academic who has worked in the bookshop part of the business called 'Happy Ever After'. Tom appears to be as dull as dishwater, dresses much to old for his age and is aloof and stand offish.

When the flat above the premises becomes vacant Mattie and Tom find themselves flatmates. The novel expands the personalities of both these characters and the sub characters who are just as interesting but all together they work well in this story. Through various trials and tribulations we get our happy every after ending.

It's all you could want from a romantic rom-com and is well written although at times a little frustrating as is always the case with these novels. If you want to have a romantic escapist afternoon or two this is just the medicine you need. Perfect festive reading with plenty of comic moments and a satisfying conclusion. 4 stars

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.

ROAR by Cecelia Ahern

Roar by Cecelia Ahern
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Have you ever stood at a crossroads, undecided…Have you ever had a moment when you wanted to roar?

From much-loved, international bestseller Cecelia Ahern come stories for all of us: the women who befriend us, the women who encourage us, the women who make us brave. From The Woman Who Slowly Disappeared to The Woman Who Returned and Exchanged her Husband, discover thirty touching, often hilarious, stories and meet thirty very different women. Each discovers her strength; each realizes she holds the power to make a change.

Witty, tender, surprising, these keenly observed tales speak to us all, and capture the moment when we all want to roar.

I love books by Cecelia Ahern, I always have, however I feel since I have got older I have more of a love/hate relationship with them. Sometimes I just find them a little bizarre, crazy and unbelievable. This book was very different, this is 30 short stories all about women, I love short stories as having a very busy job I can not always invest a lot of time in a story and I can feel very disappointed as I haven't given it the attention it deserves. With short stories this never happens, they let me read one feel like I have accomplished something before bed.

These short stories are all about women, at different periods of their lives, some stories are longer than others and some are quite bizarre, which I struggled with. Some of them really stayed in my mind for a long time after I had finished them and made me think. There were some I preferred to others.

Overall it is a nice short story collection, I think it would be better to read a few at a time, perhaps pick up another book and then return to these. It is a very interesting collection of short stories and was written very well, I rated this 3.5* rounded up to 4* for Amazon and Goodreads. The reason the rating isn't higher is because in my opinion some of the stories were just a little to far fetched and silly for me.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.

I Heart Forever by Lindsey Kelk

I Heart Forever by Lindsey Kelk
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

inter in Manhattan…and someone’s keeping a secret.

The day her husband Alex picks up a backpack and goes travelling, Angela Clark promises to stay out of trouble and keep both Louboutins on the ground.

So when her best friend’s boyfriend confides in her, it can’t hurt to help him pick out a ring at Tiffany’s surely?

And when her fashion magazine announces major changes, being terminally late and arguing with your boss isn’t that bad, is it?

Then suddenly there’s another big secret Angela’s got to keep – and the man she loves is still thousands of miles away. As the wedding of the year looms, and Manhattan switches on its Christmas lights, Angela is going to need her friends by her side as her old life looks set to change forever.

Lindsey Kelk is one of my favourite authors, I absolutely love her writing style, she always has me grinning from ear to ear and racing through her books. This, I heart Forever is no exception!

Now, if you don't know Lindsey Kelk and haven't read any of her novels before, all I can say is where have you been? This is obviously not the best book to start with, being 7th in the series but this is a must read, so you have to start from the beginning!

Although this was predictable it made no difference to my enjoyment of the book, being back in Angela's world is like going home. Angela and Alex are still happily married and Angela is now an editor Gloss, a woman's magazine. Everything is going well for Angela until Alex tells her he wants to go travelling around South Asia, this is something he has always wanted to do, but has limited time working in a band. After a gap in their schedule, he decides this is the perfect time to jet off, but that is without Angela. Not to worry, Angela now has a wedding to look forward to!

This is a perfect installment to the I heart series, this is a comfort read, which will make you want more. I am assuming this is the last in the series, which is a shame but I guess all good things have to come to an end at some time. If this really is the end of the series I do hope Lindsey has something up her sleeve as I have been left wanting more from her.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.

Chasing the Sun by Katy Colins

Chasing the Sun by Katy Colins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Georgia Green is on the conveyor belt to happiness. Live-in boyfriend, perfect career and great friends, it seems like Georgia is only a Tiffany box away from her happily ever after. But when she arrives in Australia for her best friend’s wedding and is faced with the bridezilla from hell, she starts to realise that she might not want the cookie-cutter ending she thought.

What was meant to be a trip full of sunny days at the beach and wedding planning over cocktails, has turned into another problem for her to fix – just like the ones she’d left behind. With hardly any time for her boyfriend, let alone herself, it feels like there is just too much to juggle. It might be time for Georgia to step off the conveyor belt to find the balance in life and see if she really can have it all…



I absolutely loved this book! I have found it difficult to find a book this year that I have really truly enjoyed, that has given me the escapism that I need. Katy Colins is quickly becoming one of my 'go to' authors for light relief and her books have a firm place on my shelf to be read time and time again.

