Review: Dr. Fake Fiancé

Dr. Fake Fiancé by Louise Bay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

After betrayal by her boyfriend of 12 years musical superstar (think Taylor Swift or Adele) Vivian runs away to London and anonymity before the launch of her worldwide tour to launch her new album.

Beau thought he and his friend with benefits Coral were a great match, he even suggested they move in together, but she laughed in his face and said he wasn't the sort of guy that girls got serious about. After a childhood accident which left him with extensive burns on his body Beau has always tried to live life to the full, whether that's climbing in the Himalayas, base jumping, or husky mushing, and he locums as a GP in between adrenalin rushes.

When they literally run into each other at a coffee shop Beau doesn't recognise Vivian and they strike up a tentative friendship. While Vivian doesn't totally trust Beau, after what she's been through who could blame her, she is intrigued by the fact that he seems to be interested in her as a person, not the pop legend. So when her manager suggests a fake romance to divert the media's attention from her ex-boyfriend's bitter rants about her in the press, Beau is happy to step up - they both know this isn't real, its just one friend helping out another, isn't it?

I really enjoyed this, Beau and Vivian were a nice couple.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

View all my reviews

Review: Far from Home: An unforgettable feel-good summer romance

Far from Home: An unforgettable feel-good summer romance by T.A. Williams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Amy is used to working long hard days in forex, until she collapses with a suspected heart attack. At the same time, she discovers she has been left a property in Italy by a complete stranger. Forced by her employer to take several weeks leave to recuperate she travels to the Tuscan hills to discover a magnificent inheritance. The time alone will also allow Amy to decide how she feels about her boyfriend and whether they have a future together.

This was pleasant enough, although I didn't feel the romance - I kept wondering why she fell in love with him. Also, TA WIlliams' novels are all beginning to feel very similar with the inevitable Labrador and lengthy food descriptions.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Review: Dr. CEO

Dr. CEO by Louise Bay
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Vincent Cove is a billionaire property developer/investor, a self-made man who never stays in one place for long.

Kate spent her early years in chaos, since the age of seven she has lived on the Crompton Estate with her beloved granny, latterly working in the estate's tea shop by day and the pub/inn at night. After her childhood, Kate never wants to leave the love and warmth of the small group of people who live and work in the estate.

Vincent is visiting the estate incognito with a view to potentially buying it from the Earl and turning it into a 5 star hotel. Whilst there he meets Kate at the tea shop and she serves him that evening in the pub. One thing leads to another and they spend an unforgettable night together, but all that turns to dust when Kate discovers Vincent will be turfing them out of their cottages (and moving them into purpose-built housing nearby) and putting them out of jobs (although offering to retrain everyone).

This was just okay for me. I found it difficult to reconcile the sexually confident, deeply insightful, woman with the woman who was too scared to leave the estate to look at a house literally five minutes away. Otherwise, catnip!

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

View all my reviews

Review: Dr. Perfect

Dr. Perfect by Louise Bay
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ellie has just been ceremonially dumped by her boyfriend Shane, since she'd dropped out of college to manage his speedway career she has no qualifications, and since they shared his money, she has no salary, and no job history. So when she gets a temporary assignment as PA/office manager to a private doctor in Harley Street she is ecstatic, if she saves every penny she can she might be able to go to the Cordon Bleu culinary school. Except Dr Zach Cove doesn't seem to want her to do anything, and he doesn't seem very enthusiastic about getting clients. Furthermore, everything she does to help him just seems to irritate him instead.

Zach Cove comes from a family of doctors, both his parents and all his brothers are doctors, so he felt obligated to go into the family business, but he hates it. What he wants to do is write and he has in fact written a cosy detective story, set in a hospital. A very famous book agent has agreed to represent him, but she is retiring imminently and she has a LOT of changes she wants him to make to the book, so Zach is using his two days a week at his private practice to edit his novel rather than see patients.

