Review: The Arts Trail Killer

The Arts Trail Killer by Emylia Hall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Its time for the Porthpella annual arts festival and this year the organisers have managed to get a famous artist to return to his Cornish roots for the exhibition.

Harrison Loveday was born in Cornwall, but left when he was just a child. He feels no particular draw to the place, much preferring his life in Italy, but this year the invitation fits with his personal agenda so he decides to accept and dashes off a few lacklustre pictures for an exhibition.

As a local artist of some renown, Ally is one of the artists on the Arts Trail - a guided walk between local artists' studios - and has been invited to the opening drinks reception, taking along Gus as her plus one. But imagine her surprise when one of the other guests turns out to be none other than her first boyfriend Ray, they both knew Harrison when they were at art school.

Tragedy strikes when Harrison's agent drops dead in the middle of the party - the local police detective immediately suspects foul play, but who could it be? So few people knew her. Then graffiti appears daubed on some outdoor artwork and on a poster for the arts trail - is there a serial killer terrorising the town or is it just someone with a grudge against the arts trail?

There seem to be lots of suspects, especially when there is a second murder, and the Shell House detectives are called in by the arts trail's organisers to identify the vandal and restore faith in the exhibitions.

Another strong book in this cosy series, although I can't help but feel that having set up two potential budding/future romances the author is rowing back and introducing new elements *and I don't want it*. Also, I love, love, loved the covers for the previous books, they were striking and different and instantly recognisable - why suddenly change it?

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: The Rules of Time Travel: A cosy romcom about second chances and great coffee

The Rules of Time Travel: A cosy romcom about second chances and great coffee by L.A. Birchon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Rey goes back in time to prevent a disaster with the use of a brass device similar in size to a pocket watch. She doesn't really know much about time travel and has formulated a set of rules for herself, which are never shared with the reader.

Rey turns back time to a few weeks before a coffee shop called the Daily Grind will be destroyed in a fire which leaves one unidentified body in its wake. Rey applies for a job in the café, which is owned by Dom, a former alcoholic. Kate, a widow with one child, makes the cakes that Dom sells in the café, and Jack is the other barista. Rey knows Dom and Kate from her life in the future, but she worries that she has no recollection of Jack - could his be the body they find in the remains of the fire?

Kate's partner Stuart is wealthy and resents her 'little business', he is also jealous of the relationship she has with Dom, and he loathes her daughter Freya.

Rey has to be careful as 'The Fisherman' is on the look out for rogue time travellers, can anything she does in the past affect the future and avert the disaster?

This is hard to review. There is so much unexplained, maybe its the circularity of time travel? Jack has some great thoughts on what is a time travel book/film versus multiverse and the section titles reference some classics of the genres.

Also, if the author reads this there are some typos eg Marlboro cigarettes are not spelt Marlborough.

Overall though, I enjoyed this .

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Review: Murder at the Ponte Vecchio

Murder at the Ponte Vecchio by T.A. Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think this might be the best one yet.

Dan is riding high professionally, when he is called in to assist the Italian police talk to the family of an elderly jeweller found hanged from the Ponte Vecchio. His family are Dutch and speak fluent English but no Italian. Although initially thought to be suicide the post-mortem shows it was murder.

Meanwhile the Mayor, also a writer, has asked Dan to investigate his daughter's boyfriend. They've been dating for a while but, unlike her previous boyfriends, she hasn't introduced him to her parents or even divulged his name.

Finally, Dan old friend Virgilio is acting distracted, his wife Lina, Dan's assistant is concerned and asks Dan if he can winkle out what is troubling him.

I'd say there are lots of red herrings, but actually there is just speculation (as with any mystery) about various characters' possible motives which get discounted over time.

I loved it - my only gripe is that the food descriptions weren't quite as delectable as usual.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Road-Tripped

Road-Tripped by Nicole Archer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Two and a half stars.

This (for me) was just a bit of too many tropes. Callie Murphy has moved to New York with just the clothes on her back after she caught her manipulative and mentally abusive ex-fiancé, who was also her boss, in bed with what she 'thought' was her best friend. Callie now works for her trust-fund friend writing advertising copy. Part of reinventing herself has involved a fierce hair cut, dying her blonde hair black and radiating attitude at full blast.

Walker Rhodes is an aspiring photographer, growing up in the South he was the small, goofy-looking kid with glasses and so his personality still remains that sweet, kind aspect even though he now looks like a Greek god and his Southern manners mean that he responds kindly when women fawn all over him.

Based entirely on adding two plus two and coming up with twenty-two, Callie decides that Walker has slept with every single woman at the agency and she is determined not to fall for his charms.

Then Callie's friend tells her the agency is on a knife's edge and he had arranged a great sponsorship deal with a RV manufacturer, a couple touring the US blogging and shooting adverts as they go, unfortunately the couple have had to pull out as the woman has terrible morning sickness and so he has asked Callie and Walker to take their places - if they don't the agency will fold!

So, we have enemies to love and road-trip. But Callie has a twin sister who is a drug addict, their parents cared nothing for them and were borderline abusive.

Throw in a dog, and a doting grandmother with cancer, and Walker's parents were also absentee, and a birthday, and a miscarriage, and a suspected pregnancy, and a nudist camping site, and a famous photographer and it all gets a bit much.

