Review: When life gives you Lemons

When life gives you Lemons by Fiona Gibson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Viv is in her fifties and experiencing the joys of the menopause whilst also trying to bring up a seven year old daughter and hold down a full-time job as a personal assistant. Her husband Andy, an endocrinologist is being less than sympathetic, ironic given that he is a doctor specialising in hormones, and the romance appears to be dead - although that turns out to be less about the menopause and more about the affair he is having with Dr Estelle Lang, who annoyingly appears to be sailing through her menopause without gaining weight or any of the other unpleasant effects.

While her friends are encouraging Viv to go out and meet someone new, Viv is more interested in finding herself. With a group of disparate friends and neighbours Viv jump-starts her career.

A pleasant read, but difficult to classify.

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Review: Forever Summer

Forever Summer by Jenny Oliver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Norah Whittaker's life has been turned upside down. Although her parents rejected their privileged upbringings to life a more genuine life, her father was still looking for get-rich-quick schemes and has recently been sent to prison for investment fraud. Norah and her mother are still living on their houseboat, although no longer moored on the idyllic Mulberry Island, but now she goes to the very exclusive Chelsea High School, all funded by her maternal grandparents. Things are looking good, Norah has a boyfriend, Ezra, but he and his family are staying in New York pursuing specialist treatment for Ezra's little brother.

When the new school term starts we are introduced to Laurent Summer, brother to Mean Girl Coco Summers, who has been in Argentina for six months improving his polo game. Laurent is just as good looking as his sister, but also just as entitled, arrogant and condescending.

What follows is a madcap mixture of school sports (but polo not football), advertising shoots on a Greek Island for a perfume brand for which Coco is an influencer, plots involving a criminal gang and Norah's father, a love triangle, and the school play.

Imagine Mean Girls meets Mallory Towers meets Gossip Girl - if that's your vibe then I think this will be right up your street. I'm *whispers* fifty-five years old and I still enjoyed this high school romp.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: The Beach Read Book Club

The Beach Read Book Club by Kathryn Freeman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lottie Watt joined a book club and got a rescue dog when her long-term boyfriend Henry accepts a job with a newspaper in America, but as the months have passed she realises that she has begun to dread book club because the books are always so worthy and the discussions about the books are more like an exam. After being called out for failing to read My sister, the serial killer and wanting to talk about more than just a book, Lottie decides to start up her own book club, a book club that likes romance novels, just the sort of thing you like to read on a beach holiday, and so The Beach Read Book Club is born.

Matthew Steele was a trader in the City, but after his mother died he left London and ought a house and a bookshop on the South Coast of England, hoping to make a new start with his father and his younger sister Amy. Unfortunately, neither his father or sister appears to be happy, especially not with him, and he doesn't seem to be able to let go of bad habits. Quiet and reserved, a recent divorce has left Matt feeling adrift.

Lottie persuades Matt to let the book club use the café attached to the bookshop once a month for two hours after closing time. Soon the club consists of Lottie, her pregnant BFF Sally, a pensioner with a penchant for gin and raunchy romances called Audrey, a lonely middle-aged married woman called Gira, and a divorced single middle-aged woman called Heidi. The book club reads books by Jilly Cooper, E.L. James, Christina Lauren, Julie Caplin, and Helen Hoag to name just a few - which is great because I have read several of the books myself. However, whilst Audrey might rate the raunch factor, the book club is more about friendship and helping each other. Slowly but surely Matt and his family are drawn into the book club and Lottie sits at the centre, bringing people together and helping them find their way.

I really liked this book and it slightly reminded me of the film The Jane Austen Book Club, Kathryn Freeman is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors.

I was offered a free copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Love Life

Love Life by Nancy Peach
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Tess Carter is a trainee doctor, currently on rotation in a hospice caring for the terminally ill. She suffers from low self-esteem, occasional bulimia, and has recently found her boyfriend in bed with another man. When a new patient is checked into the hospice with terminal cancer Tess is astonished to see that the patient's son Edward Russell is no other than the young man Eddie she met at a party years ago and made an instant connection. Back then she had a boyfriend and never did anything more than kiss Eddie, but oh how she wished she had. Sadly, finding a lawyer called Eddie (last name unknown) in London is quite difficult.

Unfortunately, the charming, sweet, clever, funny Eddie Tess met back then has turned into a cold, judgmental man, who clearly does not remember Tess at all and challenges her every professional decision, probably because he is in denial about his mother's prognosis. However, as time goes on Tess and Edward find some middle ground and when a personal crisis occurs it is Eddie who comes to the rescue.

