Review: Primrose Hill: A 1920s Historical Murder Mystery

Primrose Hill: A 1920s Historical Murder Mystery by G J Bellamy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sophie Burgoyne and her friends are asked to assist the Home Office, Foreign Office, and the police. A Russian communist cell has taken a house in Primrose Hill which the HO and FO have been observing, until one of the observers dropped his notebook in front of one the Russians. The HO/FO think that putting Sophie and her team in will allay the Russians' suspicions.

In addition, a man was recently murdered in the same square. The police have no clues other than an empty bag that once held dog treats which was found by the body. The dog treats are not available commercially, they are made and given away by another resident and therefore the police would like Sophie and her friends to befriend the numerous dog owners in the square and make subtle enquiries; they have lent the girls a police dog as cover.

When I started reading this I breathed such a sigh of relief, I've been reading some meh novels recently and to pick this up with its sprightly dialogue and interesting characters was a relief. However, all too soon I was bogged down in a quagmire of new characters, none of whom really seemed to have any distinguishing features/personalities other than the former Indian army general. Consequently, I couldn't keep track of who was a suspect, what they did, how old they were, what sort of dog they had, or their relationship with the deceased. If you have ever read the Dorothy l Sayers book The Five Red Herrings, which relies heavily on railway timetables you may have some indication of how flummoxed I was.

I also thought the ending was a bit of a cop out - the murderer decides to kill off another person in broad daylight - for reasons - and gets caught. Anyway, it looks like the next story will return to the women disguising themselves as servants at a country house party - hurrah!

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: Christmas Pie

Christmas Pie by Jodi Taylor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In this, Jodie's annual Christmas novella, the usual suspects (aka the Disaster Magnets) travel back in time to Restoration England in order to source authentic Christmas Pies (the origins of modern mince pies) so that Mrs Mack can reclaim her baking honour against the women of the Women's Institute.

However, no sooner have they landed than Miss Sykes gets abducted by person or persons unknown, Markham falls over his own feet, the Time Police get involved, and we discover why the London Stone is considerably smaller than it once was. Oh, and there are an awfully large number of pastry-related puns.

There was a very touching scene, however, my mid-range rating reflects the fact that throwing all the different factions into a short story and peppering it with pastry puns leaves very little room for plot. However, I will temper that criticism with an acknowledgement that I read this in dribs and drabs over Christmas Day so I may have missed some of the nuances.

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Review: Must Love Hockey

Must Love Hockey by Sarina Bowen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Emily Chen is with her boyfriend Charles and his clients at a Brooklyn Bruisers' hockey game. Charles and his clients want to go on drinking after the game but Emily has to study and she isn't feeling well. After they go on without her it transpires that she is having an allergic reaction to something she ate.

James 'Jimbo' Carozza is the Bruisers' equipment guy, when he sees Emily staggering around at the back of the stadium he thinks she might be drunk but soon realises it is something more serious. James takes Emily to hospital and looks after her. James is really smitten by Emily and thinks Charles is a tool for leaving her when she wasn't well (he's not wrong) but he's content to play the friends card. Will Emily realise that her high school romance has expired and Charles is not the guy for her?

This was pleasant enough, reading some other reviews I see that this short story was serialised for free on the author's website and it does have that vibe. There wasn't really any dramatic tension; two people meet and form an instant connection, she's dating someone, he stays in the friend zone until she breaks up with the other guy, the end.

A Kindle freebie when I bought it.

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Review: Just for December

Just for December by Laura Jane Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Evie Bird is a reclusive best-selling romance author with a terrible case of imposter syndrome which she manifests through reckless spending on material items that she doesn't want or need. Her spending is so out of control that she struggles to pay the nursing home fees for her mother, who has Alzheimer's. She's been let down, first by her father, and then by a series of boyfriends, which have left her feeling unlovable and as though her talent is ephemeral. One of her books is being made into a film, starring the world-famous British-born actor Duke Carlisle and she is contractually obligated to be on hand during the filming, which takes place in Germany during December.