I could have lived with that, but Callie is the sort of FMC who holds strong to her beliefs no matter what evidence she receives to show her it is wrong - wonder where we've seen that recently? She assumes because Walker winks at a few women and sees a woman follow him into the men's bathroom that he is a womaniser. She spends months on the road with him 24/7 and still believes it. He explains her misunderstanding with another co-worker (yes I get there are a lot of coincidences) to her satisfaction and she still believes it. His grandmother says they are on love with each other and she still believes it. I just wanted to pick her up and shake her.

Similarly, Walker is all sweetness and light, he knows Callie's first instinct is always flight, but yet on more than one occasion he just storms off hence aggravating the situation.

Finally, the smexy scenes and dirty talk were more cringeworthy than hot.




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Review: The Burial Place

The Burial Place by Stig Abell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Jake is consulted by the local archaeological dig, they have been receiving flowery threats from someone who claims to be a local folk hero, quoting verses from the bible. The dig is being televised in a long-running series. Separately, close to the dig, four of the archaeologists were lucky enough to discover a treasure hoard worth millions whilst metal detecting, although their trove is subject to identifying the owner of the land (who would be entitled to half the proceeds). Coincidentally, Rose (the local weed dealer)'s sister is one of the students at the dig. No sooner does Jake get involved than one of the diggers dies after drinking poison from a water bottle. Now Jake must assist the local police in investigating the murder and uncovering the identity of their letter-writer.

This is the third book in the series about Jake Jackson, a former police detective, who inherits a remote house in the English countryside, full of mod-cons such as a purpose-built library with speakers in the ceiling but no indoor bathroom. Despite the tiny size of the village, which is (apparently) exclusively populated by knuckle-dragging yokels, a middle-aged shopkeeper who also runs an underground (literally) bar, and a beautiful single-mother vet, Livia, there seems to be a disproportionate amount of violent crime. I enjoyed the first book, despite the somewhat lurid descriptions of Livia's body and public hair. I missed the second book, but I am pleased to announce I saw no references to pubic hair in this book, although the first third had an unusually high number of references to peoples clothes FOR ABSOLUTELY NO REASON eg Jake weas wearing beige shorts and a white vest - then it goes on to something else - why? Again, luckily, this dissipated.

I enjoyed the mystery, although Jake's group of rag-tag super sleuths is beginning to look alarmingly like the cast of the excellent Slough House series - beware if Jake starts farting LOL. What let this down for me was that I suspected the murderer almost from the start, unfortunately I can't say why without spoilering it, so I was alert to the other clues and felt a bit like rolling my eyes as Jake and his team went round and round in circles.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Edinburgh Murders

Edinburgh Murders by Catriona McPherson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Helen Crowther, a professional welfare officer for the newly formed National Health Service of Scotland, is at the public washhouse helping one of her patients to wash herself when there is a great commotion and it turns out that a corpse has been found in one of the men's changing rooms - he looks to have been boiled alive in his bath and left wearing a Tanner's apron!

What follows are a series of macabre murders. All the victims are well-fed men with no signs of hard work on their hands or bodies. Each is killed in a bizarre fashion and left dressed in some strange piece of clothing that seems to bear no relation to the place or manner of their deaths. One thing that unites the bodies is that they each have evidence that a pinkie ring has been removed from the body, and nobody has claimed them or reported them missing. By some strange chance, Helen is there when several of the bodies are found and she and her friend Billy who works at the morgue are trying to uncover both the identities of the victims and the murderer(s).

I really enjoyed this, my only gripe is that it ended very abruptly. Loving where this series is going, the glimpses into a forgotten world, the clash of the post-WW2 world meeting the pre-War beliefs. Honestly, I have pretty much loved everything Catriona McPherson has written.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: The Big Fix

The Big Fix by Holly James
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Penny Collins has devoted her life to getting tenure, no time for love, and it is just within her grasp if she makes one big push this summer. She has agreed to spend the summer with her big sister helping with the children while working on the final articles/chapters etc.

Her sister drags her to an estate sale at the house next door - its clearly a setup to get her to meet the new neighbour Anthony, who has inherited the house and all its contents from his recently deceased Uncle Lou. Unfortunately Anthony seems immune to Penny's charms, in fact openly hostile, which might be explained when Penny's nephew opens a closet door and a dead body falls out. Suddenly everyone seems to think Penny is Anthony's girlfriend and a mysterious man keeps turning up and making vaguely threatening comments.

The next thing she knows, Penny has been kidnapped by a ruthless billionaire's henchman as bait to trap Anthony.

The blurb says Katherine Center’s The Bodyguard meets The Fall Guy starring Ryan Gosling in a modern blend of screwball action and romantic attraction when a case of mistaken identity lands a college professor on the run with a mysterious—and dangerously hot—fixer . . ., but I would say its a bit more like the Goldie Hawn film Bird on a Wire, or the Jennifer Aniston film The Bounty Hunter, by which I mean a vaguely irritating FMC.

Also, I found it difficult to believe in either Penny or Anthony because they seemed to change personas. One minute Penny is a mild-mannered professor, the next she can hack city IT systems. Is Anthony a bad-a$$ fixer or an accountant - he looks like the former but everything he does he seems to run into like a headless chicken requiring Penny to save him more often that not!

