Review: Breaking All The Rules

Breaking All The Rules by Amy Andrews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Bea(trice) Archer loses her well-earned promotion to a man who is by far her inferior she's had enough of California, the egg-white omelettes, the turmeric lattes, and the incessant need to be totally groomed. She's spent her entire adult life working hard, giving the proverbial 110%, giving up on friends and relationships, for what? The old boy network., that's what. So she throws a dart at a map and ends up in the small town of Credence, Colorado where she starts to binge-watch TV series she never had time for before whilst generally throwing the California rulebook out of the window. Yep, that means beer for breakfast, not washing her hair, living in baggy sweats and bunny slippers, and eating pie every day.

When a concerned citizen spots Bea ambling into the pie shop dressed (it has to be said) like someone a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic, the local law officers are called, enter Officer Austin Cooper. Now Austin might very well be a junior police officer in a small town, but he did his training in Denver, he just always wanted to be a police officer in his home town. He might be a stickler for the rules, but he has a wicked sense of humour, and he likes what he sees.

After the slightly grittier third book, this is a return to the Goldie Hawn-esque romantic comedy of the first two books. I particularly enjoyed the way in which Austin cited imaginary laws that Bea was breaking (for example by wearing her days of the week panties on the wrong days). Maybe Austin was just too perfect to be true, especially for a younger man - but this is romance for crissakes, and why can't we have a perfect hero?

Loved it. BUT I really want Arlo's story, there's a teaser for it, and I want it STAT!

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


View all my reviews

Review: The Christmas Express: An Out of Time Christmas Novella (Book 3)

The Christmas Express: An Out of Time Christmas Novella (Book 3) by Monique Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's Christmas Eve and the Cross family (Simon, Elizabeth, and their daughter Charlotte) are just playing a competitive game of Scrabble when a knock at the door precedes their latest mission. The writer Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) has unknowingly acquired one of the time travelling watches and the Crosses must somehow replace it with a harmless replica before Mr Clemens' natural curiosity leads him to play with the buttons at the wrong time.

Hence the Crosses travel back to 1898 and board a cross-country train on which Mr Clemens is a passenger bound to San Francisco. The family have numerous scrapes and adventures, but it will take all their charm and ingenuity to part Mr Clemens from his watch before the next eclipse.

I had no idea there were Christmas novellas and I can't believe I've missed them all this time. This one was discounted to 99p and such a bargain.

View all my reviews

Review: The Great Christmas Cook Off

The Great Christmas Cook Off by Helen Buckley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

For Christmas the TV producers have decided to put on a week-long celebrity chef cook off. Each day the chefs will be asked to make one traditional Christmas dessert (eg mince pies, Christmas cake etc) and the one with the lowest score gets voted off. Among the celebrity bakers are Beatrice Wodehouse, the upper-class woman dubbed the Queen of Chocolate (think Nigella Lawson) and the council-flat clean-eating fanatic Charlie Simmonds. Charlie and Bea had a falling out on national TV and have been sniping at each other on social media ever since. She thinks he's a killjoy and he thinks she is promoting an unhealthy lifestyle that can lead to obesity and other health issues. This competition is the chance for each of them to prove their baking is superior.

As the competition progresses there are a series of unfortunate accidents which precipitate each baker leaving, could there be a saboteur amongst them desperate to win at any cost? Of course Bea and Charlie each believe the other is to blame.

I enjoyed this, much more than the previous book Keeping Up with the Kershaws, which I have yet to finish. However, I did think the food descriptions did go on too long, Charlie's recipes seemed to have had all the joy sucked out of them and Bea's were just one-dimensional, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. Moreover, the identity of the saboteur was pretty easy to guess given all the clues and I thought the reason was a bit weak. (view spoiler)[I would have preferred a gambling problem or something along those lines. (hide spoiler)] Also, there was a bit of accusation, the apology on both sides one too many times. If you have wrongly accused once, and also been wrongly accused yourself, would you do it again? I think this book also suffers because this is not the first, or even the second, romance I have read which is an homage to The Great British Bake-Off.



View all my reviews

Review: Santa Grint

Santa Grint by Jodi Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first Time Police holiday novella.

It's Christmas and Commander Hay is watching the news which ends with a heart-warming story entitled The Time Police Officer with a Heart, which of course is exactly the opposite of what Commander Hays wants people to think about the Time Police.

As usual, Jodi Taylor delivers a rollicking (dare I say firetrucking?), holiday novella. It features all our favourite Time Police characters, a Christmas party for 30 orphans, a carefully planned 'kidnapping', £6.5 million or thereabouts, a toad, and (of course) illegal time machine shenanigans.

Loved it.

View all my reviews

Review: One Enchanted Evening

One Enchanted Evening by Katie Fforde
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the third book set in the 1960s loosely based around a group of young middle-class women who attended a cookery class in London. As I've said in my reviews of the previous books in this 'series', the historical setting works well for Katie Fforde's genre of romance which almost always features an artistic, slightly virginal (ie either a virgin or only ever had one lover, possible a deceased husband) young woman, and a taciturn man who turns out to have been secretly in love with her all the time. Think a modern Emma and you won't go far wrong.

Meg has been interning in London restaurants and has managed to get some good experience, despite the endemic sexism of the time. Then her mother, who is the live-in housekeeper at a stately home turned hotel in Dorset begs her to come and help out. The owner has gone to France to try to settle his father's will, leaving her alone to manage the hotel. There is an annual dinner held at the hotel and the irascible chef has fired all the local staff, preferring to use agency staff instead, who have cancelled at the last minute. As soon as Meg arrives the chef also quits and leaves her totally in the lurch. With the assistance of some of the locals and a long-term resident of the hotel, Meg manages to make a good start on preparing the meal, substituting some of the former chef's packet ingredients for more season-appropriate fresh ingredients from the extensive kitchen gardens. But just when everything seems to be under control a very rude young man comes into the kitchen and starts throwing his weight around. It's Justin, the owner's son, a chef in his own right, who seems determined to find fault with everything Meg has done.

The hotel's owner and Meg's mother are involved romantically, but he and his brother are locked in battle over their father's will and the hotel may need to be sold, especially since it is losing money. Meg loves the old hotel, even if it is looking a bit shabby, but it is losing out to a modern hotel close by, which has a celebrity chef and a swimming pool, as well as en-suite bathrooms, so she will do whatever she can to reinvigorate the hotel and bring in new customers.

I think this is one of the best Katie Fforde romances I have read for a while. The 1960s setting, and his ambivalent feelings towards his father, totally explains Justin's attitude to Meg and her mother, yet it is also quite clear to the reader fairly early on that Justin is also quite smitten by Meg and finds any excuse to visit the hotel. Sure you have to suspend disbelief a little bit to think that a coat of paint, a bunch of flowers, and a few new cushion covers will miraculous make the hotel more inviting, but much is made of the homely (in the good sense) atmosphere, more of a home-from-home than a hotel, somewhere the aristocracy can stay while attending social events in the area.

Anyway, loved it.

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

View all my reviews

Review: The Dueling Duchess

The Dueling Duchess by Minerva Spencer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second in the new series about a group of extraordinary women performing in an all-female circus called Farnham's Fantastical Female Fayre in the early 1800s. This novel features Cecile, the French sharp-shooter, and Lord Guy Darlington. The events of this book crossover with the events in the previous book (as indeed will the third book) but it isn't necessary to have read that to enjoy this.

In the first book the Fayre travelled to France on tour with Darlington and two of his aristocratic friends (Sin, the Duke of Staunton and Elliott) in attendance, disguised as workers. During their time in France Cecile and Guy became lovers, but agreed that their liaison would end once they returned to England. Guy needed to marry an heiress to rescue his destitute family and he could never marry a penniless circus performer.

