Review: I'm Your Guy

I'm Your Guy by Sarina Bowen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I hadn't read anything by Sarina Bowen for a while, I thought maybe (at 58) I had outgrown her special brand of YA/NA romance, especially when she started doing a college-based series, but new year, new ennui and when I saw this discounted to 99p I snapped it up. Yes, I devoured it in less than day!

Tomasso is a ice hockey defenceman. Originally from New Jersey he transferred to Colorado a few years ago and has been happily living in a fully furnished apartment ever since. But now he's bought a swanky townhouse, invited his mother for Christmas AND HE HAS NO FURNITURE. After being bamboozled by furniture speak by a salesman he leaves a shop in disgust and begs help of a young interior designer who is also being given the cold shoulder by the salesman.

Carter's interior design business is imploding. They foolishly put a lot of purchases for a customer on their own credit cards, the customer is ghosting them, the furniture companies are screaming for final payment, his boyfriend/business partner has walked away from it all, and he can't make his rent payment (again).

Having no idea who Tomasso is, Carter reluctantly agrees to help furnish his house in a ridiculously short period of time, but he will need some input from the grumpy hunk.

This opposites attract, sports-romance, grumpy meets sunny standalone is a delight. I loved them both, I've bought the first book in the series AND I've pre-ordered the next book!

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Review: Scotzilla

Scotzilla by Catriona McPherson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Our favourite Scottish marriage counsellor Lexy Campbell is marrying keen ornithologist (and younger guy) Taylor. Unfortunately, this has turned her into Bridezilla but she's Scottish, so Scotzilla. She's completely oblivious while her friends and family are quietly despairing, especially when she hires someone called Sister Sunshine as her wedding planner.

Meanwhile, Trinity for Life (the detective/counselling/designer service she Kathi and Todd set up) has been engaged by a wacky group of four cemetery volunteers who call themselves The Sexton Beetles, but because of Todd and Kathi's phobias Trinity rename them the Sex Volunteers (because that sounds better?). Anyway the volunteers have come for help because someone/a group of someones is decorating graves, often in an unkind way, highlighting physical characteristics of the deceased or implying things about them. The volunteers have gone to the Police and the local press but no-one will take them seriously. Cue a lot of skulking around graveyards.

Then, just before the ceremony, Lexy's wedding planner is found murdered by a string of fairy lights. Can the gang solve the crime?

I'll be honest I wasn't feeling this AT ALL as you can guess because I have only just finished this over a month after it was published. It felt like the cemetery capers and Bridezilla went on for over half the book and frankly the murder of Sister Sunshine felt like an afterthought. The running round in circles got old quick and I didn't get the same vibe from the other inhabitants of the Last Ditch Motel. Maybe its because its the seventh book in the series and by the time everyone has done their special 'thing' half the book has gone and there's not enough room for plot. Maybe its because I could see some things coming a mile off. IDK. Hopefully this is just a 'it's not you it's me' thing because I loved the last book. Also I see from the acknowledgements that the book was written during a difficult time for the author so maybe that had some influence?

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Death at Porthcurno Cove

Death at Porthcurno Cove by Sally Rigby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

DI Lauren Pengelly is walking her dogs on the beach when they discover a young couple lying dead in a cave. There is am empty bottle of prosecco, a ring box, and the young girl is wearing a suspiciously new-looking engagement ring. Why would a couple get engaged and then commit suicide? Was it a murder-suicide situation?

The victims Jasmine and Finley were childhood sweethearts, both attending Southampton University where they lived together. At first everything in their lives seems golden, but as Lauren and Matt investigate they find stories of obsession, addiction, deceit, and betrayal.

Yet another good story in this series which is settling down nicely. I complained about the first book that Lauren came across as too prickly and Matt too much of a saint and I think the balance has been restored. I always struggle with the term 'cosy' mystery as that always makes me think of ones with talking cats in small-town bookshops, whereas this is more cosy police procedural? Anyway, only downside was that I guessed the murderer's identity almost from the first mention of their name.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Available on Kindle Unlimited.

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Review: Same Time Next Summer

Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Argh! I read this with about 10 other books and forgot to write a review.

Sam and Wyatt were childhood sweethearts whose families spent every summer on Long Island at their beach houses. Then 'the thing' happened, they split up and Sam has been avoiding the Beach House ever since, choosing instead to spend all year in New York. However, her fiancé Jack is keen to plan their wedding at a local venue, over Sam's objections, and has insisted that they spend a few weeks at the Beach House, not realising how different everything will be.