Overall, it was an okay read but I didn't believe in the characters.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Over the Sea to Skye

Over the Sea to Skye by Sue Moorcroft
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

And so we come to Valentina, oldest of the three adopted Wynter sisters. Her husband Gary has left her, gallingly for Valentina's twenty-five year old assistant Miranda! Not only that, Gary and Miranda have changed their mobile numbers and persist in withholding the number when Gary calls Valentina so she has no way of getting in touch with him about their seven year old son Barnaby. Unable to face the sympathy of her colleagues, Valentina has taken voluntary redundancy and decided to spend the Summer at her holiday cottage on Skye whilst renting out the former marital home in Inverness.

On the train north, Valentina and Barnaby are sat opposite an American man Xander and his seventeen year old nephew Macdonald, they get talking, and when Zander's hire car is not ready for them when they reach Skye, Valentina offers to drive them to their accommodation. Despite the ten year age difference Barnaby and Macdonald hit it off immediately, bonding over video games. After a prickly start, Xander and Valentina also hit it off, but can it be anything more than a Summer romance when Xander needs to return to his job in Pittsburg after his sabbatical?

This was pleasant enough, throw in unreasonable in-laws, a recalcitrant teen, an ex who's 'found her voice' and a tragic accident and you have all the ingredients for a cosy romance. I enjoyed it, but I felt it dragged a bit towards the end and then finished abruptly.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.



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Review: The Best Men

The Best Men by Sarina Bowen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Argh! Read it and forgot to review it!

Mark is a bisexual, recently divorced father of one. They got pregnant at college so Mark's experience with men is limited. Annoyingly I've recently read another book featuring a bisexual single father and now I'm not sure which is which. Still rather bitter about his divorce, when he discovers his little sister is pregnant and getting married to a (billionaire) guy she only met recently Mark over-indulges in a single malt and accidentally spills out all his concerns about the wedding, the groom and the 'super hot wingman' to the wedding group chat instead of his sister - awks! Mark loves a spreadsheet, organised could be his middle-name, so when his little sister suggest that his penance could be to use his mandatory annual leave to supervise all the minutiae of her wedding he's more than happy ... until he discovers that the super hot wingman is also involved.

Asher is a former French football player (soccer)/model turned photographer. When his best friend asks him to be his best man and make sure everything is perfect for the upcoming wedding in Florida Asher is all-in - the trouble is he has a reputation for missing appointments, forgetting the time and generally coasting - although being dumped by his last boyfriend for that sort of behaviour has been a bit of a wake-up call.

Imagine a m/m Lauren Layne in the sexy New Yorkers phase, witty banter, unbearably good looking people and this is it.

Loved it.

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Review: The Winds of Change

The Winds of Change by Lillian Marek
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

We've moved on a generation, Lady Alice Talmadge, her husband Stephen Bancroft, and her daughter Lady Clara Grammont, who is now twenty-two, travel to her former home at the invitation of the current Lord Talmadge. When they arrive they discover that the other guests may be, for the most part, from the Ton, but they are gamblers, excessive drinkers, wastrels and keep shocking company. The only exception is plain Mr John Smith, for whom (if they did but know it) the entire house party was arranged.

Mr Smith is extremely wealthy and is trying to get support to build a railway line which will revolutionise industry and travel. Unfortunately several aristocrats are opposing the railway and he desperately needs some support in the House of Lords. He hopes that Lady Alice and her husband might pave the way for an introduction to her brother, Lord Peter Ashleigh.

Clara and John are immediately drawn to each other, although they are not without their own misconceptions about how the other feels. However, there are numerous obstacles to overcome, not just their class differences, but also Peter's opposition and machinations from those who don't want the railway built.

As with the previous two books, the villains in this book are without a single redeeming feature, and this book just felt very familiar, maybe its just a common trope in historical romances.

On the plus side, the historical detail is good.

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Review: Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure: A Novel

Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure: A Novel by Rhys Bowen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Its 1938 and Ellie Endicott is shocked when her pernickety husband Lionel asks for a divorce to marry his pregnant (much) younger girlfriend who is expecting a baby. Refusing to roll over and obey his every command the way she has throughout their marriage, Ellie forces him into a decent financial settlement and decides its time to live a little. Lionel never wanted to go abroad, too many foreigners, so Ellie decides to go to the South of France. Much to her surprise, she has company, the caustic spinster who makes everyone's life a misery with her strictures about ironing the church altar cloth who has been given only months to live by her doctor, and Ellie's cleaner Mavis whose husband is a little too free with his fists after a few beers. In a fit of bravado, Ellie decides to take Lionel's beloved Bentley.

En route the ladies pick up Yvette, a young Frenchwoman who was thrown out by her father when he discovered she was pregnant. Initially the travelling companions are a motley crew, but gradually the ice thaws, until the Bentley breaks down in a small fishing village outside Marseilles called Saint Benet. After a few days in Saint Benet the ladies decide to make it home, especially when Ellie finds an abandoned villa on the cliff top which rumour says was given to a famous opera singer by her aristocratic lover.

But their idyllic life is soon to be overtaken by events on the world stage.

I've seen books by Rhys Bowen many times but this is my first read. I did enjoy it, but I felt it glossed over the war years in soft focus, everything was a bit like skimming stones on a pond, not much detail and the cursed insta-love. I enjoyed, and I think it would make a wonderful Sunday evening mini-series, but it could easily have been set without WW2.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: A Debt of Dishonor

A Debt of Dishonor by Lillian Marek
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At first, when her mother died, Kate Russell was pleased that her older brother came to Yorkshire to bring her back to London with him, little did she know that he was as dissolute as their father and had effectively sold her to the Earl of Farnsworth to wipe out his debts. Luckily Kate gets wind of the plot and runs away, knowing the two men will chase her, she avoids Yorkshire and instead throws herself on the mercy of her aunt Franny Darling in Sussex, who was ostracised from the family when she married a merchant.