It's a year later and things have changed drastically for Guy, a long-lost cousin, and the rightful heir, has returned to claim the dukedom and all the entailed property. Suddenly at one fell swoop Guy has lost his wealthy fiancé, his title, his home, and most of his so-called friends. But strangely Guy finds it liberating, free from his duty, and secure in the knowledge that his mother and unmarried sisters are well-provided for, he can follow his heart, if Cecile can ever forgive him. So he signs up to be one of the workers at the Fayre (again), secure in the knowledge that Cecile will make him suffer before she even contemplates forgiving him.

I really enjoyed this, as with the first book there are a myriad of storylines interwoven in the book, including: the strange romance between Elliott and Josephine Brown (better known as Blade for her skills in throwing knives); an orphan child; a missing heir; a white marriage; a governess in disguise; and a raven.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in return for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Review: Nobody Puts Romcoms In The Corner

Nobody Puts Romcoms In The Corner by Kathryn Freeman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sally is a hopeless romantic, she loves every romcom ever made and owns a coffee shop called the Love Bean (which I thought meant something completely different LOL) which carries cards in the window of every successful romance which has started with a date in her café.

Harry is Sally's opposite. A burly builder, he doesn't believe in romance AT ALL, and doesn't plan to fall in love. After he found his girlfriend 'entertaining' her boss, he left the house he lovingly restored and moved into Sally's spare room. At first the two of them are like ships that pass in the night, keeping their separate shelves in the fridge and only crossing paths in the hallways, then one night after a few too many glasses of wine, Sally tries to explain the iconic Dirty Dancing lift to Harry and they end up trying to recreate it - with predictably hilarious failure. However, when Sally loads the video into TikTok they become an overnight sensation with thousands of likes and comments clamouring for them to (fail to) recreate other iconic romcom scenes.

This was funny and referenced so many of my favourite romcom films, but there were a few I didn't recognise so I may have to watch them. I suspect that this book would be of little interest to someone who hadn't seen the majority of these films, but then I guess you wouldn't choose to read a romance unless you liked the genre in the first place.

I felt that the book lost a bit of focus in the middle, but in some ways that also helped to cement the growing romance between Harry and Sally, you get to see them falling in love gradually rather than it all happening way too fast.

I've enjoyed Kathryn Freeman's books in the past, although I am currently struggling to finish another of hers. This is definitely in the thumbs-up pile.

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

View all my reviews

Review: Cassandra in Reverse

Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Cassandra Dankworth is a woman of structure and routine. The same thing for breakfast every day, the same lunch at the same time every day, a place for everything and everything in its place. But she struggles to understand social interactions, like how long to look someone in the eye before it becomes creepy, or sarcasm.

In a cataclysm of disaster Cassandra manages to get dumped by her boyfriend, fired from her PR job, and her favourite café has no banana muffins. Overwhelmed by the events of the day, and by being swept up in a protest march, Cassandra accidentally travels back in time. At first she doesn't realise what has happened and thinks her boyfriend Will has had second thoughts, or perhaps she misunderstood his intentions.

Soon Cassandra discovers she can travel back in time but no longer than a few months earlier, certainly not long enough to save her parents from dying in a car crash a decade ago. so she uses the time to curate her relationship with Will, trying to fix whatever it was she did to make him break up with her. Time after time she relives brief moments trying over and over again to say the right words do the right thing.

So far, so standard romantic time-travel comedy right? Wrong. Cassandra is obsessed by the Greek and Roman gods, practically everything is likened to an ancient myth. She also 'sees' emotions as colours, unfortunately colours mean different things in different circumstances and with different people, so she can't just see a fuchsia emotion and go 'ah, he's irritated'. Her narrative reminded me very much of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, she takes things literally, she doesn't understand other people, she has to 'translate' their words and actions to try to decrypt a language she doesn't understand.

Not a romance, not a time travel novel, I'm not sure how to categorise this, other than very quirky!

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

View all my reviews

Review: The Love Wager

The Love Wager by Lynn Painter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Following a harrowing 'I don't think I ever really loved you' breakup, Hallie decides to step away from romance and concentrate on paying off her student loans and building up some savings by working three jobs and apartment-sharing. However, when an old school 'friend' talks about her being a Hot mess shit show when Hallie is bartending at a swanky wedding she realises her sensible plans might look a bit different from the outside. So when she accidentally gets drunk and has a one-night stand with the bride's brother she decides she's through acting like a college student. Hallie decides to get back into the dating game, get her own apartment, give up her part-time jobs, and dress more like the grown-up she really is.

Jack seems to have everything he could ever want on paper, rich, good-looking, highly-successful, but he's lonely. He almost made the terrible mistake of proposing to his latest girlfriend until her ridiculous (and unfounded) jealousy together with her atrocious behaviour towards the bartender at his sister's wedding brought him to his senses. His sister signs him up on a dating app - but his first match is none-other than his one-night stand from the wedding.

Hallie and Jack agree that they shouldn't date, but they get on so well that they decide to meet up after each date to discuss how it went and hone their dating techniques over tacos. Oh, and there's a side bet as to which one of them will find love first. Of course we the readers can see that they are totally right for each other but the two of them are oblivious, until Hallie finds a serious boyfriend and Jack gets jealous.

This was a pleasant read, good banter, and lots of sparks. The only problem is I didn't write a review and then couldn't remember anything about the book after only a couple of days. Ideal beach holiday reading.

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

View all my reviews

Review: In Love with Lewis Prescott

In Love with Lewis Prescott by Sarah Smith
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Harper Ellorza is a high-flying architect in San Francisco. She has decided to completely renovate her grandparents' home in Half Moon Bay and achieve all the things with it that they wanted but couldn't afford. She has resigned her job and plans to spend a year overseeing the renovations, but after her plans were slightly delayed by a family illness she arrives to find that the contractor has completely messed up her careful plans (painted the walls the wrong colour, laid the floor the wrong direction, fitted the kitchen doors badly, etc). Now, I let this go for artistic licence, but who pays their contractor for work without seeing what it looks like? Also, apparently this means that she will lose all her savings and won't be able to afford the reno, despite the fact that she is letting family stay rent-free in her apartment in Nob Hill, and that she is taking a year off work unpaid. It seems to me that she was the architect of her own problems, but hey artistic licence.

Feeling deeply unhappy about the contractor fiasco, Harper accidentally runs into a man outside a coffee shop who turns out to be TV hunk Lewis Prescott who has recently been fired from his show, dumped by his model girlfriend, and shouted obscenities at the paparazzi. Lewis is hiding out in a local grotty motel for a few months until the fuss dies down. When Harper tells him her woes he offers to renovate the house for free, if he can stay at the house while he's working.

Anyway, as they work side by side renovating the house they feel the attraction but at first try to resist because - awks - but eventually they can resist no longer. But what chance is there of this romance surviving the reno?