Duke Carlisle might be world-famous, but he had a difficult childhood and is always seeking affirmation. After his last romance (with his co-star Daphne) imploded after she was exposed having an affair with their married Director Duke is feeling particularly unloved and rejected, but as a professional he will suck it up and work with Daphne and the producer to make this film, not least because the book it is based on was written by one of his favourite authors. Duke is so eager to meet Evie that he overdoes the charm offensive, coming across as fake. It doesn't help that Evie really doesn't want to be on-set, mixing with people, she avoids press conferences, interviews, and book signings for a reason and being forced to mingle and do publicity is a form of torture.

Given that Duke and Daphne's broken relationship has been splashed all over the tabloids, as has the Director's broken marriage, when the paparazzi catch Evie and Duke having what looks like a steaming row in the street, the investors get nervous and so 'someone' in their wisdom thinks a fauxmance between Evie and Duke will be just the thing to generate good publicity. Against their better judgement Evie and Duke agree to fake-date, just for December, until filming stops.

Hollywood actor, fake-dating, reclusive author, Christmas in picturesque Germany, what more could a romance reader want?

This started quite oddly, there were a couple of points where I wondered if a chunk of prose had been deleted accidentally as I couldn't really follow what was happening, there was a similar issue just as Evie and Duke kissed for the first time. But once I got going I was hooked.

I really enjoyed this and it was only 99p at the time of review.

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Review: The House Sitter: The only grumpy/sunshine romcom you need to escape with in 2024!

The House Sitter: The only grumpy/sunshine romcom you need to escape with in 2024! by Elizabeth Drummond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Pippa Munro has helped her long-term boyfriend Alex turn his family farm into a successful business, so when he says he wants to discuss something important with her she is expecting an engagement ring so that they can finally start the family she's been dreaming off at the heart of Hurt Bridge, the Yorkshire village in which she grew up. Unfortunately, what Alex wants to discuss is something very different. Now Pippa is single, homeless and jobless, sleeping on her cousin Frankie's sofa.

Pippa is informed that the current owner of Squires House, Wolfie Squires, needs a live-in caretaker urgently since his current caretaker needs to take care of his wife who is suffering from early onset dementia. Pippa remembers Wolfie and his sister from when she was a child and their grandfather hosted an annual Summer Fair which culminated in a series of Wheelbarrow Races. Woflie and his sister always held themselves aloof from the village kids and it seems nothing has changed, now he's some big city hotshot and rarely visits Squires House.

Despite having never lived or worked in a stately home, Pippa gets the job, but its only a short-term thing because Wolfie is in the process of selling the house; something Pippa can't understand, she thinks even in its slightly dilapidated state it is still an amazing home. However, despite their initial antipathy, there may just be a spark between Wolfie and Pippa if the two of them can let go of the past.

When the local school needs a new roof urgently Pippa and her friends decide the only way to raise the necessary £8,000 is to revive the Summer Fair, ticket sales and pitch fees should easily net them what they require.

I did enjoy this but I felt that Wolfie in particular seemed to be stuck in a bit of a loop of feeling that Pippa had rejected him/got back together with Alex - I mean once is okay but he seemed to default time and time again. Also, Wolfie's motives for selling Squires House seemed a bit muddled, two reasons were given and all I kept thinking about was his father's wine collection gathering dust in the cellars. On the positive side, there's a fabulous pig with a mind of her own :)

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

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Review: A Villa with a View

A Villa with a View by Julie Caplin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lia Bathurst is a successful textile artist. A DNA taken for a friend as part of a project they are undertaking uncovers the fact that she is 50% Italian, when she confronts her mother with the results she discovers that the man she has always called her father is not her biological father, that is in fact a world-famous Italian actor. However, her attempts to contact her biological father are thwarted by his English business manager, Raphael Knight. When Lia's designs for a swanky Italian restaurant about to open in London are rejected, she feels like this is the last straw and decides on a whim to travel to Italy, for inspiration for the restaurant and in hopes of meeting her father at his Italian country villa on the Amalfi coast. When she is turned away by her father's housekeeper, Lia is helped by a young Englishman, Leo, who offers her a lift back to town and takes her swimming.