Kate first meets Peter, Duke of Ashleigh, when he visits her aunt, he mistakes her for a servant and she mistakes him for a farmer. When told Kate is Franny's niece he miscalls her Miss Darling and Kate accepts it, as further disguise in case her brother comes looking for her.

Peter is a very caring brother and landlord, he cares for his tenants and actively seeks new business opportunities to employ those that live on his lands. However, he is also very aware of his status in society and tends to take an overly-paternalistic approach to women. When aunt Franny and Kate come to dinner (to dilute the effects of his irritating cousins who have descended upon them), Peter is angered when Kate gives his cousin a set down (even though she was right and he was wrong) and initially suspects she is pretending to a better education than she has.

This has a very Pride and Prejudice vibe, Peter quickly falls for Kate, and vice versa, but he feels marriage to her is out of the question, her family having been in trade etc. On her part, Kate knows Peter would never want to be associated with people as disreputable as her late father and brother, men who haunted brothels and gaming hells.

There is also a sweet side story between Peter's sister, the widowed Lady Talmadge, and his steward (and remote cousin) Mr Bancroft.

If I have one criticism, it is that Lillian Merk writes her villains very villainous, there's no shade just out-and-out villains.

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Review: Featherbed

Featherbed by Annabeth Albert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Harrison Phillip Fletcher, III has moved to Vermont to open an inclusive bookshop and wine bar with his mother. The epitome of wealthy New Yorker from his suits to his polished shoes, he's trying to make the bookshop a success for his mother because the men in his family don't live past forty-one, due to heart disease.

Finn Barnes is a chicken farmer, he's been burnt by city slickers in the past who can't cope with his 24/7 farming lifestyle and he's not looking to meet another one. In fact, he's resigned to never having a long-term relationship.

Then a box of rare chickens is delivered to the bookshop by accident and Finn and Harrison have a meet-cute.

This was a cute, small-town, opposites attract, younger guy romance.

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Review: The Earl Returns

The Earl Returns by Lillian Marek
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Lord (Tom) Merton was pressganged and spent three years as a virtual prisoner on a ship, until finally they landed in England and he and a friend managed to escape. Tom told his captors that he was a member of the aristocracy, but they didn't believe him, they had been told that he was illegitimate and a pretender. He returns to his country home to find his cousin Edgar has married Pamela, a grasping social climber who tried to create a compromising position to force Tom to marry her her, Edgar, his mother Arabella, Pamela's father Mr Browne, and Tom's grandmother Lady Merton are all staying at Tom's country estate in Sussex when he returns - and several of them are not best pleased to see he is not, in fact, dead. Once settled, Tom and his friend Hodgson set up a shipyard to bring employment to the area.

Miranda Rokeby is the daughter of a wealthy American trader and a former Viscountess, she and her parents have returned to England from Boston and she has accompanied her cousin Lydia to Tom's home in Sussex where his grandmother is parading a number of suitable young women in front of Tom at a house party, in the hopes that he will offer for one of them, marry and produce an heir.

When Tom and Miranda meet they are immediately drawn to one another, she likes his broad shoulders and smile, he likes her direct gaze and laughter, but her parents are disparaging of the aristocracy and his family would never countenance marriage to an American (think colonies) nobody.

Soon it becomes clear that Tom being pressganged was no accident when he suffers a series of further potentially fatal 'accidents' - clearly someone wants him dead and Edgar the new Earl, but which of the poisonous vipers could it be?

I did enjoy this, however reading this shortly after reading Home is the Sailor, I found there were just too many similarities, hence only three and a half stars.

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Review: Aftermath

Aftermath by L.A. Witt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Brent is a twenty-something former ice hockey player whose career was ended after a crash involving a drunk driver. Now, unable to walk without a limp and in almost permanent pain from multiple surgeries and a lifetime of hockey injuries, he's returned to his home town in Vermont and bought a mansion overlooking Lake Champlain where he sits and broods. One day his friend drags him into the local town to a wine bar/LGBTQIA+ book store called Vino & Veritas for a drink.

Jon is a bi-sexual divorced massage therapist, father to ten year old Cody who he shares custody of with his ex-wife. Twice a week Jon sings and plays guitar at Vino & Veritas, mainly sad sings he wrote about the collapse of his marriage.

When Brent catches Jon's eye (and vice versa) its insta-lust, but nothing is ever going to be easy for two such damages souls. Jon doesn't understand why his wife wanted a divorce after twenty years and Brent feels his physical scars and disabilities make him unlovable, they start of as friends with benefits but it quickly escalates.

I really enjoyed this, especially the way in which Brent's physical limitations remain constant, there's no quick miraculous fix, just good days and bad days, days of extreme pain, days of debilitating pain. Jon worries that he is so much older than Brent and he has a receding hairline. Sorry if that makes it sound depressing and boring - it really isn't (lots of smexy times in the hot tub), its just quite 'real'.