Practically the first thing that happens is that Sam runs into Wyatt again, apparently he is organising a music festival in town. AS the weeks wile away, Sam recalls her bygone summers as a child with Wyatt and begins to compare and contrast Wyatt's easy-going, genuine kindness with Jack's (and his family's) snobbery.

Sam is going to have to decide whether she chooses the life she and Jack have created, her job, her apartment, the swanky wedding, etc or the life she had before.

I really enjoyed this and it is only now, several weeks later that I realise it has very similar bones to Sweet Home Alabama - totally different story but same (sort of) plot - IDK if that makes any sense? Anyhoo, that is still one of my favourite films so having a novel with the same vibes is a good thing in my book.

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Review: The Plot Twist

The Plot Twist by Eleanor Goymer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Allie Edwards is a successful romance author with six best sellers under her belt. At book launches she always credits her boyfriend Dominic as her inspiration, but in reality her romances are all about what Allie wishes Dom would do. But Now Allie is stuck, she has writer's block, her lovely editor Verity has given her several extensions but Allie has lost all inspiration and doesn't believe in Happy Ever After any more.

Her publisher throws a swanky party at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Allie attends reluctantly, although she does have a bit of a spark with one of the waiters serving canapes, and ends up getting locked out accidentally where she meets a fellow author, best-selling crim novelist Martin Clark, who, she discovers, is similarly inspiration-challenged and hasn't published anything for years.

Following the party, Allie and Martin meet up at a café where Martin regales Allie with tales of his marital woes and Allie gives him some advice from her expertise as a romance writer.

Meanwhile, Allie meets Will, the sexy waiter from the V&A event, again and finally starts to feel some of the spark/butterflies that she has been writing about for so long, but never really felt. Drawing on the feelings Will evokes and using Martin's memories of when he and his wife first met, Allie finds inspiration to write a new romance. But is it ethical to write a novel which draws so closely on Martin's life, and will her inspiration fail if Allie and Will become a couple?

Throw in shenanigans at her publishers and Allie has a lot on her plate.

This was fun, I read it in just over a day. I did get frustrated that Allie couldn't/wouldn't tell the truth, but I also think it was well sign-posted because she wouldn't admit to Verity that she hadn't written anything for her new novel and continued to promise a synopsis/first few chapters in a few days.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.


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Review: Hollow Grave

Hollow Grave by Kate Webb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Its the third outing for DI Matt Lockyer and DC Gemma Broad. This time its the case of a missing girl, Nazma Kirmani, from 1999. Originally reported missing by her family, the hunt was abandoned when she walked into a police station in London claiming it had all been a mistake. But 21 years later and nothing has ever been heard from her. Now, a bag with her passport and other items has been pulled from the river close to where she was working as part of a group excavating a Bronze Age burial site in the grounds of Trusloe Hall, a minor stately home in Wiltshire.

It seems as though the investigating officers leapt to some racial assumptions (eg Nazma was escaping some arranged marriage, even though her father is a Christian and her stepmother is white) and were relieved when it seemed she had just run away from her family. But the closer Matt and Gemma look into things the more suspicious they seem. Everything centres around that archaeological dig and the people Nazma knew then.

I think this series has really got into its stride, although the necessity for Matt and Hedy's baby to develop normally means they are about to go into the November 2020 lock-down which all just seems a distant memory.

Although Matt still does a little too much navel-gazing for me, I can see progress in his relationship and it wasn't as pervasive as in the previous two books.

Really enjoyed this.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Want to Know a Secret?

Want to Know a Secret? by Sue Moorcroft
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Diane gets a call from the Police, her husband has been badly injured in a helicopter crash. At first she is disbelieving, her husband has never been in a helicopter in his life - they aren't those sort of people. But soon she finds out that her husband has a lot of secrets.

The initial premise is not new - there was that film with Harrison Ford and whatsherface (Kristen Scott Thomas?) where their respective spouses die in a plane crash which has similarities - although, I hasten to add, the actual story is quite, quite different.

But really, this is the story of a middle-aged woman in a dreary marriage blossoming and finding her wings.