When it becomes clear that Zach needs to spend 24/7 editing his book he decides to spend a week on the remote Scottish island of Rum staying in his cousin Vincent's cottage/shack, then the courier who was supposed to deliver the final notes from his agent to Rum, delivers it to Harley Street instead. Realising that Zach needs this parcel very urgently, and no courier can guarantee net day delivery, Ellie resolves to deliver the parcel herself. But the ferry timetables and an incoming storm mean that she has to stay in the cottage with Zach for several days, where the sparks between them turn into flames.

Zach is pretty much all in (which makes a nice surprise), but Ellie is wary after her experiences with Shane and doesn't want to give up on her dreams and subsume herself in a man again, can Zach persuade her that he is different?

The first half of the book didn't do much for me, especially the forced proximity in a small cottage due to a storm, but I did very much like the thoughtful way in which Zach and Ellie created their relationship thereafter.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

View all my reviews

Review: Spectred Isle

Spectred Isle by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Saul Lazenby was an archaeologist with a bright future until an incident in Mesopotamia during WW1 led to his court-martial, disgrace, and even disinheritance. Now he is grateful for a job assisting Major Peabody who believes in every crack-pot theory about magic, even if he does have stop himself from rolling his eyes. One day. following the Major's latest obsession with Geoffrey de Mandeville whose death remains shrouded in mystery, Saul arrives in Oak Hill Park looking for a druidic temple or some other such nonsense when a magnificent ancient oak tree spontaneously combusts in front of him. The first man on the scene is a supercilious, aristocrat who speaks in riddles.

Of course the Major is convinced the oak's combustion is evidence that he is 'onto something' and as he and Saul trace down clues from a book he received from a mysterious benefactor, Saul keeps running into Randolph Glyde, the last of an ancient family sworn to protect England from ghosts and ghouls who inhabit the other side of the veil. Unfortunately, all sides in WW1 employed arcanists and as a consequence decimated the magical community and ripped the veil to shreds. Now the small number of arcanists who are left are dealing with unprecedented levels of supernatural occurrences, and the Shadow Ministry is breathing down their necks, trying to strong-arm Randolph into joining their ranks.

Randolph can't decide whether Saul is innocent victim or the enemy, he certainly seems to be at the centre of any number of supernatural events, but as matters escalate it could be Saul's own soul in mortal jeopardy.

I liked this, it had a sort of queer, adult, Harry Potter/Supernatural/League of Gentlemen vibe.

View all my reviews

Review: The Royal Baths Murder

The Royal Baths Murder by J.R. Ellis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

DCI Jim Oldroyd and his team are faced with life imitating art when famous author Damian Penrose is found strangled in the empty Harrogate Royal Baths during the annual Crime Writing Festival. Penrose seemed to be universally disliked with a history of infidelity, two ex-wives, a disgruntled former business partner, allegations of plagarism (particularly from young women), and a general contempt for other people.

Suspicion falls on two other writers and a local publisher who had raised allegations in an author Q&A the previous evening and then argued with Penrose at the hotel bar afterwards, but none of them could be proved to be near the Baths at the time in question. Similarly, the employees at the Baths seemed to have no motive, although one receptionist did suggest that the murder bore a striking resemblance to the plot of another crime novel.

This was very odd, not sure what the word is maybe Meta or intertextual? A novel about a crime committed at a Crime Writing festival which mimics crimes in a fictional book written by one of the other characters?

There is also a side plot featuring the noxious DCI Fenton, Stephanie, and sexual harassment.

My gripe, I guessed the murderer very early on and had my suspicions about a key point even earlier. Also, I couldn't understand why the Baths would leave wet towels in the changing rooms overnight and remove them in the morning rather than empty the bins at the end of the day's session and send them for laundry - I thought it was a clue.