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Review: Roommate

Roommate by Sarina Bowen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Aw! Roddy has left Nashville with practically just the shirt off his back after his in the closet famous country star boyfriend deliberately cheated on him in some kind of twisted power play. He returns home to Vermont, hoping his religious parents might have had a change of heart since they kicked him out when he was eighteen - but nope. Now he's sleeping in his car, washing at the gym during a free one-week trial, and desperately seeking any paying job.

Kieran is living a lie. The atmosphere at home is toxic, he works mornings at a local coffee shop and afternoons at a print shop designing copy before returning to the farm at night to help his older brother Kyle and his father. But he has a plan, he's saving every penny he earns to put towards renting his own place in town and he plans to audit some art classes in his spare time. Years ago he watched as Roddy and one of the High School seniors got it on under the bleachers, thinking no-one knew, until Roddy looked right at him one time!

Kieran can't believe it when Roddy comes into the café where he works and asks for work, although he doesn't want to be reminded of his voyeurism he can't stop his cousin hiring Roddy, especially when he realises that Roddy is sleeping in his car, so when Kieran gets his three bedroom apartment it only makes sense for him to offer to share with Roddy.

This is a sweet, yet sexy, close proximity romance. Loved it.

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Review: First Love, Second Draft

First Love, Second Draft by Becca Kinzer
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 39%.

Gracie Parker is a writer, but she hasn't had a successful book since she got divorced five years ago. Gracie's ex, Noah, is a professional baseball player, he's had a terrible season and realises that he let true love go for a sport/profession that may be over. After an embarrassing accident which may or not have gone viral on social media Gracie is left with badly bruised ribs, her older sister just goes off on a work conference leaving Gracie unable to wash or dress herself (or indeed go up and down stairs).

Meanwhile, Noah has rented the empty property next to Gracie's house, determined to find a way to show her how much he loves her. When he discovers she needs help with basic things he offers to help, despite her objections.

There's also a plot involving Gracie's nephew Matt and his ex-BFF from school that he may have had a crush on all those years ago.

Once again, the story isn't going anywhere, none of the characters behave like normal people (I mean would you really bring your sister home from the hospital and then just leave her alone to her own devices when she can barely get out of the car? Why wouldn't a big-time baseball player pay for a nurse to help his ex-wife with washing and dressing instead of carrying her fully dressed and dropping her in the bath?

Today I am giving books a second chance but if they exasperate me then I am not hesitating to DNF them - this one bites the dust.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Biggest Player

Biggest Player by Sara Ney
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 44%.

Margot is a teacher and a single mother of a ten year old daughter.

Dex is a smoking hot quarterback, his friends are all coupled-up and he wants the same, but no kids just yet, just wall-to-wall smexy times.

Dex and Margot meet on a dating app, she thinks he's catfishing people because he is telling the truth about who he is. Then when he changes his dating profile (so as to avoid gold-diggers) they swipe right on each other. Despite the mutual attraction they agree to just be friends because she has a child and he just wants to have fun.

Unfortunately, I found that Dex read like a seventeen year old, his idea of 'moves' is to stretch and put his arm around Margot at the cinema, his idea of a date is to meet at Glam Golf - FFS what about dinner?

As with a lot of NA/YA authors I found that there was a whole lot of nothing happening as an excuse for heavy petting (eg plumbing issues leading to them both getting soaked - pfft), no life outside each other. So I gave up. I'm having one of those days.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Match Me If You Can

Match Me If You Can by Swati Hegde
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 33%.

Jia Deshpande is a journalist, albeit she seems to be writing click-bait rather than real articles, for Mimosa, Mumbai’s top women’s magazine. In her spare time she writes an anonymous blog about love and dreams of writing a matchmaker column. Her boss says she can have a shot at the column IF she can match a new colleague, Charu, who has recently arrived from the countryside and has said she is looking for marriage.

Jaiman Patil is a struggling local pub-owner, he's been in love with Jia since he was twelve years old, but aside from one perfect kiss at Jia's sister's wedding (a kiss that Jia told him never to speak of again), he has never shared his feelings. Which is a pity because Jia has feelings for him. Also, the reason Jia said to never speak of that kiss again is because of a misunderstanding, but as a reader the misunderstanding is 100% in Jia's head - more of an excuse to reject him than a genuine reason.

Manoj is a comedian who has a weekly slot at Jaiman's pub, he and Charu hit it off immediately but Jia thinks he isn't good enough because he's younger and still deciding what he wants to be in life. Jia wants to set Charu up with another colleague, Eshaan, despite one of her friends saying what a terrible boss he is - so again ignoring clear signs and pursuing her own agenda.

There's also a blooming sub-plot involving Jaiman's rival from culinary college who has just bought the shop next door to Jaiman's pub, I suspect that he and Jaiman's other friend form culinary college are in love with each other but nothing has happened so far.

I feel a bit hypocritical not finishing this book because it does what it says on the tin, its a modern-day Mumbai-set re-imagining of Jane Austen's Emma. The trouble is, it isn't bringing anything new to the party, worse its more like the film Clueless starring Alicia Silverstone. So, it just feels like a few minor details changed and relocated to India, no more. Such a pity.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: The Bookshop Murder

The Bookshop Murder by Merryn Allingham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Flora Steele was adopted by her aunt after the early deaths of her parents. With plans to travel, her intentions were thwarted when her aunt became ill and died a few years later. Now Flora is stuck in Abbeymead, a small Sussex town, running a book shop which barely breaks even.