This is the second book I have read by Katy Colins, although I haven't read them in order it has made no difference to my enjoyment of the book. From reading Destination Thailand I knew Georgia and it was nice to be back with her for this book.

Georgia has stopped her regular backpacking and is working in the travel industry in the U.K with her boyfriend Ben. Georgia is heading over to Australia for her friends wedding, thinking everything is going to plan she is in for a shock along the way, starting with the hen do!

This is a laugh out loud read, it was nice to really get into Georgia's world and I enjoyed every moment of it. One of my favourite parts has to be on the plane over to Oz, I felt I was with Georgia and willing things to get better for her. I still have a smile on my face as I read this as it was very amusing. I raced through this and now can't wait to go back and read Destination India followed by Chile.

This is the perfect holiday read for the summer, it will leave you wanting more and you won't want to put it down. Katy Colins is a very talented author who really draws you in and makes you want to stay in her world forever, I really do hope she has her next book up her sleeve as I can't wait to get my hands on it.

If you haven't yet read any Katy Colins books I recommend you start with one this summer, you won't be disappointed.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review and really helping my find one of my favourite books of the year so far.

I am so excited to be able to bring you an extract from Chasing the Sun, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. 

Extract: 

CHAPTER 6

Odious (adj.) – Extremely unpleasant; repulsive


I let the familiar thrum of the busy airport wash over me as I padded through the check-in hall‚ narrowly sidestepping floor polishers and rows of trolleys. I felt a funny pang in my chest as I walked past amorous couples kissing goodbye. Forget the arrivals hall scene from Love Actually‚ saying farewell to your loved ones was just as emosh. Ben was late for a breakfast meeting‚ so our own goodbye was more of a peck on the cheek as he rushed out the door than a heartfelt profession of love. I’d tried not to feel too disappointed he couldn’t see me off at the airport‚ I knew that I’d see him soon‚ but a small part of me felt like he was still sulking over us losing the investment‚ probably thinking that he could have done a better job if he’d been there. I shook away these negative emotions and made my way through security‚ deciding to treat myself to a new perfume in duty free to cheer myself up and get into holiday mode.


I wasn’t nervous about the long flight that loomed ahead of me; the fact that I was going to be travelling for the next twenty-four hours on my own actually filled me with excitement at having some well deserved me-time. My out-of-office was on‚ I’d filled my e-reader up with beach reads‚ loaded up my iPod‚ and found this mini travel facial kit that the beauty pages of a magazine Kelli had been reading raved about.


I plodded patiently down the aisles of the plane‚ waiting for others to faff around with squeezing their bags in the overhead lockers ahead of me. A queue had blocked the path to my seat as the couple in front decided that this would be the perfect moment to have a detailed debate with their travel partners over who should take the window seat before taking off layers and bundling up jackets into the lockers.


I eventually got to my row‚ where a middle-aged woman wearing a hijab was ensconced in the window seat‚ rabbiting on a mobile phone in a language that I didn’t understand or recognise. The middle seat was empty and‚ in my seat – the aisle seat – sat an overweight man who looked about late thirties. The type who would linger around the buffet table at a party and who shopped at Big and Mighty; his fleshy rolls hung over the armrests like uncooked pastry on a pie tin.


‘Oh‚ excuse me. I think you’re in my seat‚’ I said to him politely‚ noticing flakes of eczema around his scrunched-up‚ piggy eyes.


He creased up his round‚ bowling-ball-shaped face into a look of disgust that I’d deigned to pull his attention from the inflight entertainment channels.


‘What? This is 24C.’ He said this as a statement rather than a question. ‘My seat is 24C.’

He had one of those nasally voices that grated on you with every heavily articulated syllable. I hastily looked at my boarding card‚ even though I’d memorised it enough times in the wait to board. ‘Yep‚ that’s 24C but 24C is actually my seat.’ I flashed him my card to prove that I wasn’t lying.


‘Well‚ that’s just great. Great‚’ he said through gritted teeth‚ glaring at me as if I’d been in charge of the flight seating plan and messed up on purpose just to piss him off and ruin his day.


I flashed him an apologetic shrug as I waited for him to swap seats. He huffed loudly but still didn’t make any effort to move and let me sit down‚ leaving me standing like a lemon. Passengers began tutting behind me now that I was the one blocking the aisle. I felt my cheeks heat up as I appeared to be in a stare-off with this flaky lump of lard.


‘Everything okay here?’ A pretty blonde-haired flight attendant with a crispy high quiff fluttered over‚ flashing us both megawatt smiles on her expertly contoured face.

‘Oh‚ erm‚ well‚ I think this gentleman is in my seat.’ I hurriedly passed her my ticket.