I have been trying to read these quickly because I have an ARC of the tenth book to review and I wanted to understand how the series had evolved but I fear the more I read the less I like Oldroyd who seems like a bit of a dinosaur which, considering he is probably meant to be my age (or younger!) seems a bit silly. I suspect there is an attempt to make him like Morse or Poirot but I would prefer more police procedural and less waiting for the bodies to pile up while he snatches at clues.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

View all my reviews

Review: A Novel Love Story

A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Eileen Merriweather is a college English professor who retreated into herself after her fiancé Liam decided he wanted to see other people right before their wedding, leaving her to cancel all the arrangements and inform hi family while he went off with a friend from work 'to clear his head'. Of course not long thereafter he and his friend from work get married. Since then her only interactions are with her online romance book club, and eventually the annual in-person vacation week where they all meet up in an Airbnb to talk romance tropes and drink wine. This year no-one else can make it but Eileen desperately needs a break and decides to drive her clapped out old Pinto hundreds of miles to spend the week at their usual retreat.

Unfortunately, Eileen gets lost, nearly runs over a man standing in the middle of the road, and then finds not only won't her car start, but the town's only mechanic has gone fishing for the weekend. To add insult to injury, there's no cell service. Otherwise this small town she's landed in is perfect, like Stars Hollow or some other utopian small town in America, which isn't surprising because she has somehow arrived in Eloraton, the fictional setting of her favourite romance series which was cut short after the untimely death of its author.

Once she gets over the shock, Eileen is like a kid in a sweet shop, meeting all her favourite characters, eating the famous dishes at the local diner, etc. The one character she can't place is the grumpy owner of the impossibly cute bookshop, Anders, although he seems awfully familiar. However, as she talks to the residents/characters she realises that the author's death has left them all a bit in limbo, doomed not to move forward with their lives because there is no-one to direct them. Can/should Eileen help them to move forward?

This is sort of Brigadoon meets The Gilmore Girls meets ARGH I can't remember the book title (will see if it comes back to me - thought it was Emily Henry - maybe Book Lovers?). The trouble for me was I hadn't read this series of books (I'm not going to be able to explain this very well) so all of Eileen's interactions with the fictional characters felt somewhat removed, like she was explaining her meetings/interactions rather than the reader 'seeing' them. I didn't already know why certain couples were so cute or their meet-cutes were so romantic because I didn't see them, which I guess could be the point, they aren't real so they should be insubstantial but at the same time Eileen interacts with them and really likes them and wants to help she gets drunk on girls' night out with them etc whereas I would have expected her to start realising that they were only two dimensional, like the holograms in Jumanji that only have a set series of responses to expected questions.

I enjoyed this, I enjoyed the romance, and I could sort of understand the logic behind how/why Eloraton comes into being, but I didn't love it.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Review: Second Chances at the Board Game Café

Second Chances at the Board Game Café by Jennifer Page
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Taylor is a single mother of a child, Max, who is just that little bit 'different' from the other children. He is mathematically gifted, socially awkward, doesn't like sport, and very particular about things being predictable eg always fish fingers on a specific day of the week, vegetables not touching the meat etc. Since Max's father decided he wasn't cut out for fatherhood Taylor has given up on her dreams of being a fashion designer and settled for making repairs and alterations from her cramped rented flat. She is desperate to move, and would like to move Max to a closer school where he wouldn't be bullied as much, but Max is adamant he doesn't want anything to change.

Harry is an accountant. He is also quite literally a train spotter, a loner, someone with a set routine, even dressing for the office when working from home. His favourite hobby, aside from watching Michael Portillo's train journeys on TV, is playing train related board games at the Board Game Café. After his last girlfriend used him to fix things around the house then dumped him for being boring he's been a bit reticent around women.

Initially, when they meet, Taylor thinks Harry is a typical grey boring accountant, and she much prefers the flashy estate agent Tarquin with his sharp suits and colourful outfits, but she quickly comes to realise that Tarquin is actually a well-dressed creep who promises much and delivers little, while Harry is kind and thoughtful. But Taylor is convinced Harry would never be interested in a woman with a child, especially one like Max. Whereas, for his part, Harry thinks no-one as beautiful and talented as Taylor could possibly be interested in a train spotter.