One morning Flora opens the shop to discover the dead body of a young man in among the second-hand bookshelves. The man turns out to be an Australian staying at the Priory Hotel, a former stately home. Being a small town, rumour is rife and soon Flora sees a catastrophic dip in sales as the locals mutter about ghosts and curses. Nevertheless, the police view the man's death as simply a tragic heart attack and are unwilling to investigate further.

Determined to save her livelihood, Flora enlists the help of local reclusive writer Jack Carrington, who frequently orders research books from the shop, to prove that his death was no accident. The victim was apparently the grandson of the former owner of the Priory when it was a private residence and rumour suggests he was interrogating the staff looking for some sort of treasure.

While Flora is impulsive and liable to jump to conclusions, based on little or no evidence, Jack, as a former journalist, takes a more measured approach.

This was pleasant enough, perhaps I had too high expectations of this (for some reason I thought the author was a Golden Age writer, not a contemporary writer). Flora careers around suspecting everyone in the village, the villain takes the trouble to make a full confession and gloat over his evil to Flora, there's a handy boy who gives Jack the crucial information, and everything relies on a whole lot of strange coincidences.

Overall, I will definitely read the next book - I note the average rating increase over the series - but I'm not sure I would have paid for this one.

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Review: A Place in the Sun: The brand new heart-warming beach read women’s fiction novel from the bestselling author

A Place in the Sun: The brand new heart-warming beach read women’s fiction novel from the bestselling author by Jo Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Thea's husband Marco died suddenly of a heart attack in their Cardiff restaurant. Although she tried to keep the business going after his death, Theas isn't a chef and the combination of Covid, rising costs, and mounting debts forced her to sell the restaurant and give up the family home. Now all that she and her two children have left is the cottage in Tuscany Marco bought on a whim for a song. Thea's plan is to spend the Summer in Tuscany, do up the cottage and sell it to hopefully make enough money to buy somewhere in Cardiff. After the restaurant took over their lives, and probably cost Marco his, Thea wants nothing more to do with the hospitality trade, she certainly doesn't want to work in a restaurant ever again.

When they finally arrive in the small village Thea is disheartened to see that it is practically a ghost-town filled with old people, including three argumentative Nonnas, no cafes, no restaurants and only one small shop. Then the mayor arrives and informs her that the cottage must be made habitable and either sold or occupied by Thea by the end of August, otherwise there is a balloon payment due - its a scheme to bring in investment in the village, empty houses are sold for a song but the buyer must improve them or they have to pay the full market price.

At the centre of the village is La Tavola, a community kitchen which utilises leftover perishables from the local shop to make hearty meals for the elderly residents of the village once a week which are hand delivered by volunteers and then on a Sunday there is a communal meal where all are welcome.

Against her better judgement, Thea makes a deal with Giovanni, local odd-job man and the brains behind La Tavola, he will do up her cottage if she takes over running La Tavola for him. Thea's children are thriving in Italy, finally shrugging off the grief which has overshadowed their lives, making friends with local children and gaining some independence, then a young woman arrives at the cottage looking for Marco, saying she's a 'friend' - what does this mean?

When Giovanni lets slip that La Tavola may need to close because he can't afford the rent any longer, the village pulls together and hatches an audacious plan, but it brings a surprise to the village which leads Thea to reconsider all her choices.

This was a gentle small-town, fell-good romance, what I didn't feel the need for (and it felt a bit wedged in at the last minute) was the 'surprise' and her reaction to it - I felt that could have been finessed far better, goodness knows we had enough repetition of why the restaurant in Cardiff failed, we could have handled a bit more reasoning behind what seemed like a weird decision. Being deliberately vague.

Anyway, as long as you don't mind multiple references to lasagne and red wine (I have to admit even I was feeling a bit queasy by the end) this had all the Jo Thomas hallmarks.

Perfect holiday reading.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Home is the Sailor

Home is the Sailor by Lillian Marek
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Captain Will Dormer was invalided out of the Navy after the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807 after the loss of one eye and one leg. Whilst recuperating in hospital he is advised that his father and two elder brothers have died in a drunken carriage ride when their carriage went over a cliff near the family estate. Will was sent to the Navy after his mother's death when he was only ten so he feels no great sorrow for the death of his family. What he finds inconvenient is inheriting the title of Viscount Claremont and the estate of Belmond Park, his brother's widow, her mother, and his cousin Frederick who bullied him mercilessly as a child.

Will is wallowing in self-pity, no job, responsibilities that he did not want, worried that everyone finds him grotesque etc. Then he receives a letter from Captain Robert Garland, his first commanding officer and father-figure asking him to visit. When he arrives, Will discovers his mentor is dying, leaving a sister and daughter. Captain Garland has lost practically all his money after investing in two cargo ships which both sank, and asks Will to look after Maria and his widowed sister, Lady Sophia Pellew. Initially Will intends to provide the ladies with money, but as he spends time with the Captain, he realises that Maria has skills in house management and dealing with people that he lacks and he decides to offer her a marriage of convenience, he needs a wife and heir and she doesn't seem to find his scars abhorrent, and she needs security.

Living in Portsmouth and having a sailor for a father, Maria is used to seeing men with injuries, she doesn't find them ugly, she still finds Will devastatingly attractive, but she worries that as a woman of (very) humble birth she will not fit in with Will's friends and family.