This had so much potential, but it got bogged down in not very much plot, trying on wedding dresses etc, and it seemed as though there was a nothing plot scene, followed by a sex scene, followed by a nothing plot scene over and over again. So, at this point I was thinking three stars, maybe three and a half depending on the ending. Then the author basically stole the ending of Notting Hill as the big finale, just set in San Francisco - I know that film practically off-by-heart, as I suspect do many other people and it was such an obvious lift that I knocked another star off.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review,

View all my reviews

Review: The Stranger Times:

The Stranger Times: by C.K. McDonnell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hannah once had a superficial but very wealthy life in London. Then she found out her husband had cheated on her multiple times. She may have got a leetle angry and accidentally set the house on fire. It was an accident, she swears. Now she refuses to take any money from him and is trying to stand on her own two feet, but having dropped out of university to be a trophy wife there aren't many job openings. So she finds herself 'interviewing' for a job at a backstreet Manchester newspaper called The Stranger Times which, for the Brits amongst us, takes over where The News of the World and other sensationalist newspapers left off. Headlines usually feature Elvis, aliens, and/or ghosts. Her co-workers are an eclectic group of misfits, conspiracy theorists, broken hacks, and truculent teenagers who subsist on copious quantities of tea and biscuits. The editor is a alcoholic who likes to fire people multiple times a day.

When an aspiring reporter is found dead at the bottom of a tall building under construction the police are quick to classify it a suicide, but nothing seems to add up - could it be that one of the fantastical stories they print week-in, week-out might be true?

This has Rivers of London vibes, but less serious, maybe more like the Brentford Trilogy. It's funny and an interesting read. On to the next in the series.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

View all my reviews

Review: Doc Showmance

Doc Showmance by Zoe Forward
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What happens when your college nemesis gets a job at your place of work and a reality TV producer thinks it would be a good idea to manufacture a romance between you?

Amber is an emergency vet, specialising in surgery. She is just one year from residency and is one of the stars of a reality TV programme about the practice. Ian presents a wildlife TV show which seems to necessitate him stripping off his shirt at regular intervals, but when a snafu with the producer's wife gets the show dropped he is blackmailed into coming on board Amber's veterinary show.

Amber and Ian were at veterinary college together, competing at every turn, until Ian humiliated Amber on Valentine's Day and his friends posted the evidence online. She's do absolutely anything to avoid Ian, but her foster-brother owes a loan shark $30,000 and she desperately needs the money.

But while Amber and Ian think they are enemies, the viewing public (and the canny editing of the footage) sees something completely different. But can this be an opposites attract, enemies to lovers, romance?

Zoe Forward is new to me, I liked Amber's feisty spirit and potty mouth. Also I liked that the veterinary scenes weren't all smooching cuddy cats. Ian's douche-y family were deliciously OTT villains and Amber's foster-siblings were each great characters. I liked the way Amber and Ian subverted the producer's plans. However, I did feel that the novel started to tread water about halfway in and could have done with more everyday reality TV activities (rather than the Pretty Woman-esque trip to San Francisco to see Ian's parents at Thanksgiving).

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

View all my reviews

Review: Deadly Christmas

Deadly Christmas by Rachel McLean
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's Christmas time in Birmingham and the team are hoping to get away for Christmas. Rhodri is going home to Wales, Connie's brother is home from uni, and so is Zoe's son.

On Sunday morning one of the street cleaners at the German Market in the city centre finds the body of a homeless man behind one of the cabins. At first the death just seems to be a tragedy, due to the cold, but the post-mortem indicates that the man has been poisoned ... with Thallium. Can DI Zoe Finch crack the case before Christmas?

This is a rather pleasant halfway house between a full-on detective novel and a holiday novella. There's a nosy neighbour, a homeless shelter and Zoe has to make a big decision soon. (BTW, can I just say I would much prefer Zoe and Adi as a couple).

Read on my Kindle Unlimited.

View all my reviews

Review: Deadly Christmas

Deadly Christmas by Rachel McLean
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's Christmas time in Birmingham and the team are hoping to get away for Christmas. Rhodri is going home to Wales, Connie's brother is home from uni, and so is Zoe's son.

On Sunday morning one of the street cleaners at the German Market in the city centre finds the body of a homeless man behind one of the cabins. At first the death just seems to be a tragedy, due to the cold, but the post-mortem indicates that the man has been poisoned ... with Thallium. Can DI Zoe Finch crack the case before Christmas?

This is a rather pleasant halfway house between a full-on detective novel and a holiday novella. There's a nosy neighbour, a homeless shelter and Zoe has to make a big decision soon. (BTW, can I just say I would much prefer Zoe and Adi as a couple).

Read on my Kindle Unlimited.

View all my reviews

Review: Deadly Christmas

Deadly Christmas by Rachel McLean
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's Christmas time in Birmingham and the team are hoping to get away for Christmas. Rhodri is going home to Wales, Connie's brother is home from uni, and so is Zoe's son.

On Sunday morning one of the street cleaners at the German Market in the city centre finds the body of a homeless man behind one of the cabins. At first the death just seems to be a tragedy, due to the cold, but the post-mortem indicates that the man has been poisoned ... with Thallium. Can DI Zoe Finch crack the case before Christmas?

This is a rather pleasant halfway house between a full-on detective novel and a holiday novella. There's a nosy neighbour, a homeless shelter and Zoe has to make a big decision soon. (BTW, can I just say I would much prefer Zoe and Adi as a couple).

Read on my Kindle Unlimited.

View all my reviews

Review: Deadly Reprisal

Deadly Reprisal by Rachel McLean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

After the (literally) explosive events of the last book, this is a return to police procedural. When two college students enter another student's room, they are looking to catch them taking drugs or in bed with someone, they didn't expect to find him dead. At first it is thought to be a drug overdose, but the forensics suggest someone may have forced the victim to ingest the drugs. There are rumours that the victim was a recluse, a creep, and possibly a rapist. The college warden is being obstructive (in the nicest possible way), and DS Ian Osman's corruption trial is looming.

A good solid detective story, with some good misdirection to divert attention from the killer.

View all my reviews

Review: Deadly Terror

Deadly Terror by Rachel McLean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Birmingham New Street station is rocked by a nail bomb, killing the female bomber and the police hostage negotiator sent in to speak to her. Shortly afterwards, a bomb explodes on a plane landing from Pakistan, killing most on board. Is Birmingham the latest area to be subject to terrorist attacks.

Meanwhile, lovely Sofia is at the airport to meet her sister from a plane arriving from Bulgaria. Her boyfriend's men who are escorting her ask her to help them collect seven young children from the plane, with the roads in chaos and the phone networks down her boyfriend Titi's men don't know where to take them so she suggests taking them to the large house they share, bringing herself into contact with what Titi really does for a living.

This is both a cracking good mystery about the bombings but also progresses the overarching story arc about police corruption A LOT. Absolutely gripping and I have already started on the next book.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

View all my reviews

Review: Deadly Desires

Deadly Desires by Rachel McLean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

DI Zoe Finch investigates when the bodies of two men are found mutilated in a bar in Birmingham's gay village. One died and one survives but has life-changing injuries and is unconscious. is this a homophobic attack? Who are these men? Why did the attacker mutilate the men like that?

This series is definitely starting to feel its feet, each book is a separate investigation but there is the overall police corruption and connection to organised crime arc which continues. The series walks the narrow line between cosy crime and what I term slasher serial killer crime with a diverse team of investigators, each with their own stories.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

View all my reviews

Review: A Hard Day for a Hangover

A Hard Day for a Hangover by Darynda Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

The finale to the Sunshine Vicram trilogy. I guess it is possible to read this as a stand-alone (I haven't read the first book), but I wouldn't recommend it.