Part romance, part women's fiction (think Katie Fforde with edge, or maybe Susie Tate) this would have been a four star read if it hadn't been for the author's decision to give Tess two voices in her head: one a car-crash TV chat show host (think Jeremy Kyle or Jerry Springer); and the other Jane Austen. The chat show host likes to belittle Tess and make her sound like trailer trash, while Jane Austen tries to bolster her ego. I hated both of them and their interactions were very irritating.

Otherwise, the characters were engaging with real life problems ad the story was well-written, if a little predictable.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: A Good Day for Chardonnay

A Good Day for Chardonnay by Darynda Jones
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sunshine Vicram is a single mother of a fifteen year old daughter, Aurora, and Police Chief of a small, quirky town in New Mexico after her parents somehow arranged for her to be elected and brought her back from her job in Sante Fe. Sunshine was abducted when she was seventeen, held for five days before being rescued by someone who killed her abductor. Nine months later Aurora was born. Sunshine has amnesia about the abduction, her rescue and about one month prior to those events, but she is still determined to identify who killed her abductor Kubrick Ravinder, who just happened to have been the uncle to Sunshine great crush, Levi Ravinder. Levi has single-handedly dragged the Ravinder family from its shady roots into respectability (well most of them) and is a successful businessman with one of the most famous corn whiskey distilleries in the world.

I imagine that this was intended to be a sort of Gilmore Girls/Sookie Stackhouse kind of small town, with kooky characters at every turn and a wise-cracking mother/daughter relationship. The trouble is, Auri was a bit of a contradictory character, extremely bright yet prone to using the wrong words (like saying she will apply for emaciation instead of emancipation), acting like Nancy Drew as if she was twelve not fifteen.

Also, there was just too much going on. An assault, attempted murder and hit-and-run which puts a man in the hospital and badly injures Levi. A series of disappearances in the 1950s which may have been pinned on the wrong guy. Sunshine's first case coming back to haunt her. A mythical group of women who allegedly run the town. A mystery associated with Auri's boyfriend Cruz. HAlf the Ravinder clan confessing to the murder of Kubrick Ravinder. Auri and Cruz trying to prove that a little old lady is really a serial killer. The mystery of who really killed Kubrick Ravinder, and whether Kubrick had an accomplice. This reminds me of those books that have the tagline 'A laugh out loud comedy' which inevitably means they are seriously unfunny. This book felt like it was trying too hard to be kooky and quirky, when every single character is 'a character' it just feels like hard work, especially when everyone has to be given a backstory. It also felt a bit jagged as if it had maybe been rewritten several times and/or repurposed, as if it was originally intended to be more of a thriller but then comedy got added? Or it was meant to be a Gilmore Girls type town and then Sunshine's backstory got a bit dark?

Anyway, this was a struggle to finish, even though I had nothing else to do on a wet weekend, yet the bones of the story were really interesting, I just wanted one or two fewer storylines and less of the 'look at me, I'm zany and kooky' vibes - don't even get me started on those super-annoying 'funny' signs at the start of each chapter.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: To Sir, with Love

To Sir, with Love by Lauren Layne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

When a book is billed as Love Is Blind meets You've Got Mail, is it wrong to feel slightly disappointed that there are no surprises in the story?

Gracie is a romantic. She's got a picture in her head of The One, he's got long floppy hair and a Dad-bod. To keep the family champagne shop running she gave up her dreams of art college in Paris and now she's barely keeping the business above water, while her sister and brother pursue their own dreams. She has been conducting a relationship of sorts with a man she was matched with on a dating app, one which doesn't provide photos. The man is question was signed up by his friends as a joke at a bachelor party and has a girlfriend. Nevertheless the two of them have discussed likes and dislikes and developed a friendship. It's a pity that this man, who Gracie refers to as 'Sir', is in a romantic relationship because otherwise he feels perfect.

Then Gracie runs into a gorgeous man in the street with the most amazing Tiffany blue eyes. She feels an immediate frisson which is then dampened by the appearance of his beautiful girlfriend and later by the realisation that he is Sebastian Andrews, the property developer who owns the building where her shop is located. Sebastian is trying to buy Gracie's shop out of the five remaining years on the lease. So now she has two men in her life, both off limits for different reasons.

Just as in the films, Gracie confides in Sir about the trials and tribulations of her life, often about the run-ins she has with Sebastian, who steadfastly refuses to stay in the villain-box in which she has put him. Since we have all seen You've Got Mail at least once a year in the 20+ years since it was released, we are all aware that Sir is also Sebastian - Lauren Layne has a a clever work around to explain why Gracie doesn't put two and two together (although now I wonder why Sebastian didn't?).