She flicked her camel-length eyelashes at my boarding card and looked at the seat blocker. ‘Sir‚ this lady is correct. Do you have your boarding card so I can check where your seat is?’ she asked‚ filling my nose with a heavy rose-scented perfume which made my stomach flip with nausea.


He huffed once more then pinged open his seat belt to get up‚ acting as if it took all the effort in the world. He half stood‚ half bent over to rummage in his sagging jeans pocket‚ flashing us all a glimpse of his hairy arse crack. I glanced at the passengers waiting behind me and threw them my best apologetic face. They all glared back.


‘Ah‚ sorry sir‚ you’re actually in 24B‚ so if I could ask you to move over one?’ The flight attendant took his crumpled-up boarding pass that proved me right. Hah. In yo face‚ Fatso!

‘I specifically remember requesting the aisle seat.’ He scowled at the pair of us as if we were in this together, conspiring against him and his inflight needs. ‘I can’t sit in the middle seat. I need to be able to move around frequently. Gout problems‚’ he replied as an afterthought.

‘Madam‚ would you mind taking the middle seat?’ The flight attendant turned to me. Her previously perky voice now had a hint of irritation at how long this was taking. Well‚ yes‚ I did bloody mind. I hated sitting in the middle seat anyway‚ but trapped between Mr Rude and Mrs Chatterbox‚ it would make an already long flight even longer.


‘Well …’ I paused‚ trying to work out how to politely but firmly stand my ground.

‘Great! Thank you‚’ the flight attendant said cheerfully‚ before I’d finished‚ and bundled me into my place to let the queue move on. Fatty bum-bum simply manoeuvred his legs to the side so I could squeeze past‚ not even bothering to say thanks.


Soon after‚ the pilot gave his welcome speech (that no one appeared to pay attention to) and the now flustered flight attendant told the woman next to me for the third time that she needed to end her call and put her phone in flight mode. Suddenly‚ I was gassed with the most noxious‚ eggy-fart smell coming from my right. I flung my hand up to my mouth to cover it with the sleeve of my jumper and cast a serious‚ pissed-off look at the man next to me. He had his eyes fixed on the small TV set in the seat back in front of him‚ pretending that it wasn’t him with the bowels of a sewage plant. Then‚ as if to make matters worse‚ I felt something thump the top of my head.


‘Ow!’ I cried and glanced around‚ rubbing my crown. A grinning gap-toothed boy was standing on the seat behind me‚ holding a plastic toy train and looking pretty proud of himself. His mother in the seat next to him was too busy flicking through a magazine to apologise or even acknowledge the assault.

Great. Just great.





Katy Colins (@notwedordead) is a best-selling author and award-winning travel blogger (www.notwedordead.com) with over 44K followers on Instagram.

After Katy’s wedding was called off in 2010, she made the life-changing decision to travel solo around South East Asia, leaving behind her successful career and selling everything that wouldn’t fit into a backpack. As she travelled, Katy finally put her adventures and thoughts into words and secured a six book deal with Harper Collins.

Chasing the Sun is Katy’s fourth novel featuring the inimitable Georgia Green, and the perfect beach read for this summer.

Don't forget to stop by at the other stops on the tour!

The Escape by C.L. Taylor

The Escape by C.L. Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"Look after your daughter's things. And your daughter…"

When a stranger asks Jo Blackmore for a lift she says yes, then swiftly wishes she hadn't.

The stranger knows Jo's name, she knows her husband Max and she's got a glove belonging to Jo's two year old daughter Elise.

What begins with a subtle threat swiftly turns into a nightmare as the police, social services and even Jo's own husband turn against her.

No one believes that Elise is in danger. But Jo knows there's only one way to keep her child safe – RUN.


I picked this one up, thinking it would take a while to finish due to it's size. I was wrong, I was hooked from the very first page, the story grabbed me and I was intrigued to find out who this woman was that jumped in the car with Jo and what was going to happen.

This is quite a deep book with quite a lot of characters to get to know, they all have a purpose and are linked in some way even though it may not be obvious to begin with but does become clear.

Personally I enjoyed the first half of the book a lot more than the second half. Towards the end I also thought it was rushed a little and didn't hold the punch the first part of the book did. It was good but I felt a little let down by the ending.

Overall if you like thrillers or mystery's this is one book you should read this year. I give this book 3.5* mainly due to being a little let down by then ending, if felt rushed and I thought it could have been delivered better. It could be just that I have high standards of this genre of book, as I have read so many and know what I like.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.

The Good Daughter by Alexandra Burt blog tour with extract

It's my stop on The Good Daughter tour and I am bring your an extract from the book. This looks like it is going to be a big thriller this year and I can't wait to get started on it.

What if you were the worst crime your mother ever committed?