Sunshine Vicram is the sheriff of her small hometown, a single mother of Auri, a precocious teen who insists on trying to investigate mysteries on her own. (view spoiler)[Sunshine has recently discovered that Auri was not as a result of her abduction and rape as a teenager, but instead the result of a night of passion with Levi Ravinder. She has also discovered that she was effectively press-ganged into taking the job as sheriff by a cabal of local people (including her own parents) who secretly run the town (although not very well given previous events LOL) and has been co-opted as the leader of said secret society. (hide spoiler)]

A call comes in that a young girl has been found half-way down a ravine by a hunter, badly beaten and barely clothed, Sunshine and her team have to mount a rescue, assisted by the mysterious Levi Ravinder, Sunshine's long-term crush. No-one can identify the girl, who is in a coma, but Auri recalls the school mean girl mentioning a cousin who was supposed to visit and never arrived - could this be the girl? Then Sunshine hears of two other girls who have either gone missing or been injured near the ravine - are they connected?

I haven't looked back at my review for the second book, but I suspect it says something very similar to this one. There is just too much going on, it's unnecessary and, in my opinion, not very funny. First off, the secret society - totally unnecessary. Second, the 'humorous' signs which start each chapter - funny once, thereafter irritating and bear no resemblance to the plot. Third, the rivalry between Levi and his no-good uncle and his other uncle being in prison for a crime he didn't commit - should have been resolved in the previous book and ended in a totally ludicrous OTT scene. Finally, would a precocious child, like Auri, really get words confused all the time?

I suspect that this sort of thing works a bit better in Darynda Jones' paranormal series Charley Davidson where characters are expected to be OTT and enigmatic - doesn't work so well for a small-town businessman. I see that Darynda says this series was intended to be Gilmore Girls meets Fargo, I think the issue with that is that the Gilmore Girls was all about the dialogue and the plot was quite gentle, trying to smash it into a decade-old abduction mystery, a romance, several disappearances, and a family feud is just manic.

In my opinion this would have benefitted from a few plot strands being ditched, maybe just leaving a wise-cracking sheriff?

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


View all my reviews

Review: Deadly Choices

Deadly Choices by Rachel McLean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Zoe Finch is acting SIO in a kidnapping when Alison Osman takes her two children to Cadbury World; she turns her back for five minutes to get them a snack and they disappear. Alison's husband Ian is a serving police officer, could the kidnapping be a grudge from an enemy?

This twisted and turned as suspicion fell on lots of different people, especially when Zoe discovers that the same building firm is doing the roof at the Osman house as were working on ACC Jackson's house, could Ian Osman be connected to the Canary investigations?

This was both a self-contained kidnapping story and progressing the overarching Canary investigation. Very enjoyable.

View all my reviews

Review: Deadly Wishes

Deadly Wishes by Rachel McLean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

I have read Rachel MacLean's other police series set in Dorset so when I saw this book on Prime, I decided to give this series a go.

Zoe Finch has just been made up to acting Detective Inspector after some good work on the Canary investigation (which I assume is the subject of the prequel novella which I also have but haven't read). A single mother of a gay teenage son from a relationship with another (married) police officer, she lives in a student area of Birmingham, England.

The night of Assistant Chief Constable Bryn Jackson's surprise retirement party, he returns home with his wife only to be stabbed in the neck in his study with a ceremonial dagger (sounds like Cluedo). Whilst most of the more senior DIs are drunk or sleeping off the night's drinks, Zoe is sober and first on the scene after Mrs Jackson calls 999. Initially it looks like a robbery gone wrong, but soon the evidence points closer to home ... could Mrs Jackson have killed her abusive husband?

Zoe is soon replaced by DCI David Randle, a friend of ACC Jackson and Zoe's boss. But as the investigation progresses Zoe is puzzled by DCI Randle's orders which seem contradictory and ignore key clues. Is there more to ACC Jackson's death than meets the eye, and could he be involved in Canary?

Also, I don't know if it is just my Kindle version, but Chapter One ends with ACC Jackson's murder but Chapter Two jumps back in time to his retirement party, with no indication that this is earlier in the evening. At first, I thought that ACC Jackson had been stabbed in the side with one of those slow death wounds and gone on to the party, not knowing he was fatally injured which really confused me. I've checked and both the Kindle and paperback samples on Amazon have the same issue.

Anyway, there is clearly a series arc relating to police corruption starting out, although annoyingly the arc cliff-hanger (for want of a better description) is very similar to that of another book I read recently, Holy Island.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

View all my reviews

Review: Holy Island

Holy Island by L.J. Ross
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

DCI Ryan has been on enforced sabbatical following a case in which his own sister was murdered. He has been spending his time on Lindisfarne, an island off the coast of Northumbria with a population of 200, drinking and feeling sorry for himself.

Shortly before Christmas, his pity-party for one is rudely terminated when a dog-walker finds the body of a young woman murdered, her body left in a way which suggests pagan rituals. Given that the island is cut off from the mainland for several hours every day, Ryan suggests to his Superintendent that he resumes active duties and leads the investigation. His superior officer concurs but sends a professor from the University who specialises in pagan rituals to the island to assist the investigation.

Doctor Anna Taylor was brought up on Lindisfarne, but after a family tragedy and her sister's betrayal she left and moved to the mainland. Now she's back as a police consultant but her return is not welcomed by everyone.

Initially I found some of the writing to be a bit confusing, there was talk of nights being pitch black so you can't see and then immediately references to the sky being full of stars, and other such anomalies. Then the plot started to unfold and I was intrigued. Unfortunately, I found it hard to believe in a plot in which a young woman had slept with nearly every man on the island and in which at least 5% of the population are members of a satanic cult. I know in detective stories the writer will give the reader several suspects to choose from, in this case all the suspects were guilty!

In all honesty, it reminded me of a creepy children's TV series back in the 1970s, called The Children of The Stones, maybe its just the epilogue.

Anyway, happy to continue reading on Kindle Unlimited as the series finds its feet. I see there are 20 books in the series so I assume it does.

View all my reviews

Review: ‎ Because You Loved Me

‎ Because You Loved Me by Beth Moran
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Marion flees her home in Northern Ireland, her neglectful mother, and her fiancé, to travel to Sherwood Forest seeking answers about her father, who died when Marion was a small child. Looking for directions to the visitor centre, Marion is mistaken for someone else and gets a temporary job taking bookings at a holiday park. The manager of the holiday park, Scarlett takes Marion under her wing and gives her a caravan to live in and a job at the park.

There are two men who seem to be interested in Marion, her co-worker Jake, who has his own tragic family life, and Reuben, the son of the local lord of the manor. But someone else seems to have their eye on Jake, and Reuben already has a very glamorous girlfriend.

As Marion investigates her father's secret past, she clearly upsets someone judging by the threatening note that is thrown through her window, but then the future of the holiday park is put in jeopardy and Marion must do everything in her power to keep it going.

There is so much I have missed out, absentee fathers, Robin Hood re-enactments, assault, murder, illness, abuse, cooking lessons, BBQs, pigs and chickens, a fancy ball, al fresco romps, and more. And, unfortunately for me, that was part of the problem, this felt like Beth Moran threw everything but the kitchen sink at this one. Marion's childhood was tragic, and depressing. There are numerous 'baddies', most of whom are caricatures (and also women - why is that?) when just one would have sufficed. There are multiple issues affecting the caravan park and its inhabitants. I think this would have been better if the stories had been spread across several novels so that each person got their own book.

Overall, a charming romance, despite the numerous sad events depicted.

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

View all my reviews

Review: Happy Place

Happy Place by Emily Henry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sabrina, Cleo and Harriet met at college and have been each other's 'ride-or-die' friends ever since. Every summer they and their significant others have met up for a week of drinking and eating lobster at Sabrina's family's multi-million-dollar holiday home. But this year things are different; Sabrina's father is selling the villa.