Anyway, the fact that this is a retelling of You've Got Mail is both the good thing and the bad thing about this book. Bad, because I already know the story and changing a bookshop to a champagne shop and emails to messages in a dating app is just tinkering around the edges. Good, because Lauren Layne does change what I felt was the cruelty in You've Got Mail, that Tom Hanks knew that Meg Ryan was his secret correspondent and that he toyed with her and forced her business to close and gives Gracie some more backbone.

Also, maybe in keeping with its predecessors, this is a very PG-rated book, no raunchy one-night stands for Gracie.

Recommended for fans of You've Got Mail (or those too young to remember wanting to be Meg Ryan, or at least have her hair).

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: One Lucky Summer

One Lucky Summer by Jenny Oliver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ruben de Lacy has returned to his family's home Willoughby Hall for one final time before selling it. Shallow, wealthy and good-looking Ruben is surprised when his ex-girlfriend Jenny arrives with their twelve year-old daughter Zadie in tow - apparently he had agreed to look after Zadie while Jenny and her new husband Barry go on their honeymoon.

Looking after a young chubby daughter with dubious dress sense isn't Ruben's idea of a good time. Then he stumbles across a little plastic box which is part of a treasure hunt which had been set up years before and never took place. The treasure hunts were a very big thing in his childhood and he can't envisage doing this without the two girls who's father created the hunt in the first place; Olive and Dolly.

Olive has just been dumped by her very boring and respectable boyfriend Mark. Dolly has just been suspended from her job as a police officer for disobeying orders. For their own reasons they both return to Willoughby Hall for one last treasure hunt. But returning to Cornwall forces each of them to face what happened the night the treasure hunt was laid, to address feelings that have been suppressed for decades and to make peace. It's going to be a heck of a summer!

I've got to say that I thought this was going to be more of a romantic comedy, a la Katie Fforde, based on the cover. Whereas, this is more women's fiction. There's a lot of remembering the past and giving voice to past feelings, about owning emotions and letting them go. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable to watch all three of them finally lay the ghosts to rest and look forward to the future.

Recommended for lazy summer reading in the garden.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: This Year, Maybe

This Year, Maybe by Jenny Gladwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Christmas isn't a good time of year for Kate. Two years ago her beloved father died on Christmas Eve. Last year her husband was killed cycling home on 1 December and this year the family's pet hamster has died. On the surface everything looks good for Kate (barring the deaths, naturally) a mother of two living in a large Edinburgh flat, her own interior design business, two gorgeous children, a loving mother and sister. Unfortunately, the reality is somewhat different. Kate is stuck in a deep hole of sadness, if not outright depression. Her husband Adam was not the successful financial wizzkid she and everyone else thought him to be, he speculated, over-extended and now she has no savings and a semi-derelict flat with no funds for the necessary repairs. Added to which, she has no clients, she's fed her children fish fingers every night for the past few weeks, and she's leaning heavily on her friend Nat and her partner Felix to pick the kids up, feed them etc.

Kate's mother Jean is at a different stage of grief. She's a regular attendee at a Grief Group and has started doing lots of new activities (pottery, golf etc) but still can't bear to get rid of any of her husband's possessions.

As another Christmas looms Jean and Kate are trying to make a new start, but with the PTA Christmas Fayre rivalries and shocking secrets being revealed this could be a Christmas like no other.

How often do I have to say I liked it but I didn't love it? Whilst I felt a great deal of sympathy for Kate while I was reading this, now I'm asking myself what she did all day long while the children were at school if she had no clients - lay on the sofa eating biscuits and wallowing I suspect. Also, from comments made by Kate's sister and some of the PTA mums Kate appears to be a femme fatale with men falling over their feet to help her, yet she's never really described that way and she doesn't read like that. I think the Jean storyline was kind of unnecessary and created a fairy-tale ending rather than something realistic which I thought was a pity. Overall, in the last chapter or two everything miraculously turned out all right - I would have preferred to see Kate slowly dragging herself out of the rut she has fallen into rather than a whole book of rut followed by a wham-bam recovery (if that makes any sense at all?).

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: A Kiss for a Kiss

A Kiss for a Kiss by Helena Hunting
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Jake and Hanna's story.