Dahlia Waller’s childhood memories consist of stuffy cars, seedy motels, and a rootless existence traveling the country with her eccentric mother. Now grown, she desperately wants to distance herself from that life. Yet one thing is stopping her from moving forward: she has questions.

In order to understand her past, Dahlia must go back. Back to her mother in the stifling town of Aurora, Texas. Back into the past of a woman on the brink of madness. But after she discovers three grave-like mounds on a neighbouring farm, she’ll learn that in her mother’s world of secrets, not all questions are meant to be answered…

The Good Daughter is a compelling take on a genre that shows no sign of slowing down. The perfect read for fans of Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins.


An extract from the book:


Run.

My body obeys. Ten steps and I lose my footing and stumble, hit the ground, left shoulder first. I roll down a hill and sharp branches nip at my skin. I tumble farther and farther, a steady and painful descent that I’m unable to stop. I come to a halt and I feel a sharp pain hit me right between my eyes. Then my world goes dark.

When I come to, everything is quiet but for the thumping sound of my heart. I swallow water. I’m drowning. My head throbs but I manage to push my body off the ground. I’m in a creek, facedown. The vision of the hand has carved itself into my brain. I must be mistaken, I tell myself.

I catch my breath and return to the very spot. I kneel down and a burning sensation moves up my arm, to my face, then to my neck. There is an anticipation, a nervous kind of energy tingling through me, as if electrical sparks are traveling all the way to my toes. A scent hits my nostrils, an olfactory hint of something … unpleasant … out of place within the otherwise fresh forest. The scent is sickly sweet, a mere hint one moment, then a good stench. Something is dripping onto my lap—warm moisture spreads onto my bare thighs—and I realize my nose is bleeding profusely. My shaking hands are covered in blood.

A buried body, I think, as if I have finally solved a riddle I’ve been pondering for a while. My mind tumbles, spills into itself. My sense of smell is heightened and the soil and decomposing leaves make the atmosphere thick. I feel a sense of paranoia, I imagine someone watching me, no, I don’t imagine, I know there’s someone watching me.



I scan the trees around me. I know what I am; prey. A small sob works its way up and out of my throat.

There’s no visual clue, just knowledge and intuition, and my eyes find a narrow path with knotted roots. Run, I repeat to myself, and again my body obeys.

I reach the road and wave down a truck filled with men in overalls. There’s a large ladder covered in paint splatters extending beyond the truck bed. I scream and point at the tree line and they rush in that direction.

One man stays behind and says words in Spanish I don’t understand.

I feel as if I have traveled through a time machine: I remember the clinic well—Metroplex, a three-story building, aged and tacky, from the industrial carpet to the disassembled pay phones left deserted on linen fabric–covered walls.

I recall the emergency room—every strep throat, every fever that wouldn’t go away, every sprained ankle, every cut that required stitches resulted in arguments with nurses and administration. My mother refused to sign paperwork, wouldn’t give them any information but our names.

There’s this rage inside of me that I feel toward my mother and I wish my memory was a sieve, yet it maintains a detailed account of her transgressions, all fresh, all defined, neat and organized. They sit in waiting and many have come back to me lately, so many memories have returned, yet not a single one of them pleasant. Lately, all it takes is an image, a smell, a faint recall, and the dam of restraint breaks. It sloshes over everything, unforgiving in its clarity.

They say—I’ve done the research—humans are hardwired to retain negative memories as a matter of survival.

Survival; the act of surviving, especially under adverse or unusual circumstances.

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Don’t Trust This Book

Don’t Trust These People

Don’t Trust Yourself

And whatever you do, DON’T give away that ending…

‘Sarah Pinborough is about to become your new obsession’ Harlan Coben

Louise

Since her husband walked out, Louise has made her son her world, supporting them both with her part-time job. But all that changes when she meets…

David

Young, successful and charming – Louise cannot believe a man like him would look at her twice let alone be attracted to her. But that all comes to a grinding halt when she meets his wife…

Adele

Beautiful, elegant and sweet – Louise's new friend seems perfect in every way. As she becomes obsessed by this flawless couple, entangled in the intricate web of their marriage, they each, in turn, reach out to her.

But only when she gets to know them both does she begin to see the cracks… Is David really is the man she thought she knew and is Adele as vulnerable as she appears?
Just what terrible secrets are they both hiding and how far will they go to keep them?

I have read Sarah Pinborough novels before and I have to admit I really like them. She manages to draw the reader in and keep them hooked until the ending and this is another of those books. I began it one Sunday afternoon and hardly put it down until I went to bed that night. I was so engrossed in the story line I had to know what was going to happen next.


David and Adele have moved to the area, they have the 'perfect' marriage, life and home. Louise works in a doctors office/physicist type place and has a son Adam. She split up with her husband Ian a while ago now, but they stay civil for Adam. Louise met David in a bar one night but currently has no idea who he is, that is until he walks through the office doors where she works and turns out to be the new doctor there.

