Review: Miss Burnham and the Loose Thread: An uplifting and evocative debut historical book club novel

Miss Burnham and the Loose Thread: An uplifting and evocative debut historical book club novel by Lynn Knight
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rose Burnham and her sisters Gwen and Alice have recently left their respective jobs in department stores and set up their own dressmaking business. Things appear to be going well until their best client, Miss Holmes, comes to tell them that she no longer wants the outfit they have spent hours designing and making, she can't even pay them for the clothes she has already had, she has been duped by a man she met through a matrimonial agency (rather sickeningly called Cupid's Arrow) into 'investing' her inheritance of £800 into his start up business. Since then she has heard nothing from him, she has no way of contacting him and she is mortified.

At first Rose's indignation and pity for Miss Holmes is also fuelled by a desire to try recoup some of Miss Holmes' money so that their business can also stay afloat. She realises that they have neglected to drum up new customers and have perhaps not accurately priced the clothes they have made for their existing customers. Rose determines to go undercover to Cupid's Arrow and try to get matched with Miss Holmes' beau.

This was a pleasant, dare I say cosy, mystery. I am by no means an expert on the 1920s but a lot of the historical detail seemed authentic. I am a resident of South-East London and it did give me a thrill when Rose's mystery bus ride with her beau took her through Bromley and Petts Wood which are very close to where I live. I liked the references to the ongoing impact of WW1 on the lack of men of a certain age, and those that were around were injured in some way. I also liked the subtle indication that Miss Jennings and Isobel were not just friends. Loved the detailed references to clothes, as one would expect from a Professor in Fashion Curation at the London College of Fashion.

I would definitely be interested in reading more in this series.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: An Excellent Thing in a Woman

An Excellent Thing in a Woman by Allison Montclair
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

(view spoiler)[Archie is dead - I do hope that doesn't mean Iris is going to get back together with judgemental Mike. (hide spoiler)]

Gwen, Iris and the two boys are visiting Sally at Alexandra Palace (the BBC headquarters) where he is working to look around behind the scenes and see the filming of a show. But while looking around backstage (as it were) Iris finds the dead body of a young woman, even worse she recognises her as a young French woman who had approached them looking for a husband only a few days ago. When all evidence points to Sally being the murderer, Gwen and Iris must do their own sleuthing and their investigation seems to have some connection to a French resistance group during WW2.

I enjoyed this, I half guessed the murderer early on, but seeing how all the pieces came together was a treat as always.

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Review: We All Live Here

We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Lila is NOT keeping it together. After writing a best-seller about keeping your marriage alive, her husband left her for a bendy yoga mummy, then her beloved mother died and her step-father Bill has to all intents and purposes moved in and insists on cooking the girls 'healthy' meals which consist predominantly of lentils. Lila is dealing with Celie, a moody teenager, and Violet, a poo-obsessed nine-year old, she's overdue on delivering anything for her next book, the ancient plumbing in their fixer-upper Victorian house requires unblocking on an almost daily basis as well as the on-call services of an expensive plumber, and to add insult to injury Lila is forced to see 'the other woman' every day when she picks up her youngest from school. Oh, and her dog's barking is provoking numerous complaints from her neighbours.

Just when she thinks it can't get any worse, her American father Gene turns up after 35 years, broke and looking for somewhere to stay. Gene and Bill loathe each other and the house becomes a warzone as the two old men niggle at each other. Oh, and Bill has taken it upon himself to engage a landscape gardener to transform Lila's admittedly overrun garden turning it into a Somme-like swamp in the interim.

But annoying as he is, Gene could be the catalyst for change the family needs.

This was my first book by Jojo Moyes, although I have heard her name many times before, and I did enjoy reading it, but I have to say I have read very similar books before and I didn't think this brought anything new to the table.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Adrian Bradley's Best Mistake

Adrian Bradley's Best Mistake by Catherine Cloud
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Adrian Bradley is an ice hockey player. After an amazing start as a rookie he was side-lined for months due to injury and now has to prove to his team that he's worth keeping on. The last thing he needs is for anyone (other than his sister) to find out he's gay. Be the first openly gay hockey player? Nope.