Jake Masterson is the GM of Seattle's NHL team and single father to Queenie after his girlfriend couldn't handle being a teenage mother. Now Queenie is all grown up and engaged to be married to Ryan Kingston (Queenie and King, bleurgh), one of Jake's players. Jake's older sister Hanna, who is really his biological mother, has been helping Jake and Queenie with the wedding planning, but things have got very hot and heavy between them. Hanna thinks she's perimenopausal and so, given she and her ex-husband resorted to IVF to (unsuccessfully) try to have a child, she thinks she can't get pregnant. One thing leads to another and before she even realises it she is 12 weeks pregnant. What will Jake say? What will Ryan say? What will her parents say? How will she and Jake raise a child when he is based in Seattle and she lives in Tennessee?

I really liked the sound of this book but sadly for me the reality fell a little short of the expectations. There seemed to be too much time spent with Hanna debating where she and Jake should live and, frankly, not enough plot. I mean the guy raised his daughter alone when he was little more than a teenager, whilst he might regret that he isn't going to spend his forties living the single life there was never a doubt that he would be there for his child. Also he earns millions of dollars a year so travel and living expenses are never going to be an issue.

Also, I am simultaneously reading Kate Meader's Rookie Rebels series and the similarities of names confused the heck out of me, I was thinking Violet? Four kids? No, I'm sure she hasn't - wrong series, wrong author!

Overall, not enough hockey, too much shilly-shallying about where to live and not enough drama.

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Review: Infamous

Infamous by Minerva Spencer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Richard and Lucien (Lord Davenport) Redvers might be twins but they couldn't be more different. Lucien, the elder, is charming, well-built, devastatingly handsome. Richard is slighter, wears glasses, is still a little bit spotty, and has a fascination with beetles and bugs. Lucien is about to make an offer for the hand of society beauty, and all-round mean girl, Celia Trent, not knowing that his twin is also in lust with Celia, despite her caustic tongue and spiteful comments. Then at the Duke of Stanford's ball Celia crosses a line, egged on by Sebastian, Duke of Dowden, who has a hatred of Richard Redvers, and earns herself the dubious title Lady Infamous.

A decade later, Richard is a well-travelled, single man, still obsessed by beetles, but grown into his looks and filled out in the body. Lucien is married with two children, and Celia is acting as a ladies companion to Lady Yancy. Their paths might never had crossed again if Richard's younger sister Antonia hadn't been getting married, to Sebastian of all people, and Lady Yancy was invited as the friend of Sebastian's aunt, Lady Morton.

Bringing all the protagonists from that night together for the first time in a decade at Lord and Lady Davenport's country house for a Christmas wedding was bound to create waves. Secrets unfold and Richard and Celia have a chance at love, if Sebastian doesn't sabotage things.

I loved this, disgraced bad girl, nerd turned hot, second chance romance, smokin' hot lovin' and a baddie so evil he makes you want to hiss every time he's on the page. Also, we get to see some of my favourite characters from The Outcasts series.

My only quibble was that Celia's story had some strong similarities to that of Daphne Davenport. I made a similar comment about the final book in The Outcasts series, there were too many similarities between the three heroes' backstories and I had an overwhelming feeling of deja vu, this is less obvious but still striking to someone who only read The Outcast series last year.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Opposites Attract

Opposites Attract by Jacqueline Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Megan is a science journalist, living her best life. Something made even better when she passes the flatmate test to share an apartment with Josh in New York. Josh is her ideal man, cute, geeky, interested in all those nerdy science and nature documentaries on TV. Megan doesn't understand why her dislike of (American) football was a clincher when Josh interviewed her, little does she know that Josh's older brother Brandon is a famous professional football player. As the only nerd in a family of football fanatics Megan always felt left out and different to her siblings.

Megan's attempts to charm Josh are thwarted at every turn by Brandon who has taken to hanging around their apartment like a third roomie, not getting the nerdy jokes or understanding the articles they discuss. At least he and Megan have some twisted sniping routine between them. For Brandon's part it's nice to meet a woman who likes or dislikes him for his personality and looks, not because he pulls in eight figures a year in salary, before endorsements. But it doesn't matter how rich and successful Brandon is, his parents will always favour Josh, because he's a scientist like them.

I loved every page of this, Science Barbie meets Football Ken. The banter is slick and charming, the characters are engaging and I was swept along effortlessly with this cute opposites-attract romantic comedy.

Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Devil in Disguise

Devil in Disguise by Lisa Kleypas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lady Merritt Sterling (daughter of Marcus, Lord Westcliff and Lillian from It Happened One Autumn has run her husband's shipping business since his untimely death. She has no interest or intention of ever marrying again, until Keir MacRae bursts into her office.

