Review: A Fatal Night

A Fatal Night by Faith Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Although this is the seventh book in a series it can easily be read as a standalone.

It is New Year's Eve 1962, the widowed Mrs Millie Vander is hosting a New Year's Eve party at her home, hoping that her man-friend, Terry Parker will propose to her, despite the ten year age difference. Millie's nineteen year old twins Jasper and Juliet are rather less than thrilled at the prospect of an oily second-hand sportscar salesman becoming their stepfather and spending their considerable inheritance.

Meanwhile, WPC Trudy Loveday is one of the few police officers still on duty, so many having been trapped at home by the unprecedented snowfalls that brought Oxford to a halt, and others being brought down by a flu epidemic. The last thing she expects to be asked to do is investigate a dead body found slumped in a car on New Year's Day morning, even if the verdict is expected to be death caused by driving a car into a tree whilst intoxicated. Trudy suggests asking the coroner, Dr Clement Ryder, to pronounce death, given the holidays and being short-staffed. Dr Ryder and Trudy have apparently solved a number of murders in Oxford by pursuing what appeared to open-and-shut accidents, and Dr Ryder has a soft spot for the young WPC.

This was a very enjoyable, easy-reading, police procedural, as a reader I was aware of several potential suspects but had no clue as to who had committed the murder or why. There were lots of what I really don't want to classify as red herrings, more like leads which didn't pan out, suspects who had motive but didn't commit the crime.

I've not come across Faith Martin before but I will definitely keep an eye out for other books in this series.

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

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Review: Mr. Mayfair

Mr. Mayfair by Louise Bay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Stella London is as low as a girl could be. She moved to London, giving up her burgeoning interior design practice in Manchester and taking a job in a recruitment agency, to be with her long-term boyfriend Matt when a job opportunity arose. Now he's left her and the flat they bought together, even worse she's just found out that he's not only dating her BFF Karen but they are getting married, less than two months after Stella and Matt broke up - heck, she was expecting them to get back together! Losing her BFF on top of that is just the cherry on a sh!tty cake.

Beck Wilde is a self-made millionaire property developer. He has bought all but one of a row of buildings in prestigious Mayfair which he intends to develop into luxury apartments, unfortunately the one building he hasn't acquired is the one he really wants, it was owned by his a-hole biological father and Beck wants to right the wrongs that were done to his mother. In order to acquire this property and commence development he needs to get close to the current owner, but so far all his tricks have failed. Then he discovers that the owner has blocked out a week to attend his goddaughter's wedding in Scotland - somehow he needs to get an invitation to that wedding. When he discovers that Stella is the only single woman under 60 attending the wedding who hasn't RSVP'd with the name of her plus-one he knows he has to do everything in his power to persuade her to take him to the wedding.

Beck is your typical self-made millionaire, at least in novels, he's got a chip on his shoulder, a grudge against his biological father, determined to get what he wants, and never had a real relationship with a woman because he's married to his business. He's gorgeous, fit, and practically a non-drinker.

With Louise Bay you know what you are going to get, and this is no exception. My only gripe would be that the sex was neither here nor there, a bit too domineering for my taste but also not very sexy (which is a long-winded way of saying I didn't get hot under the collar and there was too much of it). Nevertheless, it was a fun read and I chose to read this rather than the 12 ARCs sitting on my Kindle or the five books I bought. Oh, and it is currently free on Amazon Kindle.

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Review: The Girl from Bletchley Park

The Girl from Bletchley Park by Kathleen McGurl
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Pam is an extremely bright young woman, with a place at Oxford to study mathematics, who defers her university place to do top secret work at Bletchley Park in World War 2.

Julia is Pam's grand-daughter. She is a successful businesswoman, a wife and mother of two boys.

We see Pam leave home and start work at Bletchley Park where she has two admirers, Edwin who works with her on the Colossus project and Frank, the gardener at Woburn Abbey where the women are billeted.

In the present day, Julia is struggling with having it all, running a business from an office at the bottom of her garden, doing the work, running a house and supporting her husband and sons. Her brother decides to sell the family house in Devon which he inherited and brings a lot of family documents and photos to Julia because he knows she likes that sort of thing. When Julia has an old roll of film developed she finds photographs of her grandmother and her grandmother's friends at Bletchley Park. The family never knew that Pam had worked there during the war and Julia is intrigued to find out more.