This story is about the 3 of them, Adele, David and Louise and how their lives intertwine, I thought it was written very well and throughout the novel I kept changing my mind on different things, my feelings for the characters also changed throughout the book and I couldn't see which direction the story was going in.

This is a very difficult book to review, mainly because I don't want to spoil it for anyone but also because I want to discuss that ending, personally the second twist I feel was one too far and Pinborough should have stopped at just the first twist, had she have done that, this book would have got 5*. I feel that the second twist was unnecessary and actually didn't bring an awful lot extract to the story for me, it just made me cross and left me with a sour taste in my mouth as I thought it was silly.

Although the second twist in the book did spoil it for me, I feel that this was still a good read, one that does live up to the hype and if you enjoy thrillers you should pick this one up. I would also recommend you read other Pinborough novels as they are written well and keep you hooked from early on. I really did enjoy 98% of the book, if only the last 5 pages didn't exist. Hopefully after you have read this you will understand what I mean.

Overall though an enjoyable read that I would recommend and I will be passing my book on to a friend.

A Night in with Grace Kelly by Lucy Holliday

A Night in with Grace Kelly by Lucy Holliday
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fate has got it in for Libby Lomax. She realised, far too late, that her best friend Olly, is the actual Love of Her Life. Now he’s in love with the so-nice-it-hurts, Tash, and it looks like her happy ending is completely out of reach.

Things start looking up when she, quite literally, runs into the completely gorgeous Joel. Libby discovers that there is more to Joel than his six-pack, not least, the incredible fact that he honestly believes he has found his fairy tale princess in her.

And if this wasn’t enough, an unwanted guest shows up on Libby’s enchanted sofa; Grace Kelly, wearing her iconic wedding dress and convinced that Libby is figment of her imagination. But one thing that Grace doesn’t believe in is fairy tales. Grace believes that if you really want something, then you’ve got to make it happen yourself; words which give Libby hope that happy endings aren’t just for fairy tale princesses…

This was the third and last in the series of 'Nights In With....' books from Lucy Holliday. As with the other two immensely entertaining with the main character Libby Lomax and her magical couch along with Bogdan and the other regulars to the series creating laugh out loud scenarios and impossible situations.

This was equally as good as the other two in the series and I am sorry that these will now have come to an end. Clever witty dialogue, likable and believable characters and a great girlie read.

Libby having realised too late that she is in love with her best friend Olly is now forced to see him with another girl and it seems her happy ever after will never come. She is almost resigned to a life of being single when Joel comes crashing into her life, almost literally, and he is completely bowled over by her believing she is the love of his life. To complicate matters even further Grace Kelly materialises on Libby's enchanted sofa much to Bogdan's delight who is so smitten with Grace Kelly that he even decides to grow a moustache to make himself more like Clark Gable whom Grace hints at she was besotted with.

We all know there are no such things as magical sofas but you need to read this with a little bit of imagination and an open mind, if you're looking for a serious read this book is not it. I loved the other two in the series and I loved this one as well, I only hope that Lucy Holliday can pull something out of the bag for her next book since this series has come to an end. She has created a hard act for herself to follow and I will definitely be looking for her next book. Well deserved 5 stars for this and the series - loved it all.

Lyrebird by Cecelia Ahern Blog Tour

Lyrebird by Cecelia Ahern
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

She will change your life forever…

In the south-west of Ireland, rugged mountains meet bright blue lakes and thick forests. Deep in the woods, a young woman lives alone, forever secluded from the world, her life a well-kept secret. She possesses an extraordinary talent, the likes of which no-one has seen before: a gift that will earn her the nickname Lyrebird.

When Solomon stumbles into Laura’s solitary existence, her life is turned on its head. Pulled from her peaceful landscape to the cacophony of Dublin, she is confronted by a world desperate to understand her.

But while Solomon knows the world will embrace Laura, will it free her to spread her wings – or will it trap her in a gilded cage? Like all wild birds, she needs to fly free…

Lyrebird is a thoughtful, deeply moving love story; a story of the wild heart in us all and the quiet that lies underneath the world’s noise


I absolutely love Cecelia Ahern's writing, I have read all her novels and have loved most of them. Over the years her writing style has developed into more magical and fantasy, fantasy is not my genre to read, however Ahern's are the exception.

Personally I enjoyed the first half of the book a lot more than the second half. Bo, Solomon and others from a documentary crew head off to film a funeral to catch up with a family they had been following for one of their most successful pieces of work. A twin from the family had died 'Tom' and they were going back to the family house to film endings of the show. During their time back on the grounds of the family home Solomon stumbles across a young woman in the woods. Laura had been living here for 10 years, she seems to have a magical power/gift she can mimic sounds around her and has been shut off from the outside world.