With his sights firmly set on reclaiming his place on the team, Adrian doesn't have time for other things, but he knows the team requires him to play nice, which is why he is with his teammates watching pop superstar Jason Rosa play a gig, even though his songs are most definitely not to his taste. The trouble is, Jason is a lifelong hockey fan of Adrian's team AND he's agreed to sing the national anthem at every game (tour schedule permitting). Moreover, at the very first game Jason rocks up in a team shirt, with Adrian's name and number on the back.

Now Jason is meeting the team for drinks after a game, inviting them to a club, and generally just being RIGHT THERE practically every second of every day and Adrian just can't concentrate.

Love this, the difference between Jason who isn't afraid to say he is gay, even if his record company would prefer the illusion he is straight, and Adrian who is terrified of telling anyone, even his close friends on the team.

Enough said the novel ends abruptly, its classic Catherine Cloud, which is a pity because I wanted to see what happened next.

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Review: Crossing the Line: A BRAND NEW brother's-best-friend Hockey Romance for 2025

Crossing the Line: A BRAND NEW brother's-best-friend Hockey Romance for 2025 by Kelly Jamieson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

When Mabel's college professor boyfriend gives he an ultimatum, support her BFF at a difficult time or go with him to some stuffy faculty dinner she finally gets the gumption to leave him. The trouble is it also means leaving her job as a librarian (which she loves), and moving in with her brother Smitty. Unbeknownst to Mabel Smitty has offered his spare room to his best friend and ice hockey team mate Ben while he is waiting for his own apartment to become free.

Mabel had a major crush on Ben when they were kids and she is embarrassed to admit being in close proximity to him is reawakening those feelings. She doesn't want to tell her family about how she allowed herself to be gas-lit and put down by her ex, so they just think she's being silly and immature, her mother is even encouraging her to apologise and take him back!

Ben is one of the players in contention for captain next year, but as a natural introvert he hates speaking to the press, can't do small talk, and doesn't feel comfortable speaking up in the locker room. As his complete opposite Mabel offers to coach him and we all know what happens with close proximity ...

I saw this book on various emails and blogs and was desperately checking NetGalley, so imagine my surprise when the publisher offered me a copy - I jumped at the chance.

Ben was a nice change from the usual brash, confident hockey player we often see in sports romances and I enjoyed reading this.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Call It Home

Call It Home by Catherine Cloud
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ryan Harris is devastated, his boyfriend breaks up with him by text, his car runs into a ditch, the media are claiming he was drunk and totalled his car, and now his ice hockey team has traded him to the Connecticut Cardinals. He doesn't know anyone at the Cardinals, whereas at his previous team he had some close friends who knew he was gay.

Louie Hathaway comes from hockey royalty, but he has struggled to stay in the Cardinals team, he feels like a yo-yo bouncing to and from the farm team. He's all work work work, pushing himself to do better, score more goals, out-do his older brother who always manages to go one better, and make his father proud of him, finally. Now the new guy is staying with the team mate Louie normally stays with and he has to stay with another teammate who has a dog.

As the two new guys (even if Louie has been on the team before), Ryan and Louie get thrown together a lot, so it only makes sense for Ryan to suggest Louie moves into the spare room of the house he's just rented. Louie can't make long-term plans when he could be sent down to the farm team at any moment so staying in the amazing house that Ryan has rented seems sensible.

I loved this, but Catherine Cloud why, why, why do you always end your books so abruptly? I swear I literally kept turning the pages back and forth on my Kindle wondering what happened to the ending. Can she not imagine how there can be a HEA?

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Review: Holding On to Chaos

Holding On to Chaos by Lucy Score
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

It's book five in this series about a kooky little town founded by Woodstock hippies featuring the youngest Merrill sister Eve. After visiting Blue Moon a few times for weddings etc she has moved into the cottage in her brother-in-law's garden. She tells everyone that she writes technical manuals (and she may have done once) but now she's a romance novelist writing under an alias.

