Review: Beast Business

Beast Business by Ilona Andrews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A novella featuring Illusion Prime Augustine Montgomery and Diana Harrison. Diana visits Augustine's PI business because someone has stolen a very rare otherworld creature from her family. The creature is only a baby and will die unless it receives its mother's milk.

Their search for the creature puts both their lives in danger and will result in them exposing their true selves to each other.

I enjoyed reading this, but I have to be honest a week later I could barely remember anything about it - better read after one of the novels I suspect. But anyhoo, its Ilona Andrews so of course its good.

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Review: The Last Page

The Last Page by Katie Holt
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 28%.

Ella has worked at an iconic New York bookstore forever and the late owner promised her he would leave her the store in his will, instead he left it to his estranged grandson Henry.

When Henry (some kind of financial turn-around expert) starts to look at the books he realises that his grandfather has been understating how badly the store is performing and it basically can keep going for less than one month, even if they make drastic cuts.

I appear to be in a bit of a book slump, last night I restarted several books and discarded them all - so it is probably me and not the book. But I find it hard to like either of the main characters and the side characters are awful and probably should all be sacked!

Anyway, I gave it two goes and I can't get into it so I am giving up here.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Heart Racer

Heart Racer by Megan Avery
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 14%.

Apologies, this is just not for me. I loved the idea of a STEM/Jock second-chance romance, enemies to love but after two attempts I just can't get engaged.

Maybe I am just too old for high school romances.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: The Proposition of the Season

The Proposition of the Season by Michelle Kenney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Josephine Fairfax is a bespectacled, bookish young woman of twenty-eight. After three failed seasons she is most definitely on the shelf and has retired to live in the family home with her eldest (insufferable brother) and younger siblings. She spends her days writing romantic fiction and letters to her imaginary beau.

When she discovers her brother is determined to marry off her younger sister Matilda to Lord Huntingly, a man none of them have ever met, about whom there are murky rumours about a duel which resulted in him and his opponent fleeing abroad, Josephine knows she must act. Matilda has no interest in marriage or children, she wants to be a pirate! Marrying her off to an unsuitable man would be cruel. So Josephine suggest to Lord Huntingly that if all he needs is a wife with the Fairfax good name he should take her instead. Surprisingly, the rather drunk Lord Huntingly agrees.

However, Josephine is determined to discover the truth about the duel and her investigations start to point at her fiancé as being not only in the wrong but also pursuing him and killing him in a street brawl in Italy. If that is true how could she possibly marry him?

This is the third book about the Fairfax sisters, although I haven't read the others. Initially I found the writing a bit stilted and it also felt like a mash-up of several books by Georgette Heyer (Frederica where she suggests Alverstoke should marry her instead of her sister, and Huntingly is a bit like Damerel in Venetia) and probably a bit of Jane Austen as well. That feeling wore off as the story progressed but I must say I found Josephine's character a bit confusing. After coming across like Mary Bennett to start with she suddenly starts berating Huntingly and her older brother which seemed out of character.

Anyway, this was pleasant enough and perhaps if I had read the two previous books I would have had a better understanding of Josephine's character.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Summer Skies Over Starr's Fall: The BRAND NEW small town romance full of sunshine from million-copy bestseller Kate Hewitt for 2026

Summer Skies Over Starr's Fall: The BRAND NEW small town romance full of sunshine from million-copy bestseller Kate Hewitt for 2026 by Kate Hewitt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Zoe Wilkinson is the punk/goth looking woman with pink hair who runs the ice cream parlour in Starr's Fall. Her wild childhood/teenage years have given her a bit of a reputation, one she cultivates to stop people realising how lonely she is. At home, both her parents have medical problems that mean she is their primary carer, although she does have agency help during the day. Zoe refuses to have people pitying her so over the years she has discouraged people from visiting an/or inviting her out. Dating is non-existent but everyone in Starr's Fall thinks she has a wild social life.

Dan Bryant has just moved to Starr's Fall with his teenage daughter Sophie. His ex-wife decided to take a job in Dubai and Sophie was acting out in New York so he thought a fresh start in a small town would be a clean break for everyone, also his newly discovered grandmother lives in Starr Falls. Dan has spent his entire marriage kow-towing to his ex-wife's choices, she returned to work shortly after giving birth, forcing Dan to give up his burgeoning practice to look after the baby, now even after divorce she is calling the shots initially taking custody of Sophie then callously dumping her on Dan when the new job opportunity arose. No wonder Sophie is misbehaving.