Keir MacRae is a rough Scottish whisky manufacturer, more comfortable with the men on the wharf than the aristocracy, but no-one can deny the instant attraction between him and the beautiful Lady Merritt.

The two of them are not permitted to indulge their attraction for long before Keir is the subject of not one but two assassination attempts. Who can want to kill him and why?

I'm not normally a fan of romances featuring Scotsman (because of the 'och aye the noo' brogue) but I have to say I fell in love with Keir. He may be rough around the edges, but he's honourable and kind and absolutely gorgeous under that scruffy beard.

Lisa Kleypas has knocked it out of the park with this one, drama, romance, steam and whisky, what more could you want?

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: The Best Man's Bride

The Best Man's Bride by Jamie Dallas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Two and a half stars.

Hailey runs out on her own wedding when she catches her fiancé Evan and her wedding planner in a passionate clinch on the morning of their wedding. Running away from the humiliation, she runs smack into Evan's business partner Jace. Although Hailey and Jace have never really hit it off, he offers to get her out of the pouring rain and take her to his nearby apartment as she is pretty conspicuous running around in a wedding dress.

Somehow (can you feel my eyes roll), Evan has persuaded Hailey not to take on any other clients in the run up to their wedding so Hailey's only client is Jace and Evan's company Sun Tech. She's also given up her apartment in San Francisco to be with Evan in Houston, and agreed to put all the wedding expenses on her credit card until after the wedding when Evan will kindly reimburse her. So now Hailey is homeless, jobless, and massively in debt. Then Jace offers her double her fee if she will complete the work she as doing for Sun Tech to launch their Houston business (I have no idea what it was, something to do with property and technology? Not sure it was ever truly explained). Hailey counteroffers, she will complete the assignment, despite having a clause allowing her to cancel the contract, if Jace allows her to stay in his guest room for the duration.

Jace is an ice-man and his apartment is cold and sterile. Hailey is a vivacious redhead with a love of colour and texture. Soon she is turning his cold empty soulless apartment into a home. But Jace can never allow himself to get close to anyone, because childhood stuff, so he pushes Hailey away just as much as he craves her warmth. Can he allow her to stay in his home without compromising his principals?

For a brand new book this certainly has a dated feel. I thought we'd got past the mounds of creamy flesh and billionaires in their beautiful but sterile homes and childhood traumas after FSoG but clearly not (and that is the second time I have made that analogy today).

In their own ways Jace and Evan are broken because of 'stuff in their childhoods' which seems to give them carte blanche to push Hailey around and behave like jackasses.

Overall, dated feel and a tropey-plot that didn't bring anything new to the table.

I was given a free copy f this book by the publisher Tule in return for an honest review.

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Review: The Prince and the Thief

The Prince and the Thief by P.S. Scott
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 48%.

Will is a commoner and a thief, a commoner with water magic - something only nobles from Aqua, the underwater kingdom, should possess. One night he stumbles across a young man trying to save a young girl in one of the notorious areas of the city, he is shocked to see the young man use serious amounts of earth magic - what is a nobleman doing in the slums? The next day his uncle orders him to break into the royal palace and steal a ring from under the King's bed. Will is surprised to see the same young noble in the palace and learn that he is Prince Aidan.

Aidan is the second prince of Ambrosia, his father is forcing him to marry a princess from the neighbouring kingdom of Chronos to create an alliance between their kingdoms. Aidan doesn't want to marry anyone, especially not a woman, but it is forbidden for the aristocracy to have same sex relationships so his love for Orion, the son of Ambrosia's Minister of Law, must remain secret. Unfortunately for Aidan, his abusive Uncle Nicholas, the Prince Regent has incriminating letters between Aidan and Orion which he threatens to share with the King, unless Aidan steals a key to the travel line chamber.

I loved the premise of this, opposites attract, LGBTQ+ fantasy involving political upheaval. Unfortunately, 48% into the book and nothing seems to have happened. Also, the book is told in alternating chapters by Will and Aidan but there is no change of 'voice' between a prince and a commoner, no change of language and it feels like a relentless stream of 'I, I, I, I, I' page after page, after page. So almost six months after I first started reading this book I am giving up. The pace is too slow and everything feels all too predictable.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Instacrush

Instacrush by Kate Meader
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The story of Theo Kershaw and Elle Butler.

Theo was riding high as a hockey player until a life-threatening brain injury put him in a coma, now he's back as strong as ever but with practically no filter. Brought up by his grandmother, Theo never knew that his 'sister' was really his mother, and his father wanted nothing to do with his teenage girlfriend 's pregnancy or his son, even after Theo's success.