Eve has caught the eye of local sheriff Donovan Cardona, he's been infatuated by her ever since he first saw her and he is determined to make her his. But Eve has a bigger secret than her real profession, she's never put down roots because she doesn't want to be found, so sticking around with Sheriff Sexy isn't an option.

When people start acting even more weird than usual Donovan is horrified to learn that it could be caused by a planetary alignment event (think of which planet a six year old would find funny) which causes people to make rash decisions and could affect the town until Halloween.

Then there's the Beautification Committee (who set up/sanction couples getting together) who have thrown out a key member for choosing her own spouse, vindictive goats, threats of perms, and a local Facebook gossip group the FBI would be proud of.

Very much like the last review I posted (of a book by a completely different author), you either love this Gilmore Girls on a sugar rush series, I really enjoy it, especially since I read it on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: Cruel Winter with You

Cruel Winter with You by Ali Hazelwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Jamie Malek has come home for Christmas and her clueless dad has sent her out into a snow storm to borrow a pan to cook the ham in from their neighbours, who apparently live quite a way away. Unfortunately, the neighbours are away and their tech-whiz son Marc is cat-sitting. Marc and Jamie sort-of had a thing but now she's just trying to avoid him, if only she could.

I think it's common knowledge that Ali Hazelwood's characters are always very similar. The FMCs are always tiny, poorly paid, and trod-upon, usually in a STEM industry. The MMCs are always huge, usually billionaires (or at least multiple times wealthier than the FMCs), and there is always something keeping them at logger-heads; he's her boss, he got the job she deserved, he didn't return her call, etc. If you can live with that (which I definitely can) then these could be catnip to you. At least in this novella Jamie doesn't spout science facts and jargons LOL.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription. I'll post my review on Amazon if they ever lift the ban on my reviews :)

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Review: The Custom House Murder

The Custom House Murder by Mike Hollow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

The third book in a series set during WW2 focusing on a police detective DI John Jago, based in West Ham (one of the poorer areas of London).

In this instalment, a young lad looking for shrapnel after the all-clear is sounded finds a dead body in a public air-raid shelter. The victim turns out to be an English teacher and a pacifist, yet he was found in possession of a gun.

As John unravels the mystery of the murder his investigation is crossed by several pacifists, a love triangle, profiteering, and a budding romance for his sidekick PC Cradock. And let's not forget Cradock's first ever solo investigation - looking into a rogue trader who took a £5 deposit from one of DDI Soper's golf buddies to build an air raid shelter but never came back.

I thought I had uncovered the identity of the murderer. I was wrong. I enjoyed the mystery, I could complain that everyone seemed connected (and arguably they might never have connected the dots without a few coincidences) but then suburbs of cities are often like villages with everyone being connected in some way, so I'll let it slide.

However, I did find the lengthy discussion about god and belief a bit irritating - hopefully since I have read a later book which didn't dwell on religion this was just a one-off.

Anyway, off to read the next book.

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Review: Things I Remember

Things I Remember by Kelsey Humphreys
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the sixth book in a series which follows five sisters and their cousin each getting their HEA. Some of the introduction to this book comes at the end of the last book. I'm pretty sure you could read this as a standalone although you might find all the sisters and their spouses a bit bewildering.

Anyway, Susan, the eldest Canton sister has been happily married for years to Adam Bell, they have three sons. She is the CEO of Canton Corporation (a greeting card company) and he is the CEO of Bell Corporation (a construction company). What none of the rest of the sisters know is that Susan and Adam were an arranged marriage a quid pro quo to prop up Canton Corporation after their uncle made some very unwise business decisions which affected Bell Corporation. It was either do this or Canton would go into receivership. After they get over their shock at that, Susan drops the bombshell that they are separated and she is getting a divorce.

Cue a substantial flashback to when Susan's parents first approached her about an arranged marriage and how she and Adam courted/married. Then we see how their marriage started to dissolve. Susan is madly in love with Adam, has been since before they were married if she's honest, but Adam has never told her he loves her - well maybe once under duress when she was heavily pregnant and hormonal and basically forced him to say it. Every year Adam gets grumpier and grumpier, he seems to hate all the things he used to like and laugh about, like Susan's hyper-organisation and list making. They seem to be ships that pass in the night, too busy to talk to each other about anything except the boys.