Their first meeting isn't good, Sophie tries to steal a trinket from Zoe's shop and when called out deliberately breaks it. Although business is difficult Zoe doesn't want to get Sophie in trouble in front of her future school-mates so when confronted by Dan she doesn't rate her out. Besides, she has some sympathy with Sophie having been badly behaved as a teenager as well. Dan knows Sophie probably did steal the trinket and then destroy it in a fit of pique and he is intrigued as to why this woman would cover it up.

Later, Zoe discovers that Dan and Sophie have moved into the house next door to her and her parents' home, and Dan asks Zoe to give Sophie a job.

I enjoyed this, but I didn't love it. I didn't really understand Zoe's motivation for effectively turning away her parents' friends and pretending to her own friends that she had some amazing social life. Also Dan's ex-wife was just such a caricature with no redeeming features and Dan was such a paragon. I feel we may have reached that point in the series where I am less and less invested in the main characters.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: The Night Shift

The Night Shift by Nancy Peach
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Violet Winters has volunteered to work nights at Christmas in her Bristol hospital, mainly to avoid telling her loving parents how much she is struggling as a Junior Doctor. She struggles with social niceties and has offended both staff and patients with her abrupt manner.

Doctor Gus Jovic is an anaesthetist, he knows everyone in the hospital by name, is funny, friendly, very good to look at, and very much engaged to be married. Or so everyone thinks. In reality his fiancée left him three months ago for another man but he can't bear to tell anyone, especially his family who rely on him to be the carefree one with his life in order.

When Gus meets Violet he is intrigued by someone who doesn't hesitate to tell the unvarnished truth, there's no subterfuge with Violet, and as a man who spends his entire life trying to find ways to smooth things over, phrase things nicely, etc he finds it refreshing. After all, he spent the entire time with his fiancée bending over backwards to meet her demands, appease her insecurities, and getting whiplash from her mercurial moods.

For her part, Gus gives Violet some good advice, both about dealing with staff and patients and about hanging in during her first year because no-one is confident and after the first year she can start to understand where she wants to specialise. Violet would never mess with an engaged man, so although she objectively finds him very attractive, and subjectively he makes her heart flutter, she thinks he is safely in the friends zone.

I really enjoyed this book. Violet and Gus helped each other, she helped him see that he needed to view his own needs as just as important as other people's and he helped her to see that there are ways of telling the truth which are more palatable than others.

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Review: Beattie Cavendish and the Highland Hideaway

Beattie Cavendish and the Highland Hideaway by Mary-Jane Riley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

`Three and a half stars.

Beattie Cavendish is a former WW2 member of SOE who has been 'relegated' to translating communications for GCHQ, with the occasional field trip. her boss calls her into the office and tells her to go to a remote listening station in Scotland, the commander has gone missing (possibly drunk and/or with one of his fancy women) and there is a suspicion of espionage - some intelligence is not being passed on and GCHQ is concerned that our American allies could be cosying up to former Nazis who have not shed their old allegiances. Her boss also, rather cryptically, suggests Beattie should visit her uncle who lives close to the station.

When Beattie gets there she finds her uncle has also mysteriously disappeared with all the evidence suggesting it was not planned. Can she keep up her cover story, investigate her uncle's disappearance, and investigate the commander's disappearance single-handedly? Well no, so she enlist the help of private investigator Patrick Corrigan.

I enjoyed this and it had a good pace from the start, but the ending felt a bit hurried. In fact I re-read the last chapters this morning thinking I might have missed something. But, no.

Also, there is a lot of harking back to what Beattie and Patrick did during the war with very little resolution - I think that needs to be sorted in the next book as it leads to a lot of repetition.

Overall, I liked it but I didn't love it.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Beattie Cavendish and the Highland Hideaway

Beattie Cavendish and the Highland Hideaway by Mary-Jane Riley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

`Three and a half stars.

Beattie Cavendish is a former WW2 member of SOE who has been 'relegated' to translating communications for GCHQ, with the occasional field trip. her boss calls her into the office and tells her to go to a remote listening station in Scotland, the commander has gone missing (possibly drunk and/or with one of his fancy women) and there is a suspicion of espionage - some intelligence is not being passed on and GCHQ is concerned that our American allies could be cosying up to former Nazis who have not shed their old allegiances. Her boss also, rather cryptically, suggests Beattie should visit her uncle who lives close to the station.