Elle has left the military and is rooming with her old army colleague Levi Hunt across the hall from Theo in the apartments the Chicago Rebels lay on for their rookie players. She's trying to get away from her family of grifters and give back to society, although at the moment she's just bartending at The Nest, the local where all the Rebels' players hang out. She might like watching Theo's daily Instagram videos but the guy is super-annoying, especially when he keeps helping himself to her food in the fridge.

After Elle calls him out on stealing food from their fridge Theo thinks he will surprise Levi by filling his fridge while Elle and Levi are away for the Christmas holidays, only Elle hasn't left town and a lack of clothing leads to a steamy encounter. Because this is Romancelandia of course Elle gets pregnant, but how can she expose someone as open and generous as Theo to her grasping family?

This felt like a kitchen-sink drama (the author threw every trope known to man into the book, including the kitchen sink). We've got a military-romance, sports-romance, one-night stand, secret baby, criminal parents, blackmail, single-mom, other family, life-threatening injury, etc, etc and unfortunately, for me the novel suffered. Elle's parents try to fleece Theo and then disappear, Theo's biological father tries to make contact, and then not much happens. Mainly Elle just mopes around like a whiney baby about how she's not good enough for Theo and how her family would take advantage of him, leavened by a bit of moping about how Theo is too good for her and will want to take their baby away from her.

In addition, Elle's family angst seemed very similar to that of Violet in Hooked On You.

Overall, a bit meh. Read it all before.

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Review: Playing the Pools

Playing the Pools by David M. Sindall
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 38%.

Reggie Kellison is unhappy with his life. In 1960s Liverpool he is in a stale marriage, his job at the Pools firm is monotonous, there's not enough money to feed the family, and he is in lust with a young woman at work. Oh, and his football team is on a massive losing streak.

Then Reggie comes up with a scheme to cheat the Pools with the help of his dodgy brother-in-law, his girlfriend and a whistling hearing aid.

I loved the idea of this but the writer seems to hate all his characters, none of them have any redeeming qualities and the relentless sexism (albeit normal for the early 1960s) is so grim that I gave up reading this several times before I eventually gave up completely. I feel that the reader should definitely have some good will towards the main character, especially in a comedy, but Reggie was just such an unsympathetic character I just really disliked him.

After multiple attempts to read this book I gave up at 38%.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Can I Give My Stepkids Back?

Can I Give My Stepkids Back? by Aurélie Tramier
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 22%.

Morgan is a single woman whose only love, apart from her little sister Emilie, is her dog Snoopy. When Emilie and her husband die in a tragic car crash Morgan is shocked to discover that Emilie asked her to look after her two children as her dying wish. Despite working at a children's nursery, Morgan isn't comfortable with children and really wanted to be a vet.

I think the big issue for me is that this is very clearly a translation of a book originally written in French. It felt stilted and after reading nearly a quarter of the book I wasn't engaged and nothing struck me as funny. Whether that is because French humour differs from British humour or because the translation didn't do justice to the original I can't tell.

Anyway, I gave it a shot but I didn't warm to Morgan or to the two children and the book felt clunky so I gave up at 22%.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: The Wedding Pact

The Wedding Pact by Isla Gordon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

August Anderson is a young actress who have just moved back to Bath from London. Ever since she was a child she has been obsessed by a four-storey Georgian townhouse in Elizabeth Street, often sitting outside staring at the house as a way of relaxing. When she finds out that a flat in the house is available to rent she is ecstatic and asks her boyfriend James to move in with her to share the rent. Unfortunately James doesn't feel the same way - cue the end of that relationship!

Flynn Miyoshi has travelled from Japan to Bath to take up a new job in a law firm, he's got a flat share lined up but it falls through when the couple he was going to rent from split up and need the spare room. After a long-haul flight, delays, a coach journey from London and a night in a noisy hotel things are looking bad, then a cute girl in a coffee shop bumps into him and spills coffee all over his one remaining clean shirt.

Flynn and August get to talking and visit the open day at Elizabeth Street together, but their hopes of sharing the flat are dashed when August overhears the flat's elderly owner tell her son that she would only let the flat to a married couple. So August concocts a ludicrous plan, pretend to be married to each other to secure the flat. Of course things aren't that easy, the townhouse isn't that big, their landlady lives in one of the flats, and they are being caught out by friends, colleagues, and housemates in small lies and the minutiae of married life.