After Taylor upcycles a pair of jeans which Harry accidentally asked her to cut six inches off, instead of six centimetres, by adding a tartan flare and pockets, she is persuaded to start an upcycling sewing class above the café and put on a fashion show at the local school to showcase her talents, which might win her more interesting work that replacing zips and taking up hems.

This was a heart-warming cosy romance, Taylor has been brought up not to be beholden to anyone and so her kind friends, customers, and neighbours have to find creative ways to help her (like putting on a fashion show), and Taylor has to learn that help isn't always given out of pity.

So sorry I seem to have missed the second book featuring schoolteacher Jo.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Review: The Love of My Afterlife: A joyous, uplifting and laugh-out-loud romcom perfect for summer reading

The Love of My Afterlife: A joyous, uplifting and laugh-out-loud romcom perfect for summer reading by Kirsty Greenwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Delphie chokes to death on a microwave burger whilst wearing rather tatty PJs her main reaction is embarrassment that she could die in such a plebeian fashion. When she comes to, she is in a surreal 'waiting room', which looks very much like a laundromat, with a young woman called Merritt. Whilst trying to wrap her head around the idea of being dead and simultaneously in a laundromat, Delphie accidentally runs into another person, a devastatingly handsome man called Jonah who seems similarly smitten by Delphie. However, Jonah hasn't actually died, he is just in a very deep sleep caused by dental anaesthetic, and soon disappears. Horrified that she has met her soulmate only to have him taken away, Delphie and Merritt come to an agreement, Delphie has ten days to find Jonah and get him to voluntarily kiss her, if he does she can stay, if he doesn't then she must return and help Merritt test her dating service for the recently deceased. The catch is, she doesn't know his last name and he will have no recollection of their meeting.

Returned to where she came from, at first Delphie thinks it was all a surreal dream, until Merritt sends her a number of sharp messages abut time running out. With only ten days left on earth, Delphie realises that she has let childhood bullying (admittedly by her BFF) ruin her life, so much so that she has no friends, no love life, in fact she has only kissed one man (and that wasn't very good). Her only sort-of friend in Mr Yoon, the non-verbal elderly Korean man who lives in the same block of flats, who she drops in to visit daily to make sure he hasn't left the gas on or a burning cigarette in the ash-tray.

Initially this felt very like slapstick comedy (I'm not a fan) as Delphie runs from one bizarre situation to another trying to meet the elusive Jonah, but along the way she starts to make friends and/or enlist the assistance of a motley group of people she encounters along the way and the humour calms down. I loved Delphie's grumpy downstairs neighbour who gets roped into helping with the quest and demands a favour in return.

Overall this was a fun romance.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Review: The Murder at Redmire Hall

The Murder at Redmire Hall by J.R. Ellis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

40 years ago Lord Vivian Redmire, a man who loved taking up new hobbies, developed an interest in magical tricks and, at enormous expense, had a locked room built at Redmire Hall where he mystified guests at a dinner party with his ability to disappear and reappear in an apparently locked room. However, after that night he never repeated the trick and the room, like so many of his other hobbies was abandoned.

Now, his son Lord Freddie Redmire, notorious for his gambling (badly) and womanising, has gathered his family together at Redmire Hall to recreate his father's trick, this time in front of television cameras and, to give an even greater air of probity, he has invited DCI Jim Oldroyd to attend. The DCI is a sucker for magic tricks and has lured DS Stephanie Johnson along with the promise of a smack-up meal.