Raph(ael) Knight had to look after his mother Aurelia and little brother Leo after his father left. Even though Aurelia has since married the famous Italian actor Ernesto Salvatore, Raph still finds himself sorting out problems for them. Lia is just the latest in a long line of women who claim to be Ernesto's long-lost lovechild and his isn't going to bother his stepfather with this one, even if her striking good looks have preyed on his mind ever since their meeting. When he spots Lia in Italy, cosying up to his younger brother, Raph is sure Lia is just trying to get closer to his step-father and is determined to keep the gold-digger away from his family.

Lia and Raph might be enemies, but the sparks between them are scorching.

This was a sweet romance, set against the beauty of the Amalfi coast, what with the delectable views and the mouth-watering food it will make you want to book a trip to Italy.

I was invited to read this book by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

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Review: Fool Me Once

Fool Me Once by Ashley Winstead
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lee Stone has been burnt by heartbreak and as a consequence refuses to believe in love, preferring meaningless hook-ups instead. By day she's the ultra-professional Comms Director for an electric car company working hard to persuade the new Texas Governor to replace all state vehicles with electric alternatives. However, by night she's a hard-drinking, drug-taking, one-night stand, party girl.

The Governor has finally appointed a policy expert, the one obstacle to him putting the clean energy bill to the house, unfortunately his policy expert Ben Laderman is Lee's ex. The fourth heartbreak, something that was entirely Lee's fault. Of course the Governor proposes that Lee and Ben work together to get the bill approved! Lee and Ben will do anything to get the three swing votes across the line, but with a strong competitive tension between them are they enemies or soon to be reunited?

I really enjoyed The Boyfriend Candidate and so when I saw this ARC available on NetGalley I jumped at the chance. Some of my disenchantment with this book is that I kept thinking the Governor in this book was Logan Arthur from that book (in my defence he was running for Texas Governor) and so it created a bit of confusion. However, I think most of my dissatisfaction is that I found Lee to be both unbelievable and unlikable. I now realise that this book pre-dates The Boyfriend Candidate, which may explain why it doesn't feel as polished or as plausible.

Overall, I enjoyed it, but not as much as The Boyfriend Candidate.

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

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Review: To Swoon and to Spar

To Swoon and to Spar by Martha Waters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Peter Bourne, Viscount Penvale inherited his title at the age of ten when his parents died, thereafter he and his younger sister Diana were brought up by relatives while Trethwick Abbey, their family home in Cornwall, went to his father's brother. Ever since attaining his majority Penvale has been trying to buy back the abbey from his uncle without success, so imagine his surprise when his uncle voluntarily offers to sell him the abbey, providing he agrees to marry his ward, Jane Spencer.

Although unwilling to marry a woman against her will, Penvale knows he must marry and produce an heir, so if his uncle's ward is willing, he would not be averse to marrying her. Jane has no great desire to marry, but as a penniless orphan she has little choice and her few short years living at Trethwick have instilled in her a great love for the abbey, and anything has got to be better than Penvale's uncle. She vaguely assumes that Penvale will spend most of his time in London, gambling and drinking (she has some fixed ideas about how he spends his time) while she lives alone in Cornwall.

And so ensues a marriage of convenience. Unfortunately, Penvale is not the dissolute aristocrat Jane imagined, and he is determined to act as a responsible land owner to his tenants and she finds it harder and harder to dislike him. For his part, although Jane appears to be cold and abrasive, Penvale realises this is just because she is shy.