Bo for me at the beginning of the novel was not likable at all, she came across greedy for a story and only interested in Laura for the fact she could make her a lot of money. She also seemed unprofessional, and that she was using her. Solomon is Bo's boyfriend and through reading the story I didn't feel Solomon was like Bo, he genuinely seemed to care for Laura, I also couldn't see how they were together, they seemed too different.

The story is beautifully written and I loved the description in the countryside, I wish there had been more of this part of the story, I would have happily had the whole story told in the countryside and personally I thought this was over too soon.

There are many parts of the story that I found difficult to get my head around. Laura had been alone for 10 years in the countryside and the outside world must have felt almost alien to her, however she was quick enough to jump in a car and go to the city with Solomon and Bo. She also didn't seem reluctant with the idea of going on a famous T.V show. I found it hard to believe that no one thought Laura's ability was odd and it was just accepted. These things I did think would be unbelievable.

I did enjoy this story, the writing style makes it such an easy read and one that you don't want to stop. You get sucked into Laura's world and feel like you become one of the characters following her on her journey, not knowing how it is going to end.

This was an enchanting tale, a fairy tale for adults. Cecelia Ahern has delivered again with a magical novel. If you are an Ahern fan I recommend you get yourself a copy of this.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.





About the Author:
Cecelia Ahern was born and grew up in Dublin. She is now published in nearly fifty countries, and has sold over twenty-five million copies of her novels worldwide. Two of her books have been adapted as films and she has created several TV series. She and her books have won numerous awards, including the Irish Book Award for Popular Fiction for The Year I Met You. She lives in Dublin with her family.

We Were On A Break by Lindsey Kelk blog tour

We Were On a Break by Lindsey Kelk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Is it a break? Or is it a blip?

‘You’ve just had a holiday,’ I pointed out, trying not to yawn. ‘Wasn’t that enough of a break?’
‘I don’t mean that kind of break.’

There’s nothing worse than the last day of holiday. Oh wait, there is. When what should have been a proposal turns into a break, Liv and Adam find themselves on opposite sides of the life they had mapped out.

Friends and family all think they’re crazy; Liv throws herself into work – animals are so much simpler than humans – and Adam tries to get himself out of the hole he’s dug.

But as the short break becomes a chasm, can they find a way back to each other? Most importantly, do they want to?


I love Lindsey Kelk books and have all of them on my bookshelf for me to return too when I need something humourous. We Were On a Break is a stand alone, which I really loved the idea of. Personally the cover of this one doesn't do it for me, but at they say never judge a book by it's cover!

This book has the trademarks that make a Kelk book, the humour, the romance and the story line.

Adam and Liv are on holiday in Mexico and are having an amazing time, Liv has been told by her best friend Cassie, (who is married to Adam's brother) that Adam is going to propose, so all holiday Liz has been waiting in anticipation. Finally it gets to the final night and it never happens. They end up having a massive row on the plane and once home go their separate ways for what Adam calls 'a break'.

The story is continue to be told through both Liv and Adam's perspective interchanging with the chapters. Initially I found this a little difficult to follow as I had to work out which perspective I was reading, but I actually really enjoyed the story being told in this way. Both the characters go through so many emotions in this book and there are times when you just want to bash their heads together. Although the whole story is them 'breaking up' the story seemed to whiz by and I couldn't believe I had almost finished.

I loved all the characters in this book and there are quite a few of them. I especially loved Daniel Craig, can I have him please??

Personally this is not my favourite book by Lindsey but it is still a great read and one that I will be adding to my collection. I recommend you to get yourself a copy if you love Lindsey's writing as this will not disappoint.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.

Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner

Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Mid-December, and Cambridgeshire is blanketed with snow. Detective Sergeant Manon Bradshaw tries to sleep after yet another soul-destroying Internet date – the low murmuring of her police radio her only solace.

Over the airwaves come reports of a missing woman – door ajar, keys and phone left behind, a spatter of blood on the kitchen floor. Manon knows the first 72 hours are critical: you find her, or you look for a body. And as soon as she sees a picture of Edith Hind, a Cambridge post-graduate from a well-connected family, she knows this case will be big.

Is Edith alive or dead? Was her ‘complex love life’ at the heart of her disappearance, as a senior officer tells the increasingly hungry press? And when a body is found, is it the end or only the beginning?


Firstly I didn't love this book - it was a slow burner that only got mildly more interesting as it went along but it just failed to have the killer punch for me. It teased that (according to Erin Kelly listed on the back cover) it had 'A twist that knocked me sideways' - sorry Erin but we must have been reading two different books as I could not get what the 'twist' was; there was no unexpected reveal and I had guessed what had happened to Edith Hind before I reached the end of the book. It wasn't convincing enough for me why Edith had disappeared in the first place or her connection to other characters who helped her and that wasn't explained satisfactorily at the end. It was a bit anticlimactic really and left me feeling empty at the end for having invested so much time reading 404 pages I really should have at least felt satisfied I had enjoyed the experience.