All of this was good fun and enjoyable. But about midway through this book felt like it got flabby and lost its way. Flynn starts dating a girl he meets in a bar, August starts to have feelings for their landlady's son Abe and things got a bit confused. I feel that Isla Gordon was trying to make all the characters too likable and as a reader I was confused as to which suitor I was supposed to be rooting for. Also, by making both Abe and Flynn so likable it made August's flip-flopping between the two of them feel wrong and I didn't really 'see' that August truly loved the man she chose in the end.

In the end I felt that Isla Gordon tried so hard to make everyone a good guy, tie up all the loose ends, and give everyone a happy ending that the plot drifted away. I liked it and it was easy reading but in the end I wasn't invested in the characters enough.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Murder at Archly Manor

Murder at Archly Manor by Sara Rosett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Olive Belgrave has been ousted by her stepmother and is desperately looking for gainful employment. But an attractive young woman of gentle birth and no skills is not in great demand. Then her aunt engages her to look into her cousin Violet's new fiance Alfred. Alfred Eton has made some minor social gaffes, perhaps because he was born and brought up in India until his parents' deaths, but Olive's aunt and cousin Gwen think he is hiding something more and they want to uncover the truth before Violet makes any further commitments.

Olive, Gwen and Violet are invited to Alfred's godfather Sebastian's country house for a weekend party. Sebastian is an artist and his parties are notorious for excess and indulgence. The house guests include Sebastian's sister Thea, her two children and their governess Muriel who is rumoured to be engaged to Hugh Digby-Stratham (another guest), Lady Pamela, Sebastian's secretary James and two young men called Tug and Monty. Then at the height of the entertainment, as the evening fireworks commenced, Alfred is seen struggling with a woman on the balcony then falls to his death.

When the local police superintendent suspects Violet of murdering Alfred, Olive is determined to prove her cousin's innocence - and a detective career is born.

This was a kindle-freebie and it was pleasant enough with interesting characters, the plot was a little simplistic but I would definitely read another in this series to see how it develops.

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Review: Wrapped Up in You

Wrapped Up in You by Kate Meader
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Cade and Dante may be an unusual couple, but they are blissfully happy, if it wasn't for the spectre of being separated by work hanging over their heads. It's stopped them from moving further with their relationship.

Come the holidays and they are celebrating with Dante's siblings, but not his parents who cannot accept his homosexuality (that sounds pompous, but gayness sounds ungrammatical, maybe just being gay?). Anyway Cade has a plan.

Short, but sweet, holiday novella.

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Review: The Seven Day Switch

The Seven Day Switch by Kelly Harms
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Celeste Mason and Wendy Charles may be neighbours with daughters who are friends, but Celeste and Wendy aren't friends, not at all.

Wendy is a stick-thin mother of two and businesswoman, married to a handsome sculptor. Celeste is a stay-at-home mom with three children and a balding husband in insurance. Wendy never has enough hours in the day, her kids are used to eating frozen meals and take-outs, she has an enormous mortgage and resents being mommy-shamed by Celeste. Celeste, on the other hand, bulks cooks nutritious food for her family, volunteers for bake-sales, car-pooling etc and sits on her front lawn with a glass of red wine of an evening. She just wants to be friends with someone in the local area but none of the other moms will give her the time of day.

Then after a sangria-off at the local softball potluck Wendy and Celeste wake up in each others' bodies. After the initial hilarious misunderstandings when each woman wakes up in the other woman's bedroom with the other woman's husband, the two of them settle down into each other's lives with varying degrees of success. At first Celeste appears to be very successful, cleaning Wendy's grubby home and getting her children and husband to take some part in running the house, even if she does have to send Wendy's husband a pin to the children's school when she asks him to drop them off! But then when it comes to Wendy's business, Celeste is out of her depth and only surviving by inventing family emergencies and postponing client meetings. Conversely, Wendy is astonished at how much Celeste's husband and children do around the house. But Wendy seems to be subverting Celeste's routines by buying the kids plastic toys and junk food. As the days go on, Wendy and Celeste discover more about each other, their marriages and their own lives their only hopes rest on delivery of an obscure bottle of vodka used in one of the sangria recipes.

I love all those body switch movies and tv series like Big John, Little John, Freaky Friday, Big, etc, so when I saw this as an Amazon early release I loved the premise. I also loved the execution, neither woman is demonised, although I feel maybe Wendy gets it slightly worse - but then she is also the one creating the competition in her own mind.

It's funny, sad, life-affirming, and charming. Highly recommended.

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Review: Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Four and a half stars.