When Beattie gets there she finds her uncle has also mysteriously disappeared with all the evidence suggesting it was not planned. Can she keep up her cover story, investigate her uncle's disappearance, and investigate the commander's disappearance single-handedly? Well no, so she enlist the help of private investigator Patrick Corrigan.

I enjoyed this and it had a good pace from the start, but the ending felt a bit hurried. In fact I re-read the last chapters this morning thinking I might have missed something. But, no.

Also, there is a lot of harking back to what Beattie and Patrick did during the war with very little resolution - I think that needs to be sorted in the next book as it leads to a lot of repetition.

Overall, I liked it but I didn't love it.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Bedside Manner

Bedside Manner by C.G. Macington
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dr Maxwell York is known as the Ice King. He is the Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery, a control freak from the family that endowed the hospital. His OR is silent, everything is clean to the point of sterility.

Dr Jax O’Connell is the Head of Trauma in the Emergency Room at the same hospital. Loud, messy, ex-military, and brought up care.

When a hospital refurb forces the two doctors to share a small office the staff are taking bets on how long it will take before one of them kills the other. But although they might be like oil and water, enforced proximity brings a certain grudging respect (and some lustful feelings).

Who doesn't love an opposites attract romance? Especially when they are opposite in every single way: rich/poor, rulebreaker/follower, specialist/generalist, etc.

I honestly had no expectations of this, saw it mentioned somewhere and gave it a go - LOVED it. I loved Maxwell and Jax, booed at Maxwell's mother, sort of cheered at his father. Love his little brother.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: It Was You All Along: The emotional and uplifting second chance romance from the author of The Last Train Home and The Wedding Game

It Was You All Along: The emotional and uplifting second chance romance from the author of The Last Train Home and The Wedding Game by Elle Cook
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Aurora, Ollie, Ben and Liv meet on the first day of University - assigned to share accommodation they soon become found family. Aurora comes from a working class family, her father left when she was young and her mother has worked minimum wage jobs to feed and clothe them. Aurora will be the first person in her family to go to university and has to get a job to subsidise her living expenses. Liv and Ben clearly come from affluent families, Ben's parents have a swimming pool in the garden and neither of them has to worry about getting a job. Ollie is a bit of an enigma.

Despite sharing accommodation throughout university, 'something' happened that lead to them barely keeping in touch, and the book starts with Aurora planning a house-warming party where she intends to invite the other three and 'fix' what went wrong. Thereafter the reader goes back in time to see what transpired between them and how they fell out.

I was enjoying this initially, but it started to drag about halfway through. I think its obvious to the reader who/what is meant by the title and then it is just increasingly irritating as one thing after another comes in the way. Also I didn't really 'get' the different personalities and why they liked each other. I don't understand why anyone liked Liv or Ben - they seemed self-obsessed and each thought the world revolved around them. Ollie was a bit meh, and Aurora suddenly became a model despite no prior indications that she was anything special to look at (other than being tall).

This gave off similar vibes as a previous book by this author that I have read (The Last Train Home) - if you liked that then I'm sure you'll like this.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Work Love Balance: A heart-warming, uplifting romantic read!

Work Love Balance: A heart-warming, uplifting romantic read! by Sophie Loxton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lizzy Brinks is juggling a high-powered job herding unpredictable artist Esme Kaminska through PR minefields whilst also providing for her almost non-verbal autistic brother and financially naïve father. She lives in a dingy flat in a poor part of town, buys all her designer clothes on Vinted and generally is giving off an Ice Queen vibe with her all-black wardrobe and strong red lipstick.

Then disaster strikes, Esme makes a firm-wide internal announcement, after spending the weekend with fitness influencer Ajax Banks they are engaged and intend to merge their businesses whilst simultaneously launching a new dating app based on (wait for it) people's art preferences. Esme won't listen to reason, she and Ajax are all over each other and Lizzy has to deal with her equivalent from Ajax's side, Scottish, ex-military Oliver MacLeod who is all smart suits and charm.

Now Lizzy has her hands full trying to market an app that hasn't even been designed, keep her boss from derailing all they've worked for, and resisting the charms of lovely Oliver.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Fun, silly, serious, with real-life problems and a HEA - what's not to love?

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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