Ok so the plot if you like wasn't great so it's up to the characters to carry this along and sadly I have to say they weren't great either. Manon the detective assigned to the case is a bit of an emotional mess; 39 and single with her biological clock ticking she engages on some very stupid one night stands and spends most of her time either crying or trying to be the tough guy. She also makes silly decisions that eventually end up with her being hit over the head (oh that they managed to knock some sense into her!) really not entirely believable actions of a detective. I didn't connect with this character at all and found myself really not caring whether she had her happy ending or not - it all became rather boring.


Edith Hind (daughter of Sir Ian Hind physician) comes across as a spoilt little rich girl who, unable to deal with her problems, engineers her own disappearance and although there is a huge police operation which she can't have failed to hear about she remains hidden causing her poor family to have to go through hell believing she is dead. I really had no sympathy for this selfish girl and even less when her thoughtless actions expose her fathers' indiscretions and cause the death of her best friend. On the surface this looks like a good storyline but it just wasn't cohesive enough to carry it along.


Given the lack of pace and believable storyline this book was for me disappointing and far too long, stringing it out only had me hoping that there would be a great twist or curve ball to come but sadly there wasn't. I can only give this a 3 star rating; not enough convincing plotline, not enough well developed good characters or action to keep it going for me and certainly wasn't the page turner it promised to be.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.

Time after Time extract

Time After Time

Hayley Cooper, a powerful but now struggling lawyer, fantasizes about what her life would

be like if only if she’d made different choices. It’s understandable; the past two years have

been hell. She barely sees her kids, her boss is trying to sabotage her, and her marriage is

falling apart.

Burnt out, Hayley goes to sleep wishing for a different life. When she wakes up married to

her first boyfriend, one she has not seen in over twenty years, she realizes there might be

some truth in the saying “be careful what you wish for”.

Over a single weekend, like Ebenezer Scrooge, Hayley gets to see her life on other side of the white picket fence – not

just with her first ex, but with each of her past loves.

But is the grass always greener, and

will she ever want to go home?

The Madam - Jaime Raven

Three years and eleven months. That's how long Lizzie Wells has been banged up inside Holloway prison, serving time for a crime she didn’t commit.

Six months. That's how long it’s taken Lizzie to fall in love with her fellow inmate, Scar.

Now they are both finally free and, together, they are about to embark on a vengeful search to find those who framed Lizzie . . . and to make them pay.

THE BUSINESS MAN. THE COPPER. THE MADAM.

I have been lucky enough to be able to bring you an audio clip from the book to help promote the release. You can hear this below. 

https://soundcloud.com/harperaudio/the-madam-by-jaime-raven

Don't forget to stop by on the other tour days:

The Bookshop on Rosemary Lane - Ellen Berry Cover Reveal!

The Bookshop on Rosemary Lane

Ellen Berry

Ebook and Paperback: 14^th July 2016

In the beginning…
Kitty Cartwright has always solved her problems in the kitchen. Her cookbooks are her life, and there isn’t an issue that ‘Cooking with Aspic’ can’t fix. Her only wish is that she had a book entitled ‘Rustling Up Dinner When Your Husband Has Left You’.

Forty years later…

On Rosemary Lane, Della Cartwright plans to open a very special little bookshop. Not knowing what to do with the hundreds of cookbooks her mother left her, she now wants to share their recipes with the world – and no amount of aspic will stand in her way.

But with her family convinced it’s a hare-brained scheme, Della starts to wonder if she’s made a terrible decision. One thing’s for sure: she’s about to find out…

Lose yourself in Della’s world of food, family and friends. The perfect read for fans of Trisha Ashley and Carole Matthews.

Break Up Club by Lorelei Mathias

 You may think you have read this post before, that's probably because you have. Except there is something a little bit different about it this time. Reader I dumped him, has had a makeover! It now has a new title and a new cover see this below!

I have included the original information in this post in case you missed it last time. I hope you love it as much as I do. I love the title, I think it is much more catchy than before. 

Blurb:

This story is a celebration of the people that bring you back to life when your world closes in: your mates.
Relationships come and go, but the Break-up Club membership never truly expires.

Holly Braithwaite and loveable loser Lawrence have been together for five years. But the obvious cracks in their relationship can no longer be ignored and Holly soon finds herself saying ‘it’s not you, it’s me.’

In the shock aftermath of their break up, Holly finds unlikely companions in Olivia, Harry and Bella. Together, they form the Break-up Club, as they support each other through their mutual melancholy and find ways to love, laugh and function as human beings again.

Break-up Club meets every Sunday. Each week, as the comedy and drama unfolds, they discover a new BUC ‘rule’. And, one by one, the rules become vital markers on their journey to recovery . . .