Told in alternating time periods, this was pleasant enough, if hugely predictable and not very original. Frankly, Pam might just as well have been a typist (as she told friends and family when they asked about her job), because there was so little depth about how she allegedly used her maths and languages skills.

I would probably have given the book three and a half stars, but the end made me so angry that I deducted half a star. (view spoiler)[My takeaway was that Julia brought all her issues on herself after her business collapses, through no fault of her own, Julia turns out to be much happier with a little job and a much smaller house. her business partner and her ex-husband get away pretty much scot free and insolvency is seen as a fleeting, mildly irritating process. Julia sees no value in suing her business partner and the insolvency process is over so quickly that I question whether it was even necessary. I loath and detest novels where being an intelligent woman with a demanding job and a family is seen to be reaching for too much - why should she dumb herself down? Also, the way that her two sons change from being normal lazy, bolshie teenagers to paragons of virtue who clean their rooms and fill the dishwasher seemed to be another dig at high-flying mothers, if only you had a nine-to-five job we would be angelic children was the message I got. Blood officially boiled. (hide spoiler)]

I think the book suffered by being told from two time frames, neither was in depth, and therefore it felt a bit superficial.

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

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Review: Sweet Talk

Sweet Talk by Cara Bastone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Four and a half stars.

What is it with re-imaginings of You've Got Mail (and yes I know that was itself a reimagining), this is at least the third one I've read this year?

This is glorious, Jessie gets a late night (aka 2am) voice message from her secret crush, asking if she's awake, it's clearly a misdial but how to respond? Jessie and her crush, Eliot get talking, they are both insomniacs and bond over trashy reality dating shows. Eliot doesn't know who Jessie is, he has a form of dyslexia and he clearly took Jessie's number for some reason but typed a random set of letters instead of her name, he's done it before and usually goes back and edits it with the correct name, but not in this case, so he calls her JD, which are two letters which are repeated in the gibberish he typed instead of her name.

What follows is a charming romance, Jessie can never reveal who she is to Eliot because of but Eliot is an open book to Jessie. It's cute, quirky and totally believable (unlike some of the re-imaginings), even better, it is the woman who knows all and there is none of the misogyny I see in the film.

Apparently this was originally an audio release which has now been released in print, I didn't know that was a thing, but I can see how that would work really well. I love how Eliot speaks women in his day-to-day life and tries to decide whether they sound like JD.

Loved, it, loved it, loved it.

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 Story of Our Secrets: An emotional, uplifting new novel from Shari Low

The Story of Our Secrets: An emotional, uplifting new novel from Shari Low by Shari Low
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Argh! Where to start? This is told partially through flashbacks to five years ago and partially in the present day (ignoring COVID), with a few flashbacks to even earlier.

Colm O'Flynn died, a relatively young man, in 2016. He left behind an ex-wife Jess and twin sons, a widow Shauna and a six-year old daughter, Dan, his best friend and business partner, and Dan's wife Lulu. Flash forward to the present day, Dan and Lulu are divorced and she has recently remarried, Shauna and her daughter live in the flat above Dan, in the house he inherited from an uncle, and Jess is an ever-present person in their lives. It's all very incestuous and co-dependent.

In their own ways all of Colm's friends are struggling with moving on so Jess decides that she, Shauna, and Dan are case studies for her degree and she will force them to let go of the past by sharing memories, good and bad, of their failed relationships.

I don't really know what to say about this because the blurb totally gives away the entire plot, so as a reader I was just sitting there thinking, 'but we already know this, what's the point?' As always with Shari the book was well-written and kept me engaged but I was expecting something more to happen. And don't get me started on that epilogue ... why? Just why did it have to be written like that?

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

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Review: Next in Line

Next in Line by Marion Todd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is book 5 in the Clare MacKay series, I haven't read any of the previous books but as a police procedural novel it worked well as a stand-alone and any back story was given as required.

DI Clare Mackay is at her ex-boyfriend's wedding with her latest squeeze, DCI Alastair Gibson, when she is alerted to the murder of a Glaswegian restauranteur at a small country house outside St Andrews called Lamond Lodge which had been hired for the weekend to celebrate the victim's fortieth birthday.