Harriet and Wyn, Cleo and Kimmy, Sabrina and Parth, each couple has their secrets which will be unveiled over a tumultuous week. Does this signal the end of their friendship? Harriet is the main character, she gets to the villa prepared to tell everyone that she and Wyn split up six months ago, but when she arrives Wyn is very much in situ and Sabrina's news makes them decide to keep their break-up to themselves for the time being.

Told in vague flashbacks interspersed with real-time from their annual vacation I'm afraid I lost patience with this story long before the end. Ordinarily I love Emily Henry's novels and I was really excited to be offered an advanced copy to review but I found this all a bit juvenile, everything could have been resolved in about 30 minutes if any of the characters had actually told the others the truth at any point, instead they all run around making assumptions and indulge in a lot of navel-gazing. Truthfully, I didn't warm to either Wyn or Harriet. Sorry, just not for me this one.

I was offered an ARC of this novel by the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Review: The Murder Garden

The Murder Garden by Alice Castle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Eighth in a cosy detective series set in the chichi London suburb of Dulwich Village. Our heroine Beth Haldane is a single mother, widowed very young, with a propensity for stumbling over murders in what had until recently been a very safe area of London. She and her 'boyfriend' DCI Harry York seem to have given up on the idea of buying a house together in a cheaper area and have instead decided to build a Shoffice (part shed and part office) at the end of the garden. Unfortunately, Beth's dreams of getting rid of Harry's Golden Age novels and her son's gaming equipment into the Shoffice is thwarted when the builders find what is unmistakably a human bone. With Harry working late on another case, a group of dedicated CSI detectives traipsing in and out of her cottage, and a dog desperate to eat said bones, Beth is forced to investigate the murder in order to have any chance of getting her Shoffice built.

Finally, a book in this series in which the reader has a chance to guess the murderer's identity because there are actual clues! It's only taken eight books to get to this point. Also, I think Alice Castle has realised that there seems to be little chemistry between Harry and Beth and has introduced a potential new love interest in the form of the dour chief CSI officer - already he gets my vote over the bossy and fairly useless Harry. As I have noted previously, this series takes cosy mysteries to a new level where there is more detail about who Beth has coffee with and what homework her son has been set than there is actual detecting.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley and on my Kindle Unlimited subscription in return for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Review: The Murder Hour

The Murder Hour by Alice Castle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Seventh book in the series set in wealthy, privileged, Dulwich Village where yummy mummies prowl the crowded streets in their Chelsea tractors (aka Range Rovers), dressed in Lulu Melon yogawear and competing viciously to get their precious male children into the prestigious Wyatt's School.

Beth Haldane, unlike many other mothers, was born in Dulwich Village and as a young widow she doesn't really fit into the dynamic. She (barely) works as an archivist for Wyatt's school three mornings a week and does some freelance writing to make ends meet. Oh, and she also has the unfortunate habit of finding dead bodies.

In this latest, and even more ludicrous than the last, book Beth has been persuaded by her 'boyfriend' DCI Harry York that she needs to move out of her charming but poky cottage in Dulwich Village and that they should buy a place together in a slightly more affordable area like Sydenham. Whilst logically understanding that they need more space and can't afford to buy in Dulwich Village, Beth can't bring herself to take things seriously and has found reasons to reject all the houses they have seen so far. Then, on her latest visit the Estate Agent who was supposed to show her the house turns out to have been murdered and stuffed into a kitchen larder!

As noted in my previous reviews of this series, my feeling is that these books are so 'cosy/cozy' that there is very little detecting involved, we read a lot about coffee in chi-chi shops and expensive handbags, and cat hairs then out of thin air Beth solves the crime without (as my maths teacher used to say) showing the workings. It is always as an afterthought that someone asks 'how did you know that X was the murderer' just so we the readers can find out what happened. These are okay but TBH if I didn't have the eighth book sitting on my TBR pile as an ARC and the books are all on Kindle Unlimited, I probably wouldn't bother reading any more.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

View all my reviews

Review: The Murder Mystery

The Murder Mystery by Alice Castle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



View all my reviews

Review: The Murder Club: An absolutely addictive cozy mystery

The Murder Club: An absolutely addictive cozy mystery by Alice Castle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Beth's self-absorbed mother Wendy needs Beth's help when her Bridge partner Alf dies suddenly during the tea break. He was an elderly man so his death is being seen as inevitable, but Wendy is convinced he has been poisoned.

In other news, Jake has got into Wyatt's, Beth is still doing absolutely no work (for which she is being paid by Wyatt's), Katie's dog Teddy has served its purpose and has now been consigned to a dog-walker and I don't expect we'll hear from him again. Oh, and Belinda the middle school bully mother is having a hard time exerting her power now the boys have gone to Big School and most of the other children didn't get into Wyatt's.

As always, Beth's social life, family life, and general faffing take precedence over any actual plot and in this case the identity of the murderer and the reasons are utterly ridiculous.

As noted in my previous reviews, my feeling is that these books are so 'cosy/cozy' that there is very little detecting involved, we read a lot about coffee in chi-chi shops and expensive handbags, and cat hairs then out of thin air Beth solves the crime without (as my maths teacher used to say) showing the workings. It is always as an afterthought that someone asks 'how did you know that X was the murderer' just so we the readers can find out what happened. These are okay but TBH if I didn't have the eighth book sitting on my TBR pile as an ARC and the books are all on Kindle Unlimited I probably wouldn't bother reading any more.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

View all my reviews

Review: There's No Place Like Home

There's No Place Like Home by Jane Lovering
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Join Izzy and five random strangers camping on the Yorkshire Moors for a new reality TV show where groups attempt to find proof of mythical creatures which roam outdoor spaces like the Beast of Bodmin Moor, or in Izzy's group's case, an alleged puma.

Izzy is more motivated by the £100 a day salary which, if she lasts the full 30 days, will give her enough money to put down a deposit on a flatshare than the share of £250,000 for incontrovertible proof that the animal exists, although it would mean an end to sofa-surfing in friend's flats.

Joining Izzy is misery-guts Mac from Glasgow, a Notting Hill socialite called Kanga who thought it would be more like Love Island, a married farmer called Seb, a young very religious girl called Ruth, and an American Big-Foot hunter called Junior.

Everyone has their own reasons for agreeing to be on the show, and everyone has their secrets, is anyone who they seem? But as they fight the elements and track the mysterious puma, is someone laying false trails or is there really something out there?

This was pleasant enough, but I didn't really get engaged. Maybe I needed the book to either start earlier in the story or continue after the reality TV show ended. Either way, I just felt like the problems each of the characters faced were told to the reader rather than being shown and, as a consequence, were less vivid. Not, in my opinion, one of Jane Lovering's better works.

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

View all my reviews

Review: Save the Best for Last

Save the Best for Last by Jennifer Probst
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Tessa Harper and her two friends own Quench, a highly successful women's magazine. Tessa specialises in makeovers where she helps women build their self esteem and go after what they really want in life. However, just recently Tessa has started to feel somewhat unfulfilled, all these women seem to want to do is get some guy's attention - this shouldn't about getting a guy but about being your best self.

Then when some research indicates that the magazine is losing out by not having any kind of sports articles, one of her friends suggests that Tessa gets some advice from a mutual friend, Ford Maddox, who hosts a very successful sports radio chat show. Ford and Tessa don't really get on, they each think the other's job is silly, she thinks he's a man child and he thinks she's an uptight, snobby princess. Ford has been in love with his co-worker Patricia for two years but she has strictly friend-zoned him while dating guys who cheat on her and treat her badly.

In return for teaching Tessa about sports, giving her some advice about sports stars to interview, and co-hosting a podcast with her, Ford asks for a makeover to help him win the fair Patricia. Will these two opposites realise that they are meant for each other?