When they return to Belmond Park as husband and wife they find a house that has been neglected, family residents who resent and dislike them, surly servants, and wary tenants. Together they tackle the issues, but it seems someone is taking dislike to the next level.

I read a review of this book on Dear Author several months ago (eek July 2024) and kept it in my inbox (hey, I'm old I get email notifications of reviews) because I loved the sound of an intelligent historical firmly entrenched in accurate historical detail with a slow burn romance and a solid plot. I finally got around to treating myself and I was not disappointed.

Highly recommended and I will look out for other books by this author.

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Review: Cover Story

Cover Story by Mhairi McFarlane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Argh! Read it, liked it, forgot to write a review.

Bel is a journalist and podcaster. She moved to Manchester from Leeds after a relationship with a colleague went wrong and he refused to accept they had broken up.

Connor was a big cheese in the City, but it gave him crippling anxiety so he walked away from a very lucrative job and at the ripe old age of thirty he's retraining as a journalist and his internship is at the paper's Manchester office.

Bel and her colleague have run the gamut of bolshie, Gen Z interns and are frankly a bit jaded so they may not have been the most welcoming to Connor. ON his side, he mistook Bel's hungover clothing and attitude as superiority which automatically puts up his hackles.

Then Bel gets an anonymous call alleging that a local beloved politician is not the reformed man he appears to be, and instead is a predator who targets young women. This could be the scoop of her career - if she can get the evidence, but without a slam-dunk the only known victim won't go on the record. The scoop is potentially so explosive that head office swear Bel to utter secrecy.

Bel comes up with a bit of a Scooby-Doo plan to get the Ring doorbell footage of the politician and his victim entering a local Airbnb by getting close to the owner, a Manc party-girl who owns a swanky wine bar. While undercover Bel has the misfortune to run into Connor and desperately claims he is her boyfriend, now he's been drawn into the investigation!

As the blurb says so well, two rivals, one fake romance, the headlines write themselves.

I liked this, both Bel and Connor realised they were in the wrong (a bit of Pride and Prejudice) and they worked well together. I loved Connor's brother.

Just a great rom-com.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: When Shadows Fall

When Shadows Fall by Neil Lancaster
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

DS Max Craigie is contacted by a former colleague in the Navy (can one say colleague?) who now works on Mountain Rescue, a middle-aged blonde woman has fallen to her death whilst walking the Munroes, sadly deaths are not uncommon, but Max's friend is worried that the number of women dying has increased dramatically and is at odds with the normal statistics - ie women are traditionally better prepared and more cautious than male climbers.

Although not their usual purview, when the team start investigating there have been five other women in the last year who have had similar 'accidents' and they all look eerily similar, middle-aged recently divorced/separated, and blonde. More worrying, none of the deaths appears to have received more than a cursory investigation.

As the team dig deep they put Janie undercover, but could her life be at risk?

I love this series, I like the way they have branched out of pure police corruption (although TBH there would be no-one left in Police Scotland if they didn't) and I like the addition of the new team member.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Love Lessons

Love Lessons by Sarina Bowen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Ian Crikey has bought a run down property and is doing it up himself, he hosts a Friday night party which gets a bit raucous, the cops are called and an overzealous newbie arrests Ian. When Ian's mugshots appear on TMZ in filthy clothes and shaggy hair/beard the team management are not pleased and haul him in to give him a good telling off and tell him to clean up his image.

Vera is the personal shopper who set up her own stylist business and has roped in Charli from the previous book as her assistant. She is sick and tired of being unable to work from her home office because Ian Crikey is banging, sawing, and otherwise making a noise outside her house. When his rowdy party gets louder and louder she has no choice but to call the police, no way is she going to confront a huge scary hockey player.

When Vera realises that she was the cause of Ian being arrested, and warned by the Bruisers she is mortified and tries to make it up to him by offering to style him - something that he refuses, although he does (grudgingly) allow her to trim his hair and beard. However, Ian thinks Vera is a rich snob and notices the way she looks at him - obviously thinks of him as a bit of rough.

It seems that fate wants to bring them together, not only are they neighbours but they are also the only two singles invited to spend a week in Neil Drake's family villa in Italy (Neil being married to Charli and a friend of Ian's).

Three years ago Vera got dumped by her long-term boyfriend and he made some very cutting remarks about her prowess in the bedroom. He's recently got in touch and invited her to be his plus-one at a swanky charity gala and Vera is determined to show him what he missed/prove him wrong so she asks Ian for tips on the art of seduction.

I'm a sucker for these dating-guru helping her to seduce the man of her dreams only to find that the two of them have more in common. Obviously Vera's ex is a narcissistic manipulative user. Ian doesn't know that Vera is the one that got him arrested. Vera doesn't think anyone as handsome/rich/charming/worldly/ripped as Ian could possibly fall for her. Ian doesn't think he's good enough for someone as successful and cultured as Vera.

Loved it.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: Bombshells

Bombshells by Sarina Bowen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sylvie Hansen gets called up from Canada to the Brooklyn Bombshells, a female ice hockey team. Not only is she ecstatic about playing hockey professionally, it also gives her the opportunity to sort things out with her is he/isn't he boyfriend Bryce Campeau who happens to play for the Brooklyn Bruisers. Bryce grew up in Sylvie's home so her parents were surrogate parents for him, Sylvie had a crush on him but he seemed to treat her as a cute little sister, until the night of her mother's funeral when he made some promises to Sylvie about being together. Since then nada, despite Sylvie's attempts to get him to commit (to anything).