The victim, Russell Fox was celebrating with his sister, the daytime TV presenter Gaby Fox and her husband Luke Gasparini, who owns a TV production company, and three of his childhood friends from primary school: Eamon Ferry; Doug Gerrard; and Steve Christie. Russell was shot, just about dawn on the Saturday morning, coincidentally while Gaby and Luke were at the same wedding as Clare and Al.

The murder weapon and the shot point to a professional, or at least premeditated, hit. But none of the guests appear to have heard or seen anything. The property had a night-time security guard and CCTV cameras, none of which picked up the murder, although the cameras did pick up some unexpected visitors.

As a reader I was pulled this way and that by the evidence which pointed first one way, then the other. However I wouldn't say they were red herrings, more just unravelling the truth as one person after another is discovered to have lied to the police.

I really enjoyed this, I liked the way the police went over the evidence at the daily briefings and pursued leads, for want of a better word it felt genuine, lots of hard slog and running round in circles and testing alibis.

I will certainly read more of these books (in fact I have just bought the first one in the series), it was engaging, relatable and kept me guessing right to the end.

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 Cosy Cottage in Ireland

The Cosy Cottage in Ireland by Julie Caplin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hannah Campbell is a successful Manchester lawyer. After the deaths of her parents she has become extremely risk-averse and has come to the conclusion that it has stopped her from seizing opportunities. When a new work colleague seems to effortlessly fit in and make friends, then bake a magnificent cake for the office Bake Off competition, Hannah is unreasonably jealous and so she decides to take a sabbatical and book herself on a six-week cookery class in Killorgally, County Kerry.

When she arrives in Dublin she meets a good-looking young Irishman called Conor and uncharacteristically ends up having a one-night stand. Conor is obviously a bit of a ladies man so when Hannah wakes up in the morning she has no idea how to act casual and shrug off the fling, so she decides to sneak out and leave for Killorgally immediately.

I bet everyone knows what's coming. Hannah may not have a clue who Conor is, but he's a very famous person in Ireland and when he comes home to Killorgally and finds her there he's convinced she's stalking him.

I have seen a few of Julie Caplin's books in this series available as ARCs and, I'll be honest, I shied away from them as I was concerned that they would be a bit too twee. As they say in Pretty Woman, 'Big Mistake, Huge'. Yes, it's a cosy romance but I loved all the characters, the wonderful descriptions of the cookery school, the cottage, the landscape. It's the sort of book that makes you want to immediately sell up and go and raise chickens and grow your own vegetables (even though I hate gardening of any description and I only got 12 tomatoes from my two tomato plants this year).

Thoroughly enjoyable, I only hope that Izzy gets her own book as I quite fancy the idea of a woman inheriting a run-down Scottish castle.

Ideal for fans of Katie Fforde.

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

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Review: Licence To Howl

Licence To Howl by Helen Harper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Second book in the new series featuring Devereau Webb, former leader of a small criminal syndicate in London, turned werewolf.

Devereau has been approached by MI5, sadly there's no sign of an Aston Martin or a Walther PPK, to gather intelligence about an alleged terrorist ring with Scarlett the one-toothed vampire.

Yet another fast-paced, enjoyable caper story. Loving this new series and I can't wait for the next book.

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Review: The Noose of a New Moon

The Noose of a New Moon by Helen Harper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First in a new spin-off series featuring Devereau Webb, a modern-day Fagin leading a rag-tag group of pick-pockets in London (more politely referred to as a small criminal syndicate). In Midnight Smoke Devereau chooses to become a werewolf, intending to then change his niece Alice who is dying, a sacrifice that is ultimately unnecessary.

Now Devereau is a werewolf he is discovering that life isn't as great as he was expecting. There are rules and regulations, his old crew are scared of him, and the Alphas of the four London werewolf clans expect him to be subservient.

Then he comes across a young girl who has been illegally turned into a werewolf at the scene of a double homicide and all his protective instincts are triggered. Can he save this girl from near-certain death and bring whoever turned her to justice while fending off the clans and the Supe Squad?

This was a great read, fast-paced, engaging and full of supernatural creatures, I have already bought and read the second book in the series!