This was okay, but I can't help but feel that Ford's makeover was just wear better shoes and white t-shirts and have a few scatter cushions whilst Tessa had to become less high maintenance and learn to love sport. I would have loved Ford to have had to do more because he didn't seem to grow as a person.

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

View all my reviews

Review: The Murder Walk: A totally unputdownable cozy murder mystery

The Murder Walk: A totally unputdownable cozy murder mystery by Alice Castle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Beth's BFF Katie has bought a puppy which has turned out to be a bit of a liability seeing as how it tries to mount any dogs smaller than itself (FYI, my seven month old puppies are barely at that stage so how Katie's new puppy is doing that I don't know). Anyway, Teddy, the puppy, has become persona non grata at Dulwich Park necessitating Katie and Beth to take him to Peckham Rye. Katie lets him off the lead (again, why would you do that with a dog you can't control) and chasing after him Beth comes across a Labrador in a thicket standing guard over a dead body.

The dead body is that of a local renowned artist, while the police investigate his murder Beth agrees to look after his dog Colin. Apparently Colin and his owner were well-known for walking in the Rye of a morning and then in Dulwich Park in the afternoon. Then Beth and Katie find £30,000 in cash stuck in a tree close to where they found the body, are the two things connected?

As noted in my last review, my feeling is that these books are so 'cosy/cozy' that there is very little detecting involved, we read a lot about coffee in chi-chi shops and expensive handbags, and cat hairs then out of thin air Beth solves the crime without (as my maths teacher used to say) showing the workings. It is always as an afterthought that someone asks 'how did you know that X was the murderer' just so we the readers can find out what happened. These are okay but TBH if I didn't have the eighth book sitting on my TBR pile as an ARC and the books are all on Kindle Unlimited I probably wouldn't bother reading any more.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

View all my reviews

Review: The Murder Plot: An utterly gripping cozy crime novel

The Murder Plot: An utterly gripping cozy crime novel by Alice Castle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's the Christmas holidays and Beth Haldane is safely ensconced with her son at home. Her BFF Katie and family have gone skiing leaving Beth a bit high-and-dry, until she befriends another mum at the school gates, Nina. Nina is most definitely not like all the other Dulwich Village school mums, first off she works for a living as receptionist/dogsbody to a local solicitor, and second she is very working class. (There is a dreadful running joke that Nina gets all her proverbs/well-known sayings wrong eg, 'take it to the gravy' instead of 'take it to the grave', it's not in the least bit funny and it's rather unkind).

Anyway, Nina is convinced that her boss, Mr Potter is up to no good and persuades Beth to cover for her as receptionist while NIna looks after Beth's son (looking after consisting of feeding oven chips and fish fingers and plonking him in front of the TV all day). Soon Beth is breaking into her boss' office and trying to unlock his desk and filing cabinets.

Meanwhile, there is a spate of dogs dying, possibly poisoned, which has got the yummy mummies up in arms.

The romance with DI Heath has progressed, although I suspect Alice Castle is having second thoughts as neither seems particularly happy, especially since Beth seems to solve more cases that the police do.

This is the fourth book in the series that I have read and my feeling is that these are so 'cosy/cozy' that there is very little detecting involved, we read a lot about coffee in chi-chi shops and expensive handbags, and cat hairs then out of thin air Beth solves the crime without (as my maths teacher used to say) showing the workings. It is always as an afterthought that someone asks 'how did you know that X was the murderer' just so we the readers can find out what happened. These are okay but TBH if I didn't have the eighth book sitting on my TBR pile as an ARC and the books are all on Kindle Unlimited I probably wouldn't bother reading any more.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

View all my reviews

Review: On the Line

On the Line by Amanda Chaperon
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 91%, a new personal record!

Mitch is a professional ice hockey defenseman, playing for the LA Knights. Two years ago he was playing for the Michigan Warriors when he met Lexie at a club. Before he got his big break playing hockey as a teenager, Mitch and his mother suffered a lot of abuse at the hands of his alcoholic father. Lexie is a successful headhunter travelling the US persuading candidates to accept jobs. The daughter of two highly-successful venture capitalists, Lexie was just a possession to them, something to be trotted out in front of family-focused investors, and she has suffered with abandonment issues ever since which she copes with by never getting close to anyone who could hurt her.

Told both in the present day (which itself moves forward at least a year) and in flashbacks from two years ago, and coming closer in time, we see how Mitch and Lexie met, had a smokin' one night stand, got together again and finally fell in love, only to spectacularly implode when Mitch got traded to the Knights.

Honestly, I really tried to finish this book but when the two of them started over with their push-me-pull-me shenanigans AGAIN I had to bail. When things get tough Lexie runs away (literally and figuratively), when one of them makes an approach to mend the rift the other pushes them away, then they each spend weeks (yes weeks) angsting about what they would have done differently. And then they do it again.

When yet another of these ridiculous scenarios starts for the umpteenth time, I threw in the towel.

Also, be warned, this is the sort of novel where Lexie has two besties from college who will literally shout at her for making it all about her when her boyfriend dumps her, not thinking about how him leaving Michigan affects his friends! These friends are all deeply insightful when it comes to Lexie's problems but I bet good money they were similarly clueless when it came to their own love lives. And fancy thinking that making MItch Best Man and Lexie Chief Bridesmaid at your wedding wouldn't be awkward!

Anyway, when you are forcing yourself to read a book and doing literally anything other than reading, it's time to quit, even if I was close to the end.

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

View all my reviews

Review: Here We Go Again...: Unpublished Letters to the Daily Telegraph 14

Here We Go Again...: Unpublished Letters to the Daily Telegraph 14 by Kate Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Always a winner for me in my Christmas Stocking, still going strong after fourteen years, although I am surprised that this won't be published until after Christmas.

These unpublished reader's letters to the Daily Telegraph range on topics far and wide including Partygate, Boris Johnson's stint as Prime Minister, the NHS, the Omicron variant, and the Royal Family.

Perfect to dip in and out of, always amusing, these readers really do write the most amusing letters. Perfect for the angry person in your life, keep it by the loo, or (more hygienic) on your bedside table for that amusing antidote to everyday life.

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

View all my reviews

Review: Sugar Plum Spies

Sugar Plum Spies by Jennifer Estep
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Charlotte Locke and Desmond Percy, Section 47 spies have inveigled their way into a Christmas party hosted by a notorious fence for criminals. The highlight of the party will be the unveiling of the magnificent Sugar Plum ring, worth $30 million, which each of the guests have paid $10,000 to see. Charlotte and Desmond hope to trap their nemesis, but information about other criminals is always handy.

Charlotte is undercover as a waitress, dressed as a 'sugar plum' (FYI, this seems to mean more of a toy soldier) whilst Desmond is pretending to be a criminal. Things are going well until unexpected guests disrupt proceedings and try to rob the venue. Can Charlotte and Desmond, with the help of Charlotte's trusty ex-Section 47 friend Gabriel, thwart the thieves and complete their mission? What do you think?

If you haven't read the two Section 47 novels that precede this then this could be an entry-level novella. Basically alongside the mortal world is one involving people with supernatural abilities, or synesthesia, Section 47 are the police of these supernaturals, many of whom use their powers for evil, however someone (or more than one person) has been sharing confidential information with criminals and Charlotte and Desmond are determined to discover the mole.

An action-packed holiday novella, with all the tinsel you could wish, but without the schmaltzy Hallmark vibe. Short, exciting and a great read.