This was a fun, sweet romance. Although it is the fourth in a series the previous couples are integrated well into the story and it didn't feel like a never-ending retelling of previous stories.

I will definitely be reading the previous books in the series.

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Review: Future Proof

Future Proof by David Atkinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm a sucker for a time travel novel (unless it involves kilts) so when I saw this on Kindle Unlimited I was intrigued.

Sam Harris has probably reached the lowest point in his life. Over forty, overweight, being evicted from his grotty flat, single, unemployed. His social worker however has got him a place on a six week in-house experimental mental health treatment. During the treatment the doctors will attempt to reset his genome through drug therapy combined with the more traditional therapy therapy (for want of a better description). However, when Sam is given the injections they take him back in time to traumatic incidents from his past, looking at events from the point of view of a forty-year old man gives him better coping mechanisms/the tools to change things - so on his first 'journey' he stands up to three little boys who bullied and humiliated him, he was able to articulate the bullying to the head teacher and point out the fallacy in one father's argument when he attempted to claim it wasn't bullying but a game/accident. When Sam awakes only three hours have elapsed in the present, but he is miraculously seven stone lighter. No one else sees any difference in Sam's appearance, his actions in the past have changed the future.

Each treatment addresses a different event from Sam's past, a trauma, or a deep regret and the treatment allows him to fix his mistakes, confront the bully, invest in tech stocks, etc.

This has elements of the film The Butterfly Effect, it also sort of reminded me of the film About Time - probably now I think about it, because both involve time travelling within the individual's own lifetime rather than back to Victorian times or the Dark Ages.

Anyway, it was different, and funny, and clever, and a love story and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: I Remember Paris: the captivating new novel from the author of Anything Could Happen

I Remember Paris: the captivating new novel from the author of Anything Could Happen by Lucy Diamond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

This is kind of two stories in one.

Jess Bright is a recently divorced mother of three teenage girls. A journalist, her writing tends to be of the agony aunt/humorous blog about her family life which was always dismissed by her ex-husband (a sports' writer) as frivolous. So when she gets approached to write the biography of famous artist Adelaide Fox, who now lives in Paris, she jumps at the chance, she briefly lived and worked in Paris before she was married and has fond memories of the city.

Adelaide Fox was a ground-breaker, a rebel, an enfant terrible. Now old, her former husband dead for over twenty years and what appears to be impending Parkinson's disease, her life has become smaller and she has become less tolerant.

There are mysteries in both Jess and Adelaide's pasts. Did Adelaide's stalker really commit suicide, and in such a bizarre fashion, or was there something more sinister? Why did Adelaide fall out with her best friend and why have never spoken again? What happened to Jess' best friend in Paris, Pascale who disappeared one day and was never heard from again?

At first Jess and Adelaide have quite an antagonistic relationship, Adelaide wants to use the biography to settle old scores with everyone who has ever wronged her and doesn't appreciate Jess' questions about other things, or her suggestions that Adelaide should talk about happier events in her life as well. Nevertheless, as they work together Adelaide finds she sees the past with new eyes.

Although there is a romance, this is very much women's' fiction, two women revisiting their pasts and learning things about each other. I did enjoy it, and Lucy Diamond's writing is always excellent, but in some ways I felt having both Adelaide and Jess' stories somewhat diluted events. There were lots of little side episodes which didn't really go anywhere (like Jess' extremely irritating daughter who seemed to be a plot device), I wanted Jess to be an almost invisible presence, teasing Adelaide's life story out of her, and I just didn't feel we got enough of Adelaide's life.

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

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Review: The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting

The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Robin and Marianne Loxsleigh arrive in London from Nottingham (it took me way too long to cotton on that these were not their real names), the beautiful brother and sister take society by storm, despite having neither noble birth nor fortune to recommend them. When Robin's attentions to Sir John 'Hart' Hartlebury's niece Alice Hart and his sister's suspicions are aroused. While Alice is a delightful girl, she is not pretty and is not sociable, without being unkind, Hart can only assume the reason that Robin is pursuing her because of her £20,000 fortune, although he had hoped that they had kept that a secret. For his part, Robin is not actually attracted to women, but he would make Alice a kind husband if she accepted his proposal.