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Review: Playing the Long Game

Playing the Long Game by Sophie Penhaligon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ellie Moreland grows up the daughter of the housekeeper of the Ashton Estate. Growing up she and the twin sons of the chauffeur played together but never really mingled with the two Cavendish boys Leo and Felix whose parents owned the Estate. Leo, the oldest was dark-haired, serious and with a perma-frown. Felix was closer to Ellie's age, blonde-haired he was like a Greek god to her. Mr Cavendish was bad-tempered and Ellie grew up with a massive hatred of him and Leo for their supercilious behaviour. Like a typical teenager, Ellie wove fantastical dreams about marrying Felix and somehow turfing Leo and his father out of Ashton Estate to live in penury while she and Felix have a slew of golden haired babies and rear golden retrievers.

Alas, Ellie's dreams come crashing down around her head when she is eighteen and she leaves Ashton Estate, vowing never to return, until the night she gets a call to say her mother is seriously ill. Returning to Ashton Estate seven years later, Ellie realises she needs to let go of her childish anger and see things as they really are.

I found the blurb for this book to be a bit misleading, it suggests that Ellie has some kind of devious plan to bring the Cavendish family crashing to their knees rather than being a big drama queen in her own journal, which is the reality. So I was expecting a more of a dark sinister, he done her wrong plot rather than the variation on the film Sabrina which is what I got. That wouldn't have been so bad, because I was actually hoping it was a romance rather than a thriller, but unfortunately the execution felt like romance by numbers, hard to believe for a book written in the first person but it seemed like all telling and no showing. There was only one instance of Mr Cavendish being mean from which we are supposed to understand that he was a horrible individual. Honestly, the entire book felt like it was narrated by an immature teenager and I struggled to understand why people liked Ellie so much, she spent seven years away from Ashton Estate and yet all the staff and their families welcome her back with open arms, even Mrs Cavendish gushes over her.

Overall, it was a quick read but I didn't really engage with the characters, everyone except Ellie was a bit of a one-dimensional caricature and she was just immature.

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



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Review: All the Feels

All the Feels by Olivia Dade
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Alex Woodroe is an actor who has played Cupid in one of TV's longest running epic series (Think Game of Thrones) called God of the Gates which has just finished filming its final series. Just like GoT, the showrunners have deviated from the original books and Alex is seriously unhappy with the way his character is portrayed in the final series. Then he gets arrested one night in a bar and Ron, one of the showrunners, islivid. As punishment, Ron sics his cousin Lauren Clegg onto Alex as his nanny/minder. Alex can't go anywhere or do anything without Lauren coming along.

Lauren is an ER therapist, mentally and physically exhausted from dealing with patients at the height of their emotional traumas, indeed her crooked nose is testament to how physically violent some of the patients can be. She was intending to have a relaxing holiday in Spain until familial pressure forced her to visit her obnoxious cousin Ron who then forced her to babysit what could objectively be considered one of the most beautiful men on the planet. Lauren is short, plus-sized and has the afore-mentioned crooked nose. Alex thinks she looks like a bird.

Alex does his best to torment Lauren, calling her Nanny Clegg, and intimating that she is his jailer. For her part, Lauren finds Alex pretty amusing but she hides it all under a veneer of indifference. But as the weeks go on, Alex starts doing everything he can to provoke a smile, or even a reaction, from Lauren and the two become friends.

What did I like about this book? First, Alex might be a beautiful actor with a heart of gold, but he also has his own issues to deal with, which require medication and dietary care. He is genuinely torn between calling out bad behaviour and the consequences for others if he does so. Similarly, Lauren is unashamedly plus-sized, she has to get seat belt extenders on airplanes and narrow chairs are uncomfortable to sit in. She's not just one size larger than average, or even the Hollywood version of plus-sized which is normal for the rest of the world. And that doesn't change. I also loved the banter between these two characters, Olivia Dade does very good banter.

So what didn't I like? You could call this slow burn but in my opinion it tended towards the flabby. I thought I was close to finishing this book last night (heck, at gone midnight) but to my surprise I was only just over halfway through, and while I enjoyed the extra story I felt it didn't really take the characters much further and went a bit more mainstream romcom. Also, the gorgeous actor with the plus-sized, less attractive 'normal' woman was too similar to the characters from the previous book Spoiler Alert.

Nevertheless, Olivia Dade has got a great writing voice and her characters jump off the page.