But when Susan announces to her sisters that she wants to start dating, Adam and his brothers-in-law bring on Operation Win-her-back, but is it too late?

I read this in one day, devoured it. Should have been working. Cried more than once. Loved it.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: Dead Man's Shoes

Dead Man's Shoes by Marion Todd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't know how I missed the previous book in this series, especially when Marion Todd is (for me) such a recognisable name. Anyway, we are where we are (I think I bought it for 99p so I just need to read it), and this series is far more about police procedural than the private lives of the characters.

DI Clare Mackay is hauled into the big boss' office to hear some disturbing news, a serial killer based in the North of England who rapes and murders gay men by choking them with a chain of some description (nicknamed the Choker by the tabloids) is thought to be in the St Andrews area, or arriving soon, based on some intel gleaned from the Dark Web. Evidence from the previous murders suggests he might be a typical white van man, possibly a painter and decorator, who typically strikes on a Friday or Saturday night, but with nothing else to go on a low-key approach is critical to prevent him from getting spooked.

A young man's body is found by a dog walker in woodlands, the circumstances are similar enough that Clare's bosses are convinced its the work of the Choker, but Clare isn't convinced. Has the Choker changed his MO? Is there a copycat? Or is his murder a coincidence? The murder victim is the youngest son of a woman who runs a local nightclub, one which local support groups claim is dealing drugs. Could this be the start of a turf war?

This was excellent. Loved it. Not cosy but not gruesome. Enough leg work and bureaucracy and small details to make it feel 'real'.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Other People's Houses: The gripping, twisty new thriller

Other People's Houses: The gripping, twisty new thriller by Clare Mackintosh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

DC Ffion Morgan is called in when a trainee from the outdoor sports centre finds a missing kayak, together with a dead body. The body is that of a young estate agent who was spending the weekend with three colleagues 'team building'.

Meanwhile, Ffion's boyfriend DS Leo Brady is investigating series of break-ins at some of the big prestigious houses on The Hill, which just happens to be round the corner from where his ex-wife Allie, their son Harris, and Allie's new husband Dominic live. The robberies are unusual in that none of the house alarms went off, all of the residents were elsewhere when the robberies occurred and the thief only took small items - often overlooking valuable items in plain sight.

As a backdrop, everyone is obsessing over a true crime podcast which has chosen to focus on the murder of a husband and wife, police originally charged and convicted a man, but subsequent evidence proved his innocence and he was given a post-humous pardon. Now the podcasters have uncovered new evidence and it seems this cold case may intersect with Ffion and/or Leo's current cases.

Its strange, I was only thinking about this series the other day, wondering if we could expect more, then a week or two later this came up on NetGalley. I love this, a good story. lots of twists and turns, some stuff I saw coming and some stuff that came out of left field. Possibly the best so far.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Other People's Houses: The gripping, twisty new thriller

Other People's Houses: The gripping, twisty new thriller by Clare Mackintosh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

DC Ffion Morgan is called in when a trainee from the outdoor sports centre finds a missing kayak, together with a dead body. The body is that of a young estate agent who was spending the weekend with three colleagues 'team building'.

Meanwhile, Ffion's boyfriend DS Leo Brady is investigating series of break-ins at some of the big prestigious houses on The Hill, which just happens to be round the corner from where his ex-wife Allie, their son Harris, and Allie's new husband Dominic live. The robberies are unusual in that none of the house alarms went off, all of the residents were elsewhere when the robberies occurred and the thief only took small items - often overlooking valuable items in plain sight.

As a backdrop, everyone is obsessing over a true crime podcast which has chosen to focus on the murder of a husband and wife, police originally charged and convicted a man, but subsequent evidence proved his innocence and he was given a post-humous pardon. Now the podcasters have uncovered new evidence and it seems this cold case may intersect with Ffion and/or Leo's current cases.