Hart is a big, brutish-looking man. He has had to provide for himself and his older sister since he was just fifteen years old and he now runs his sister's brewery. He has few social graces and fewer friends, especially after his mother's cousin poisoned society with lies about how he and his sister had mistreated their mother. He finds it difficult to find lovers, given his appearance and lack of grace, particularly since homosexuality is illegal.

Hart's interactions with Robin confirm his suspicions that Robin is nothing more than a fortune hunter and a card sharp. He strong-arms Robin into playing cards for high stakes under the careful scrutiny of the club's proprietor where Robin loses £4,000 - a sum he has no chance of paying. When Robin goes to Hart to throw himself on his mercy, Hart intends to forgive the debt in return for Robin agreeing not to offer for Alice. But things take a strange turn and Robin offers a slightly different bargain - to be John's lover for one month in return for Forgiving the debt, Robin promising not to offer for Alice, and Hart not interfering in Marianne's marital prospects. Hart should be shocked at the offer, but he can't deny that he has thought long and often about Robin. As the month progresses the two men share more than just a bed, but there are soooo many secrets that could blow things apart, can these two find their way to love?

I have only just 'discovered' KJ Charles and I have to say I am loving their writing, their characters, and their plots. This is no exception, although I see it seems to be a re-issue of something that was published a few years ago.

I have literally just finished writing a review of another historical romance, m/f this time, which dragged and was frankly unbelievable. What a joy then to devour this book with great characters, a believable plot, it was fast-paced and I loved it.

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

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Review: A Scandalous Match

A Scandalous Match by Jane Dunn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lord Charles Latimer has fallen in love with Angelica Leigh, an actress who has found acclaim portraying Ophelia in a current production of Hamlet, in which she 'drowns' realistically in a river of real water on stage. His mama is scandalised and asks her brother The Honourable Ivor Asprey to intervene and try to buy her off. Ivor is a reforming politician, a widower with a young daughter, he is reluctant to interfere in his nephew's affairs, particularly when Charles will soon be deemed capable of making his own decisions. Nevertheless, he agrees and visits her backstage where he makes a complete hash of the whole thing and only succeeds in antagonising Angelica who honestly had no intention/expectation of marrying Charles in the first place.

Angelica and her mother lived hand-to-mouth for many years until her mother found a kindly protector who set them up in a lovely house in Mayfair and continues to lavish them with gifts and money .Angelica's mother wants Her to find a rich husband, but Angelica is more interested in her career as an actress, even if it does leave her open to bawdy comments and invitations to be the mistress of wealthy men. Well spoken and educated, Angelica knows the reputation actresses have but she is determined to live her own life.

So far, this seemed very similar to the beloved Georgette Heyer novel Faro's Daughter (although in that case the heroine ran a gaming hell). Unfortunately for me that is where the similarities ended. I happily confess that I am not a historian but I find it very hard to believe that a member of the aristocracy would allow his only daughter to associate with an actress, particularly one who had murky parentage. Similarly, given the licentiousness of the theatre audiences of the time, I don't believe an aristocrat would take his young daughter to the theatre. In addition, Angelica' befriends the daughter of a nobleman who lost his fortune gambling and then committed suicide, once her inheritance is restored and she is once more an eligible marriage prospect she still consorts with Angelica - something I can't believe her stepmother would ever have countenance.

Added to the unbelievability of the plot, this just seemed to drag, with side plots involving Angelica's missing father, a romance between Ivor's man of business and his daughter's governess, rehearsals for a new play, a one-dimensional villain, Ivor's political concerns, and his daughter's match-making.

Loved the cover.

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

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