View all my reviews

Review: Princess and the Player

Princess and the Player by Ilsa Madden-Mills
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Where to start?

Francesca Lane is an artist who works as a tattooist while she tries to sell her art. When her fiance dumps her for the shop manager just before her wedding she decides the only way to get over the betrayal is to go to a masked ball at a sex club to get over him. At the ball she meets Tuck Avery, he's a big-shot NFL player but because they are both masked neither knows who the other is. After a steamy night they go their separate ways, never realising that they both live in the same apartment building (don't even get me started on how a struggling tattoo artist can afford to live in the same apartment building - it's a ridiculous story).

Tucker has a terrible family history (don't they all), he's the original poor little rich boy, and as a consequence he fears getting close to other people. Added to which a recent injury may spell the end of his NFL career and he is having trouble controlling his anger. At first when he sees Francesca at his local restaurant ordering take-out he is suspicious that she is stalking him (not the first time that has happened to him), but soon he is falling under her spell.

I seriously considered DNFing this book. I guess if you think it is perfectly normal (or even sexy) to go to a sex club in your wedding dress and hook up with a stranger then you'll probably find this a great read. I had seen rave reviews about Ilsa Madden-Mills so I was eager to request an ARC, but sadly this is is not for me. There are so many unbelievable plot lines (I won't even call them twists), Francesca calls them serendipity but I just see it as the author forcing a square peg in a round hole.

So, ridiculous plot and one bonk scene after another, not my cup of tea but horses for courses as they say.

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

View all my reviews

Review: Unworthy

Unworthy by Susie Tate
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

It's now the turn of Yaz, Max's little sister from Unperfect. In a family of professionals, Yaz stands out, she's the yoga-teaching, windsurfer chick with a beach wardrobe that's the butt of everyone's jokes. Little do her family know that she is actually a very highly regarded windsurfer and runs her own beachfront business promoting wellness and giving classes to the community (although how on earth don't they know). Her parents have never truly understood why she didn't want to go to university and every conversation eventually circles round to that.

When she was a child Yaz idolised Max's BFF Heath, he and his twin Verity went to school with Max and befriended the little Northern lad who didn't fit into the posh private school. In return Heath used to stick up for Yaz, but more recently Heath has been her worst critic, as a Doctor he poo-poos all her alternative therapies and his favourite adjective is 'ridiculous'.

Heath and Verity might be fabulously wealthy but their childhood was anything but gilded, not many children are happy to go to boarding school at the age of seven, but they were. As a result, Heath has a list of qualities in his ideal woman and Yaz is the antithesis of every single one! Yet no other woman manages to create the same visceral reaction as she does. Can he get over himself in time to realise that what he thinks he wants isn't what he needs and that Yaz might not look the part but she is reliable, organised and loyal?

First off, I love Susie Tate's books and sat here on holiday thinking, I wonder if she has written anything or whether that pesky pandemic kept her nose too close to the grindstone. So I checked and there was a brand new book whoo-hoo. While I did enjoy this, I felt like Heath was sailing too close to some of her other MMCs who all make the wrong assumptions about the FMC, which is why my usual four stars got knocked down to three and a half. I have also redownloaded and started rereading all her other books, oh the joys of a two week beach holiday.

View all my reviews

Review: By a Thread

By a Thread by Lucy Score
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I think it must be a sign of getting old when you think, 'this would have been a much better book if the author didn't insist on filling it with sex every five minutes'.

And OMG the angst!

Ally was a solvent, happy, thirty-nine year old until her father got sick. Then a bad situation got worse and worse (just catastrophe after catastrophe) and now she's working four part-time jobs and trying to repair his house in her (limited) spare time. It is in one of these jobs, waitressing at a pizza place, where she meets Dominic.

Dominic is fashion editor of his mother's print and online fashion magazine, brought in from his investing job a year ago after his father was 'exited' from the business for highly inappropriate behaviour. Dominic feels totally out of his depth, convinced the staff hate/fear him, knowing others are better qualified for the job, and wishing desperately for his old career. Against this backdrop, when an uppity waitress tells him off for using his phone in the restaurant despite the no phones sign and makes some totally inappropriate comments when he ignores her, he is gunning for a fight. When said waitress spells out a rude message in pepperoni on his pizza Dominic goes ballistic and gets her fired. Now leaving aside the improbability of the owner of a fashion magazine (think Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada) and her billionaire son eating in a questionable pizza joint, what kind of asshat gets a minimum wage employee fired? I get that this is supposed to be a grumpy boss romance but that's not grumpy, its abuse of power.

In fact, there seems to be a lot of rewriting of history in this book. At first the reader is led to believe that all the staff at the magazine fear Dominic because he never smiles, and they all call him Mr Russo, never Dominic, and I'm sure they all seem to shake with fear when he speaks to them. This is later refocused as everyone finding him so attractive that they can't even look him in the eye?

Anyway, the woman Dominic is dining with is his mother, and she chases after Ally and offers her an admin job at the magazine as compensation for her son getting Ally fired. She also has an ulterior motive, she wants to find out what staff morale is like after the departure of her husband and a number of the senior management.

Despite her monetary issues, Ally is incapable of keeping her mouth shut, and bolstered by Dominic's mother saying that he can't fire her, she is rude to him whenever they meet. He calls her Maleficent and she calls him Charming (because Prince Charming he ain't). Soon their 'banter' is the talk of the office, but because of his father's transgressions Dominic will never cross the line with an employee (which frankly leads to more disturbing scenes where he masturbates in his office bathroom every night). Similarly, Ally desperately needs this job to keep her father in the nursing home which looks after him, so she can't quit. But they are wildly attracted to each other. It's push-me, pull-me. Ally gets upset because she doesn't LISTEN to what Dominic says, he doesn't say he doesn't want her, he says he can't cross that line. Dominic gets upset because Ally won't divulge all her financial issues and secrets to HER BOSS.

Then there is the ludicrous scene where Ally resorts to amateur night at her BFF's strip club to earn money because there was a snafu with her pay and the payroll team just shrugged their shoulders and did nothing. Of course Dominic overhears and follows her to the stripclub where he pays for a private lap dance - sleazy much?

Overall, as others have said. This is supposed to be a romance about a thirty-nine year old FMC who has grit and determination and skills and her forty-four year old MMC boss, whereas it reads more often like a pair of high school teens. The snark and plot were really enjoyable and stopped me downgrading this to a two and a half star review but the rest was so cliched and angst-filled that it made me laugh more than anything.

Free on my Kindle Unlimited subscription and I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

View all my reviews

Review: About Time

About Time by Jodi Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Aanndd this series just keeps getting better, even though I'm not sure I can truly explain it coherently (although it all made sense when I was reading it, honest guv). I really don't suggest you start the series here as there are so many characters whose back-stories are laid out in the previous books, although you could probably get away without reading the St Mary's series beforehand (although why wouldn't you? They're awesome!).

The Time Police appear to be riding a tide of popularity, they are tipped to win a parliamentary vote to award them more funding and everything is looking rosy. Then a trip to arrest a minor criminal selling plastic skulls to gullible peasants blows up in their faces, unravelling unknown facts about Jane's family and the death of her parents. The secrets break up Team Weird (or Team 236 to give them their official designation, just when they were starting to get things right. Luke is threatening to leave the Time Police if he can't get reassigned, Matthew has gone to St Mary's, and Jane is hiding in her quarters arguing with Bolshie Jane.

With illegal trips to 1940s America to meet with Nikolai Tesla, a jump to a secret location which turns out to be way scarier than it first appears, and a brilliant comedic scene with Luke and his father goading their enemies this is Jodi Taylor gold, also I didn't miss the hidden nuggets she just tossed in like throwaway lines (of course I can't remember a single one at 3:36 am when I'm writing this because I've just flown halfway round the world and can't sleep).