Its strange, I was only thinking about this series the other day, wondering if we could expect more, then a week or two later this came up on NetGalley. I love this, a good story. lots of twists and turns, some stuff I saw coming and some stuff that came out of left field. Possibly the best so far.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: The Favourites

The Favourites by Layne Fargo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ten years after the Olympic games where their passionate and tempestuous partnership imploded an unauthorised biography of Katerina Shaw and Heath Rocha is being written, speaking to friends, ex-partners, rivals, judges, and coaches to discover what really happened.

Katerina Shaw and Heath Rocha were the kids from the wrong side of town who dreamed of representing the USA as Olympic ice dancers, well Kat did, Heath just wanted to do anything Kat did. The two of them do anything they can to stay at the prestigious ice dance school, run by former Olympic gold medal figure skater Sheila Lin. Sheila is hoping to create an Olympic skating dynasty with her twins Bella and Garrett, Kat and Heath's biggest rivals.

I requested this book because The Cutting Edge is one of my favourite films of all time and this made me think of that film. I was not disappointed.

This has a great soap opera feel, in the blurb at the back Layne Fargo thanks Taylor Jenkins Reid and although I haven't read any of her books I did see the mini-series and this gives off a similar vibe. There's backstabbing, sabotage, mind games, sacrifice, love, betrayal - basically everything!

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: From London With Love

From London With Love by Katie Fforde
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Felicity comes to London to stay with her mother (Felicity is Alexandra from A Wedding in Provence's step-daughter) in Cheyne Walk (a very expensive part of London). She intends to be an artist and study in Paris but has agreed to spend a year in London getting to know her mother, improving her English, and attending secretarial school.

The woman who lives in a flat in the attic of Felicity's mother's house has persuaded her niece Violet to come to London and arranged a job for her at a nearby bookshop. Violet's father has suddenly (and unexpectedly) come into a title and money which has led to him being inundated with women hoping he'll 'put a ring on it', one woman has even gone so far as to persuade him to let her move into a wing of the house and Violet very much dreads that she could be her new stepmother.

Despite their age differences, Violet is in her thirties while Felicity is barely twenty, the two of them strike up a friendship, partly because Felicity's mother is one of those wealthy society divorcees with a lot of rules about what Felicity can and cannot do, and partly because they are both country mouses in the big city.

Whilst out walking one day Felicity bumps into a young man, Oliver, and they strike up a friendship, under Violet's watchful eye. Oliver is the black sheep of his family who are all military men. Oliver wants to make jewellery but his father refuses to hear of it and so instead Oliver scrapes a living with a multitude of low-paying jobs in bars and restaurants whilst also doing a bit of mudlarking (looking for treasure along the banks of the Thames when the tide is out).

But the course of true love never did run smooth and there's an added complication wheen Felicity's mother and Oliver's father become involved.

This is classic Katie Fforde and classic me. I moan about her signature motifs and then not only buy/request them every time but also devour them eagerly. There's insta-lurve, aristos, people who can live in London with practically no money, cranky old ladies with a heart of gold, etc. I loved it, sure I wish both Felicity and Violet knew their respective love interests for more than thirty seconds before they fell in love but hey-ho they did things differently in the 1960s ;)

You know I'll be back for the next one - they're like catnip.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.



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Review: City of Destruction

City of Destruction by Vaseem Khan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Persis Wadia is Bombay's first female police detective, albeit stationed at the Malabar House station (equivalent to Slough House in Mick Herron's excellent Slow Horses series). This is the fifth book in the series, I hadn't read the others but it was fairly easy to read as a standalone.

Its 1951, only a few short years since India was partitioned and the new state of Pakistan was formed. The bloodshed and the religious unrest is still very fresh. Persis and Scotland Yard criminalist Archie Blackfinch are patrolling a political rally held by the defence minister Azad who is advocating the taking back of Pakistan, against the wishes of Prime Minister Nehru. Persis spots a young man in the crowd who doesn't seem to be as enthused as the other people around him, she loses track of him for a moment and then spot shim again, just as he attempts to assassinate Azad, with only split seconds to react, Persis kills the young man, but not before he shoots Archie in the head. As the boy lies dying he presses an amulet into Persis' hand and whispers City of Destruction.