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

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Review: Mortal Arts

Mortal Arts by Anna Lee Huber
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: Just One Look

Just One Look by Rosalind James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Dr Elizabeth Wolcott takes a one year sabbatical as a neurosurgeon to New Zealand when her boyfriend dumps her on Christmas Eve because she spends more time at work than she does on their relationship. Elizabeth's move, over her domineering father's strenuous objections is intended to be a reboot, an attempt to have a real life, with friends, hobbies, pets, plants, basically all the things she has given up in order to be the best in her field.

Luka Darkovic is a rugby player for the Auckland Blues and the New Zealand All Blacks (the national squad, so-called because their shorts and tops are all black). At thirty-three years old he is nearing the end of his professional career and nursing injuries. Luka's teammates might all be loved up and producing kids but he is most definitely not the marrying kind, and he's very clear about that to all his dates.

Luka and Elizabeth's paths first cross when the dog which came with the house she swapped with a New Zealand family runs amuck in the street. Then they meet again when Elizabeth is the neurosurgeon assigned to give Luka a cortisone injection to alleviate the pain in his neck, caused by repeated traumatic injuries whilst playing rugby.

I really liked this initially, the socially awkward neurosurgeon with the playboy, him being attracted to the fact that she is so different from all the women who want to be a rugby WAG (wives and girlfriends FYI). The more Elizabeth treats Luka like a friend, the more he wants to make things romantic, it was very cute. Then suddenly, the pony-tailed, no make-up, flat-shoes, black slacks and white blouse career woman started wearing stilettoes and stockings, oh and apparently had always had a sexy underwear habit (despite working 15-20 hour days and not wearing anything other than plain underwear at work). And then, the sexual gymnastics started and Elizabeth suddenly wanted rough sex/to be dominated, now okay it wasn't every time and Luka was very clear on making sure Elizabeth was into it, but it still jarred on me. It smacked too much of a makeover when Elizabeth had never even worn perfume before and then suddenly she's (metaphorically) swinging from the chandeliers and wearing sexy clothes. Don't even get me started on the hair pulling which is a pet peeve of mine.

Parts of this were a four for me and parts were a three - so three and a half stars it is.



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Review: The Anatomist's Wife

The Anatomist's Wife by Anna Lee Huber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well this book literally starts with a murder! Lady Godwin is found in the maze at the Earl of Cromarty's Scottish estate, Gairloch Castle, with her throat slit. Suspicion immediately falls on the Earl's sister-in-law, Lady Keira Darby, the widow of the notorious surgeon and anatomist Sir Anthony Darby who was writing a textbook on the human anatomy and forced Keira to draw the body parts for him. In the era of Burke and Hare the bodysnatchers (who murdered 16 people to sell their bodies to Robert Knox for dissection in his anatomy lectures back in the late 1820s), people were terrified of anatomists and many rumours had been spread that Keira had willingly participated in the dissections and, some people claimed that she lured young men to their deaths to satisfy her own perversions. After her husband's death and all the lies being spread about her in London society Keira has retreated to live with her sister Alana and brother-in-law in Scotland where she paints and helps look after her nephews and niece.

The Earl of Cromarty calls upon one of the other guests, Mr Gage, whose father is an investigator in Edinburgh, to look into Lady Godwin's murder until the Procurate Fiscal can be summoned from Inverness to make the official investigation. Keira's brother-in-law suggests that Keira could assist Mr Gage with her extensive knowledge of anatomy. Thus begins an uneasy alliance, Keira thinks Mr Gage is a rake, a scoundrel, and far too good looking for his own good. Mr Gage does not trust Keira, especially since so many of the other guests think she must be responsible. However, when Keira correctly diagnoses something from Lady Godwin's corpse Mr Gage begins to respect her opinions.

I love a good country house murder mystery (or even a Scottish castle murder mystery). Other reviewers have commented on the anachronistic language in the book, there were a couple of things which jarred for me but the erroneous reference to raccoons appears to have been removed. Overall, I found the mystery to be thoroughly engrossing, I had my own theories about the murderer (and other things) which turned out to be wrong which is always a bonus, especially because it turns out that this was an attempt by the murderer to shift the blame onto an innocent party.

I am a firm favourite of Anna Lee Huber's Verity Kent series, which is set in the post-WW1 era, so I am pleased that this earlier series also looks to be great fun - I reserve judgement on whether the anachronistic use of language will become an issue.

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