Anyway, loved it, loved it, loved it. Can't wait for the first Time Police Christmas novella - Christmas dinner may be a bit late at our house this year.

View all my reviews

Review: Lady of Fortune

Lady of Fortune by Mary Jo Putney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Originally published in 1998, this has been given a new cover and (I assume) brought more up-to-date, if one can say that about an historical romance.

Marie-Christine ('Christa'), Comtesse D'Estelle, flees France in the wake of the French Revolution believing her beloved mother Marie-Claire and English step-brother Charles. have been killed by revolutionaries as they tried to escape. She spends the first year in England with Charles' uncle Lewis who has inherited Charles' estate, but when Lewis reveals that she in penniless and offers his hand in marriage, Christa feels compelled to run away and seek employment as a governess. Unfortunately, at the height of the French Revolution London is awash with french emigres seeking employment and Christa is reduced to seeking employment as a lady's maid.

Captain Lord Alexander ('Alex') Kingsley receives word from England that his vicious, narcissistic mother has died, unable to command a naval ship after receiving shrapnel wounds in battle, Alex realises it is time to return to England and face his responsibilities as head of the house and older brother to his sister Annabelle and brother Jonathan. To his surprise, he is greeted with joy by his siblings, but he is horrified at the damage that his mother's spite has wreaked on them, both Annabelle and Jonathan are hesitant and prone to self-doubt, no doubt Annabelle's shyness and insecurity has been fanned by her mother's lady's maid who she has inherited, and who loved no-one but her mistress. His first job must be to find Annabelle a new maid to help her make the most of her features.

When Alex quite literally catches Christa as she is being forcibly ejected from her previous employment for spurning the advances of the master of the house, he is immediately struck by Christa's beauty, but also her quick wit and charm. He has rescued a lady's maid and his sister has need of one - how serendipitous!

Being a sophisticated and resourceful woman, despite being only twenty-four, Christa is soon able to dress Annabelle in clothes more becoming and fashionable than those chosen by her mother, with her knowledge of beauty treatments and the like she soon has the shy heiress looking exquisite. Christa also weaves her magic over Alex and Jonathan, helping the two of them learn to dance in anticipation of Annabelle's coming-out ball.

While Alex and Christa fight their growing attraction, little do they realise that a wealthy titled young aristocrat and his innocent heiress sister will be the target of fortune-hunters.

Well this has everything, missing heirs, wounded sea captains, fortune-hunters, elopements, compromising positions, daring rescues, and all's well that ends well. If I were being picky, Christa is a bit of a Mary Sue character, able to act as a lady's maid perfectly able to teach young men to dance, able to sew her own gowns beautifully, able to make herbal remedies and beauty potions, able to perform first aid, etc, etc. Also, there is a frankly ridiculous thing that happens on Stornaway, not once but twice, which stretches incredulity to breaking point. Nevertheless, this was a hugely enjoyable historical romance, which avoided some of the biggest cliches of the genre and tied everything up very neatly - maybe I need to read more historical fiction written in the late 1990s?

Recommended if you like a resourceful FMC and an honourable MMC, beset by trials and tribulations.

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

View all my reviews

Review: Threadneedle

Threadneedle by Cari Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Anna has led a very sheltered life. After her father murdered her mother and then killed himself she has been brought up by her aunt. Her aunt is part of a witches grove called the binders who hope to protect witches from the Hunters who would torture and kill them, by binding their magical powers (which is just as nasty as it sounds). Anna's aunt wants her to be bound and has been training her to repress her emotions in various rather cruel ways.

Anna goes to a girls school in Dulwich and has spent her entire life trying to hide away, which has earned her the title of Nobody from the clique of mean girls who rule the school, led by the Head Girl Darcey. But all that changes when Anna cousin Effie and her boyfriend Attis announce that Effie will also be attending Anna's school and Attis will be attending the boy's school. As sixth formers they have classes together so it's as if they are at the same school.

Soon Effie and Attis are attracting all the wrong attention, especially from Darcey, and openly using magic in front of the non-magicals (cowans). Against her will Anna is drawn into their group and soon they form a coven - but are Effie and Attis all that they seem? And how will Anna avoid having her magic bound?

This is a dark twisting magical plot which really kept me guessing the entire time. Having failed to read more than a few pages when I first received the ARC (cough, 21 months ago), when I picked this up again I raced through it. There is clearly meant to be further books in this series and I would be intrigued to see where this goes.

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

View all my reviews

Review: No, We Can't Be Friends

No, We Can't Be Friends by Sophie Ranald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sloane is a successful businesswoman, jointly owning a celebrity PR business with her friend Megan, happily married to Myles, a successful architect. Then one day she discovers what would make her life complete is a baby, but after months of trying it seems like she and Myles are further apart than ever.

Sloane and Myles have decided to totally remodel their house and have brought Bianca in to do the interior design. Unfortunately, Bianca's designs tend towards the award-winning cutting-edge show home rather than the cosy family home that Sloane envisages. Every decision about the house becomes a stand-up row, and Sloane begins to suspect that Bianca and Myles may be more than just colleagues. In her mid-thirties has Sloane left it too late to start again?

I enjoyed this, there are precocious children, aged actresses, reality TV stars, thirsty builders and friends where you least expect them. A solid Sophie Ranald women's fiction/romance.

View all my reviews

Review: Garrett's Destiny

Garrett's Destiny by Rebecca Zanetti
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

This tells the story of Garrett Kayrs, nephew of the King of the Realm, vampire-demon hybrid, and member of the Seven. If none of that makes any sense to you then I suggest you start reading one of the earlier books because for me the romance is very much inferior to the overarching storyline about the ongoing war between the Kurjans and the Realm over the fate of Enhanced human females. The Kurjan leader, Ulric, who sacrificed one hundred enhanced females to make himself invincible, was trapped by the Seven in a demon realm but the barriers are weakening and it is only a matter of time before he breaks free.

Destiny Applegate has just left her sheltered life at an exclusive boarding school on a remote island, she runs into Garrett when the man she is with tries pushing her around in a diner, which just happens to be full of Garrett's motorcycle club, the Grizzlies (which is 90% actual Bear shifters). Destiny immediately recognises Garrett as the man of her dreams, a man she has been in love with most of her life, but Garrett suspects that she is a trap set by the Kurjans.

The series arc is driving ever closer to the big showdown and there are a lot of really good reveals in this story. Unfortunately, for me, the rinse-and-repeat nature of the romance is becoming a bit tedious. Every single member of the Seven has to be bossy and force their mate to their will, they always have to be dominant, they always have to display their dominance through spanking (which to me has an icky parental punishment vibe - using your greater strength to punish someone smaller and weaker), there is alway hair-pulling and growling and metaphorical peeing on the woman to show ownership. Honestly I just skim through all the sex scenes as quickly as possible because they are all the same from book to book - I could not tell you in fifteen books if a single male made love in a different way (loads of people are about to prove me wrong). Couldn't just one of them be gentle and respectful, maybe even not sure she could like him? It's all a bit one-dimensional.

Every time I start one of these books my eyes roll at the repetitiveness of the sex and I think, 'this is the one I can't finish, this is where it ends' and then I get sucked into the story arc and carried along until I rock up at the end of the book shouting 'what a ride!'

So, in summary, series arc gets four, maybe four and a half stars, romance gets three, maybe even two and a half stars. Averages out to three and a half stars.

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

View all my reviews