Unsure of whether the young man was working alone, was from Pakistan, was a fifth columnist etc, the Delhi Investigation Board call in MI6 for assistance. Persis is hauled off the case, which is given to two incompetent (male) detectives while she is given the body of a man found on a beach, assumed to have immolated himself.

Despite being taken off the case, Persis cannot leave it alone, she hopes that the amulet and the dying man's words will give her some clues as to his identity and his motivation.

I enjoyed this, I have read a few books set in India, including some which give some detail of the horrific violence that surrounded Partition, but this book gave some additional colour and flavour as the backdrop to the investigations. I was also interested in how much of the plot (as opposed to the history of partition) was based on historical facts.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: The Mid-life Trials of Annabeth Hope

The Mid-life Trials of Annabeth Hope by Alice G. May
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Annabeth Hope has been left by her husband to look after his three teenage children from his first marriage and their young daughter in a ramshackle farmhouse in the New Forest, with no job and no child support she has been quietly selling off shares left to her by her parents to pay the mortgage and keep them fed, along with the menagerie of animals her family have gathered. However, her stepchildren are hostile, she doesn't really have any friends in the village, and life is getting on top of her.

Rick Mahon is an over-worked and harassed London GP. A walk-in patient to whom Rick prescribed medication mixed it with recreational drugs and is in a coma, he is a semi-famous Tik-Tok gamer with a high social media profile. There is no evidence that Rick warned the patient not to take any other drugs with his medication and the patient's mother is all over social media declaiming Rick. She is threatening to sue which could ruin Rick and destroy his career. Counselled by his partners to leave London and let the furore die down (paparazzi are trying to force their way into the surgery), Rick decides to decamp to the property his uncle left him in the New Forest.

Rick first meets Beth when he gets lost in the New Forest and comes across her trying to change a flat tyre. Later they discover that they are neighbours. Despite the immediate attraction neither of them has the bandwidth for a relationship, yet they keep getting thrust into each other's paths.

I loved this, but yet again I felt the ending was too abrupt and if I'm being really picky everything miraculously resolved itself a little too easily, but it was a fun read, reminiscent of Katie Fforde.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Book People

Book People by Jackie Ashenden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After escaping a controlling relationship, former book editor Kate returns to the small town where her mother grew up to open a bookshop in the building she inherited, apparently her great grandmother ran a tea shop in the building. She and her single mother led a peripatetic life during her childhood but bookshops always represented comfort and an escape. Kate's bookshop embraces genres, manga, romance, sci-fi, cosy mysteries - you name it. The only fly in the ointment is Sebastian who owns the highbrow bookshop directly opposite Kate's. She's tried to be friendly, but he refuses to even speak to her, he's even petty enough to rearrange his window displays deliberately to outdo Kate's.

Sebastian keeps himself to himself, his family has had the bookshop for several generations but his father and his grandfather's addictions have left the family bookshop deep in debt, and Kate opening a rival bookshop opposite him has only exacerbated the problem. Sebastian's family is unlucky in love, both his great-grandmother and grandmother left their husbands, and his own mother died when he was still young, which is why Sebastian knows he is destined to be alone. Sebastian is trying to revive the town's literary festival to (hopefully) bring some much-needed revenue to his shop. But when disaster strikes and his keynote author pulls out a week before the festival only Kate can help him save the day.

Kate is on good terms with a popular author from her editing days, a woman whose bestseller appealed to both populist and highbrow readers, if they can find a lure to encourage her to attend their small festival it will make it a winner and Sebastian has just the thing, a bunch of love letters between his great grandfather and an unknown woman.

I really enjoyed this romance because well books! However, I felt the mystery was a bit obvious to the reader, and the ending felt a bit rushed (like I'm 95% through the book and they haven't made up yet), which is odd because I've complained about the last few books by Lucy Score where the couple seem to get together about 35% into the book and then there's a lot of filler until the inevitable 'misunderstanding'.