I liked the story, it was well-written and enjoyable to read. Apparently I read this over a decade ago, like the other books in this 'series' but I decided to reread and honestly I didn't get a feeling of deja vu. My only gripe is that text-speak has moved on and no-one says 'I want 2 C U' and things like that any more with predictive text.

Most of all I thought the end was very abrupt. I kept flicking back and forth on my kindle convinced I'd missed a chapter or two. Again, I didn't feel that the ending was so abrupt - more like not getting bogged down in how things would really work LOL.

Anyway, read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: The Wedding Proposal

The Wedding Proposal by Sue Moorcroft
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love anything by Sue Moorcroft but I have to admit that this one lacked something for me. Maybe it was because I couldn't reconcile Elle's apparently high-flying, well-paid job with redundancy pay with a woman who couldn't afford to pay for alternative accommodation.

Elle has come to Malta to volunteer at a children's drop-in centre where she will use her IT skills to help the children. Jake, her ex-boyfriend, has come to Malta to work in a dive school for the summer. They have both been offered Jake's Uncle Simon's yacht to stay on free of charge. Neither can afford to stay elsewhere so they agree to behave like adults and share the boat.

Over the course of the summer Elle and Jake learn how much they have changed and uncover the secrets behind their break-up four years earlier.

[EDIT]I saw this available on Kindle Unlimited and didn't recall seeing it before so I downloaded it and read it AND HAD NO RECOLLECTION OF HAVING READ IT NEARLY A DECADE AGO!

Anyway, it was a pleasant second-chance romance set on Malta.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: No Strings Attached

No Strings Attached by Sue Moorcroft
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Honor Sontag fled her family and her husband in the USA after her life falls apart. She decides to travel to England and a small seaside town near Brighton to look for her free-spirited birth mother who abandoned her and her father when Honor was very small.

Things get off to a rocky start when she falls asleep in the sun and ends up being rescued by her landlady's younger brother Martyn Mayfair, who is gorgeous but appears to be some sort of layabout waster who can't keep a job for more than a few days. Of course the truth is far more interesting.

But as Honor and Martyn become close, there are secrets that could blow the two of them apart ... and they are going to come out!

This was a lovely small town romance with two likeable characters. Some of the secrets weren't hard to guess, others I didn't see coming.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: Wild Eyes

Wild Eyes by Elsie Silver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Skylar Stone is a famous pop star who has found out that her parents/agent/boyfriend have betrayed her in the most hurtful way possible. A situation which has led to her freezing up in interviews and on stage, compounding the problem.

Running away to Rose Hill recording studios to (hopefully) record an album untainted by her parents' influence she keeps running into Weston Belmont, divorced father of two and horse trainer. First he saves her from being potentially eaten by a grizzly bear, then he turns out to be her new landlord.

Slowly West and his adorable kids help Skylar get over what happened and find her own voice. But just as things are going well ... BOOM mistakes are made.

This was a steamy romance. You know me, all that is a bit of a yawn-fest for me, hair pull her, dirty talk there blah, blah, blah. But otherwise I enjoyed it all, although I did think Skylar brought the troubles on herself and given she grew up in the spotlight I would have thought she had been trained about that sort of thing (and not doing it).

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: The Seven Year Slip

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Clementine is having a crisis, her beloved aunt died suddenly six months ago, leaving Clementine her New York apartment. Clementine can barely bring herself to stay in an apartment that holds so many precious memories of her bohemian, enchanting, magical aunt, and yet she paradoxically can't even force herself to get out of bed. She and her aunt loved to travel, all over the world, on a whim pretty much saying 'yes' to any new experience on offer.

Returning home after a rare evening out with friends to try the new 'IT' restaurant from an up-and-coming darling of the fine dining scene, Clementine is horrified to find a strange man in her apartment's kitchen. Once she's calmed down enough to talk to the man (and confirm he's not an axe murderer), she discovers that his mother is a friend of her aunt's and her aunt agreed to let him stay in the apartment while she was in Europe for a few months. Only problem is, Clementine was with her aunt on that trip, which was seven years ago!

The apartment appears to be capricious, not letting Clementine return to the present day one minute and not letting her return to the past the next. But over the summer she starts to fall for the Southern guy with a drawl and his big dreams of being a chef one day. Clementine's aunt always said the apartment was magical, and hinted that she too had had a time slip romance.

I loved this, so many layers to unpick, grief, betrayal, time-travel, ambition, love.

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