Rosaline Palmer is a bisexual single mother to a precocious daughter. She gave up her career ambitions to be a doctor when she got pregnant and now she has a part-time job at WH Smith (a large chain of stationery shops in the UK) and specialises in disappointing her extremely successful parents, one of whom is a cardiologist and the other is an oncologist.

In desperation to pay off her parents' loans, Rosaline enters a national TV baking show called, punningly enough, Bake Expectations. On her way to the first weekend of shooting, Rosaline misses her train and gets left in the middle of the country with a handsome, charming, witty, erudite landscape architect called Alain who is also a contestant on the show. As with the real-life baking show that this novel is based on, the contestants are both a series of cliches and also an eclectic mix of modern British society. Although as the contest progresses Rosaline is forced to reassess some of her preconceptions about the other contestants.

I'll be honest, Alexis Hall, romance and baking - it doesn't get much better than this. The dialogue is witty and the characters are engaging, the trials and tribulations of the contestants and Rosaline's amazing daughter Amelie just swept me away like a self-saucing pudding.

My only minor criticism is that I could see the 'twist' coming almost right from the start, but it was lovely to see Rosaline's journey.

Overall, I love, love, loved it and I only wish I could read it again for the first time.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Devil in Disguise

Devil in Disguise by Rosalind James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

I guess this was always going to be a hard book to get across the line and I just felt there was one too many plot lines to sit comfortably. Dyma is nineteen years old, her mother, who got pregnant when she was just a teenager herself, is engaged to NFL quarterback Harlan Kristiansen and the two of them have gone from dirt poor, town pariahs to living in a fancy house in Portland. Harlan's best friend, NFL centre Owen Johnson is besotted with Dyma but the age difference between twenty-five and nineteen, particularly when he's a divorced football player and she's still in high school is a bit icky. So the two of them have been conducting a chaste romance for months.

Dyma is a diminutive vegetarian astrophysics studying, pierced and tattooed ball of fire and fury. She used to defend herself and her mother with her fists, now she just cuts people with her barbed words. But nothing can prepare her for the mean girls at college, or the disapproval of Owen's brother, or the prying journalists, and there's a lot in her family's background to make a juicy scoop, especially for someone who won't hesitate to twist the truth.

Owen is a cattle rancher as well as an NFL player. He's already been divorced after his model wife couldn't bear the idea of living in the middle of nowhere and while Dyma might be the opposite of his ex-wife he can't see an astrophysicist living on a ranch either, especially not a vegetarian one. He also knows the six year gap between them encompasses a huge chunk of experiences, things he wants Dyma to have the chance to enjoy.

This just felt like a crossover book with one too many storylines and curiously I found it difficult to get the energy to finish the book, despite reading it in a single day - go figure!

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Review: A Grimoire for Gamblers

A Grimoire for Gamblers by Amanda Creiglow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Elizabeth works for the mayor in her small town of Springfield, she's recently inherited her father's house after his suicide, something he's been attempting for the last eight years. Before he was committed, her father had been a creator and Elizabeth spent her childhood watching her father crafting things in his loft, particularly train sets, so she shouldn't be surprised when she finds a model railway in the loft. Except it seems to be running without any visible form of power, eight years after he left the house. Also, unlike his previous sets, this train set is an exact replica of Springfield. Unthinkingly Elizabeth flicks the train, knocking it off the tracks, and is horrified when the next day the papers are full of the story of how a train derailed in Springfield. Is she losing her mind like her father? Could the model railway be linked to the real thing? Elizabeth also finds a locket, together with a note from her father, imploring her to stay out of the loft, or at least wear the locket for protection.

Then a strange man claiming to be a wizard barges into the house shouting about humans and magic and threatening to wipe Elizabeth's memories. Only the locket seems to prevent him from doing anything to harm Elizabeth. Still unsure of whether what is happening is real or signs of impending mania, Elizabeth searches the loft and finds a locked box containing spell books and other paranormal paraphernalia, can it be real?

The box, the locket and the magical objects draw Elizabeth into a world of wizards and magical creatures hidden from normal humans and a series of bizarre suicides which seem to be linked to that of her father. Can she solve the mystery and prevent further human deaths?

OMG what a breath of fresh air. Elizabeth isn't (yet) a special snowflake growing into her powers. She's a mundane human with a magic book, and 21st century technology like a scanner and a printer to help her draw her spells accurately. The magical creatures are not the usual shifters and vampires (something wiped out the Fae), the mystery is dark and Elizabeth has to make some terrible choices.

I really enjoyed this and I am curious to see where Amanda Creiglow is going to take the series. I hope she keeps it dark and twisty.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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