Other than that, I will definitely look out for more books By Jackie Ashenden.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Not Part of the Plan

Not Part of the Plan by Lucy Score
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Emma is Gia's middle sister and now runs the Pierce brothers' bar and restaurant. Having been burned by a player when younger she now has a plan: only sensible, reliable men who have the same goals, love is fleeting but a 401K is forever. After her mother abandoned her husband and children when Emma was a child she has had a fear of abandonment.

Nikolai is a famous fashion photographer who could grace a magazine cover himself (Summer Pierce's BFF from New York), but he's lost his mojo and has decamped to Blue Moon. When Nikolai runs into Emma at the restaurant she clocks him as a player and makes it clear that she wants none of what he's selling. Intrigued, and stimulated by Emma's quick wit and failure to fall at his feet, NIkolai suggests he proves his intentions are good - by being her friend, no strings attached. Guess how long that lasts ...

As with the previous books in this series, I was enjoying it until about halfway but then the pursuit ended, there was a whole lot of smexy filler, then a rather overblown 'conflict'. Nevertheless, I continue reading because this is catnip for me LOL/

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription - I would post a review on Amazon but my reviewing rights have been suspended for 'repeatedly posting content that violates our Community Guidelines ... or Conditions of Use', although helpfully Amazon won't actually tell me what guideline(s) have been breached or in what review(s). LOL. I'm trying to decide if I'm petty and delusional enough to stop buying things from Amazon until they left the ban.

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Review: Fall into Temptation

Fall into Temptation by Lucy Score
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Beautification Committee turns its eye to Beckett Pierce, town mayor and lawyer.

Gia is a yoga teacher, she has recently moved to Blue Moon to be closer to her father (who happens to be dating Beckett's mother) after divorcing her charming but feckless husband. She brings with her her stepson Evan and her daughter Aurora.

Beckett and Gia have a bit of a meet-cute where he doesn't realise she is his new tenant for the summerhouse at the end of his garden and he insists on walking her home.

Although they both try to resist their attraction, because children and landlord (that's two separate reasons), they can't resist for long.

I liked this opposites attract small-town romance, but I didn't love it. I had to skim too many smexy scenes (just bored) and the inevitable misunderstanding felt too manufactured. I'm not going to read Jax and Joey's story but I've already started the fourth book which features Gia's sister Emma and Summer's BFF the photographer Nikolai.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: A Deadly Flame

A Deadly Flame by Doug Sinclair
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

DS Malkie McCulloch's third outing, this time for a fire at a whisky bonded warehouse where a dead body was found in one of the offices and A firefighter lost his life. There are so many variables, was the fire arson? Was the firefighter's equipment faulty? Was the person dead before the fire was started? Did they start the fire? Why did one of the fire-fighters take the dead firefighters breathing apparatus away in contravention of standard procedure? Why was one firefighter shouting at another?

This was a gripping detective story, although the prologue made it obvious (to me) what had happened (although not necessarily why). However, ... I feel that in his attempts to create some personal lives for Malkie and Steph outside the cases Doug Sinclair draws with a very thick pen and is repetitious, very repetitious, to the point where, frankly, I no longer believed in the storyline. (view spoiler)[Steph has discovered that her she was a product of rape, by her step-father Dean's friend, a man she grew up calling 'uncle'. Now the timelines seemed off to me. Steph originally thought she was a last minute oversight from her mother's first husband, then it seems she was raped by her second husband's best friend Barry. But then why would she continue to happily allow him to visit the house and play with his biological daughter? And it also says her mother's attitude to Barry changed and she no longer wanted him around - why if the rape happened years earlier? Also Steph seems to have taken the news very, very badly. If she sobs into her Kahlua once about Barry and his rapist genes polluting her body she does it five or six times. (hide spoiler)]

I also find Doug Sinclair's depiction of women a bit problematic, you might argue that no-one comes out of this looking good and that would be a fair point, but I just feel that one way or another they are all victims. I said with the first book that maybe these were too dark and tortured for me and this has reinforced that view.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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