The scene is set for disaster, his younger brother Dominic resents Freddie was wasting the family fortune, Dominic's wife Mary has been having an affair with Freddie. Freddie's daughter Poppy and her boyfriend Tristan are short of money, ironically because of Tristam's gambling debts, and are hoping Freddie will give them some money. Freddie's former long-term lover Alex is now married to Freddie's former business partner James who blames Freddie for their luxury car business failing. Freddie's ex-wife Antonia, who divorced him over his affair with Alex, has now remarried Douglas, a wealthy furniture salesman, albeit not in the same league as Lord Redmire. Freddie's mother the Dowager Lady Redmire actively despises her son who is wasting the family's inheritance and lacks his father's charisma. Finally, the remaining family members are Freddie's son Alistair and his wife Katherine, who live close to the Hall but are given no say in its running. In addition there are numerous staff who fear for their jobs if Freddie's reckless gambling isn't halted.

After the usual rigmarole of the guests checking the room for secret doors, the room is locked, when it is reopened a few moments later Freddie has vanished and again the guests can see no obvious means of escape. When the room is locked again and reopened Freddie has reappeared as expected, but with a dagger thrust in his back ... Duh, Duh, Duh!

There seem to be multiple people who could have a motive for killing Freddie, unfortunately they were all in the audience watching the trick and in full view of the TV cameras. Then, later that night a retired handyman is found brutally strangled in his own home, presumably because he knew the secret behind the locked room trick and the murderer(s) wanted to tie up loose ends.

The press are having a field day, and when Freddie's will is read the bequests give some of the family even greater reason to have wanted him dead. Can DCI Oldroyd identify the killer(s)?

This felt very old school Poirot (or even Colombo), especially when DCI Oldroyd indulges in his love of the dramatic by gathering the family together to explain each of their motives which was fun, but not very realistic TBH. I was a bit disappointed to find that this was another locked room mystery, albeit this was literally a locked room rather than a chapel converted into a concert hall.

Still DCI Oldroyd's personal life is moving at a glacial pace and he seems a bit pathetic, can't really cook, doesn't do anything or go anywhere (at least I can cook LOL).

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.


View all my reviews

Review: The Quartet Murders

The Quartet Murders by J.R. Ellis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

DCI Jim Oldroyd is, as we know, a lover of classical music. However, he gets more than he bargains for when he witnesses the lead violinist of the Schubert String Quartet being assassinated during a performance of Franz Schubert's Death and the Maiden at the Halifax Red Chapel Arts Centre. Not only that, while the DCI is trying to keep everyone calm and preserve the scene, someone makes off with the victim's extremely rare and valuable Munsterhaven Stradivarius violin, one of nine stringed instruments made for Baron Munsterhaven by Stradivarius all of which bear the Baron's coat of arms. Not only that but when they search the arts centre the assassin has disappeared, there are no ways of exiting the building that were not in full sight of some of the staff the entire time. A classic locked room mystery.

Joining forces with the local police, Jim and DS Andy Carter struggle to find both the assassin and the missing violin, until another member of the quartet is assassinated in his home. Now it appears as though wealthy instrument collectors will stop at nothing to possess such a rare violin.

It also appears that the victim, Hans Muller may not have acquired the Stradivarius in the most above-board fashion, there are rumours that it is 'Nazi Gold', ie a precious article stolen from a Jewish family during WW2 by the Nazis. Could the murders be associated with radical groups trying to repatriate stolen treasures?

I enjoyed this, J.R. Ellis clearly likes to research his subjects thoroughly, hence each chapter describes a different rare Stradivarius violin and their history, I suppose with an instrument over 300 years old it is unsurprising that they have variously been lost, stolen, hidden, and mislaid over the years. I have two gripes, first (view spoiler)[I would have thought the man who went haring off after the gunman and was the only person to leave the building (looking for the sniper) before the police arrived would have been my primary suspect (hide spoiler)], and second there really aren't any developments in either Jim or Andy's personal lives (at least on the page), if you are going to give some personal backstory then it needs to develop somewhat.

On to book three.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

View all my reviews