‘BREAK-UP CLUB’
To our members, we’re the first emergency service











GOD ONLY KNOWS WHAT YOU’D BE WITHOUT YOUR FRIENDS – LIFE IN THE REAL BUC, by Lorelei Mathias
One lovely reviewer of Reader, I Dumped Him said they couldn’t help feeling a bit jealous of the friends in the book - ‘unlike some pals who come and go, this lot stick around, and bring wine!’ Well, I feel like a smug git saying this but - THEY’RE REAL! Sure, the storylines and characters in Reader I Dumped Him are different. But the essence is the same – they’re funny as hell, and we’d take a bullet for each other.

It’s fair to say my time in ‘The Real BUC’ has inspired the odd scene. Like when we accidentally went camping in Zone 3. It was the Glastonbury weekend, Michael Jackson had just died and we were all going through our second perfectly synchronised break-up together, 18 months after the first. Getting ‘out of London’ and dancing in the rain to a tinny stereo turned out to be a tonic – so much so that since then we try and keep up the annual tradition of ‘The BUC Bleak Day Out’.


Our last AGM - in Margate – went by in a heady daze of seaside beers, giggly interpretations of modern art, running into the sea in the freezing rain, shit-chatting over nuggets in the Margate Wimpy… and singing all the way home on the last train to St Pancras. A perfect day!

There’s a kind of candy-flossed tragedy about a British seaside town in Winter, and that’s just the kind of ambience you want for a Break-up Club excursion. Forget ten days in Marbs. You want the Withnail & I ‘We’ve come on holiday by mistake’ – kind.

Bleak holidays aside, why are friends are so important in a break-up? What gives them the edge?

I think it’s to do with your peers understanding what you’re going through – more so than your parents or your siblings. Dating in your late twenties/thirties – it’s a ball-ache because every relationship, you’re thinking - is this it? Are there yet? So there’s something special about all being ‘in the same boat;’ all shielding your ears together from the deafening ticking clock. It makes your friends better qualified to scrape you off the floor when you turn to an emotional blancmange. Again!

Even though I’ve not been single for a long time, not a day goes by that I’m not thankful as hell to ‘The Real BUC’. Reader, I’d marry them.


Read more at breakupclub.co.uk

Loreleimathias.com Loreleimathias.wordpress.com @loreleimathias

Little Girl Gone by Alexandra Burt

Little Girl Gone by Alexandra Burt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



A baby goes missing. But does her mother want her back?

When Estelle’s baby daughter is taken from her cot, she doesn’t report her missing. Days later, Estelle is found in a wrecked car, with a wound to her head and no memory.

Estelle knows she holds the key to what happened that night – but what she doesn’t know is whether she was responsible…
Gone Girl meets Girl on a Train was how this book was billed and having read both of these books I was really looking forward to fast paced psychological thriller. I was left a bit deflated as I found it to be mainly about psychoanalysis of a postpartum woman who appears to have 'lost' her child and only through many sessions with a therapist can the reader unpick what has happened to her baby Mia.

The first part of the book was totally gripping, especially when Mia is suddenly missing and Estelle has been in a car accident and appears to be suffering from amnesia - but then page 162 for 100 pages not until page 262 did it really get going again. Although a fascinating process to piece together snippets of memory as Estelle is given triggers it was so slow and almost boring. I was very close to just quitting but I do try hard not to do this so I can given an honest review so persevered with it. As I said pg 262 it started to gain momentum again but I felt that Alexandra Burt must have realised she had to finish this and from then on it was hurried and for me an anti climax.

I didn't really like this book, it seemed way too long and I couldn't really connect with the characters, at the end I really didn't care what happened the ending was not really worth the investment of having read 456 pages and such a shame it was marketed against two very good novels as it set expectations very high. It was in no way as memorable as these other two novels and feel readers will get the wrong idea about this book from the marketing.

I can only give this book 3 stars and this is mainly due to the fact that it was well written.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.

Milkshakes and Heartbreaks at the Starlight Diner by Helen Cox Cover Reveal

I am delighted to reveal the fabulous cover for Milkshakes and Heartbreaks at the Starlight Diner by Helen Cox.

Publishes: 4^th July

Ebook only

Next time you’re in New York, take a turn off Broadway onto East Houston Street.

There, you’ll see it: The Starlight Diner. A retro eatery curious enough to delight tourists and locals alike. Fifties tunes stream out of the jukebox long into the night, and it serves the tastiest milkshakes in the five boroughs.

Esther Knight waitresses at The Starlight Diner. She’s sharp, sarcastic, and she’s hiding something. Nobody at the diner knows why she left London for New York – or why she repeatedly resists the charms of their newest regular, actor Jack Faber.

Esther is desperate to start a new life in the land of the free, but despite the warm welcome from the close-knit diner crowd, something from her past is holding her back. Can she ever learn to love and live again?