Anton Bayer is also on the Brooklyn Bruisers team, he's had some bad publicity (leaked photos of him and four women in a bed type of stuff) and his (professional) performance has suffered. This season he's determined to live clean, stay away from the women and get his act together, otherwise he may find himself off the team.

Anton is immediately smitten by Sylvie, but you don't make moves on your teammate's girl. But when Sylvie asks for help in flirting to get Bryce's attention he can't say no. At first they are just really good friends, but one night of comforting turns into something more, and now Anton is breaking every rule he set himself because if Bryce finds out there will be ALL the drama.

Loved it.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: Death Under a Little Sky

Death Under a Little Sky by Stig Abell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Jake Jackson is a former London police detective. His eccentric uncle has died and left him his palatial (but off-grid) rural retreat 'Little Sky' and sufficient funds to live comfortably for the rest of his life. He has also paid/obtained water and electricity in perpetuity and restricted Jake's ability to do anything other than live in the house. Jake and his wife have drifted apart after several miscarriages and so they see this as an ideal opportunity to make a break. He will keep his inheritance in its entirety and she will keep their London home.

The facilities in the house are unusual, there's a purpose built library with built in speakers, a doomsday-style basement, secret compartments etc, but no bath, shower, washing machine or phone!

Jake rather enjoys going feral, living alone, speaking to no-one. Even when he does venture out the nearby village is tiny, consisting of just a few other residents. There's no supermarket or bank but the local village store (incredibly) stocks a wide range of wonderful local produce and the owner also runs a sort-of pub in her basement.

Whilst enjoying a local treasure hunt which is rather macabrely a bag of bones with other residents and celebrating his victory, Jake discovers that the 'bones' which should have been a bundle of sticks and logs from the shop-keeper's log store have been substituted for he thinks are human bones. While the local police tend to believe the bones have been dug up from a local grave in rather a poor taste joke to haze the newcomer, Jake isn't so sure and seeks to discover whose bones they are and how they got into the sack.

Met with threats and hostility from the local residents, Jake's investigations lead him and the local vet Livia into danger.

I'm torn with my review of this. I did enjoy the mystery although I question how much Stig Abell knows of the British countryside, his book is populated by in-bred locals, fey incomers, and lots of 'don't go into the woodshed' comments, yet they have organic this-that and the other at the local store whereas in my limited experience you are more likely to get plastic cheese and sliced white bread.

Also the romance was very much a man's take on the way women behave and IMHO not very realistic (and as an aside, there was far too much talk of pubic hair - is the man obsessed?). Also, Livia has a full-time job and is the mother of a six/seven year old daughter yet she seems to have loads of time to go gallivanting around detecting and showing her pubic hair to Jake (sorry - but really).

In fact, I have just downgraded my review from three and a half stars to three stars because the more I think about it the more ludicrous the set up seems. Jake has acres of land, he goes for a five mile run every day then plunges into the lake to swim, he then sits in the sauna (which he and the local can-do handyman built from scratch, naturally) before barbecuing a tender steak on hot stones and serving with some greens he's grown in his vegetable patch - puhlease!

Stepping back it seems like Stig Abell wants to give Jake all the skills and tools (money) to do whatever he wants whilst also forcing him to live in a small village and effectively putting him back into the 19th century by giving him no phone or internet.

I am absolutely astonished that this novel won the 2024 CrimeFest Debut Crime Novel of the Year and that Lee Child and Ann Cleeves raved about it in the blurb - I even thought the identity of the murderer was blindingly obvious(view spoiler)[, he was the only one no-one suspected (hide spoiler)].

However, I will give the second book a try to see if the series settles down.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: The Last Guy On Earth

The Last Guy On Earth by Sarina Bowen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fifteen years ago Clay Powers and Jethro Hale were roommates in a tiny one-bedroom apartment, teammates on a minor league hockey team, the Busker Brutes. It was a case of opposites attract, Clay was from a rich family of professionals, a people-pleaser desperate to 'fix' the issues with the team, sensitive, and prone to tension headaches. Whereas Jethro didn't finish college, his father was a drunk who walked out on the family, and his mother was a drunk who drove her car into a telephone pole, his sister is hooking up with a low level drug dealer and Jethro is having to work side jobs to make rent. For a few brief months the two of them became close physically without ever really putting a name to their relationship.

Fifteen years later, Clay is the youngest coach of a professional hockey team, the Colorado Cougars, and Jethro is a goalie with two championships under his belt and fifteen years in Denver. Then, boom, Jethro is traded to Colorado over Clay's head and neither of them are happy. Clay may have made his feelings very vocally known, not realising that Jethro is within earshot. Now there's tension in the locker room and both of them are remembering just what happened fifteen years ago.

I loved this, I'm a sucker for an opposites attract second chance romance, throw in some seriously ripped athletes and take all my money. But it wasn't just wall-to-wall banging (although there's a fair amount), there's also loneliness, betrayal. lost love, I confess I shed a tear at times.

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Review: Happily Ever After

Happily Ever After by Jane Lovering
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Two and a half stars.

The blurb:

Andi Glover loves nothing more than a good book.

Any book in fact because when you’re raised by unconventional parents who think school’s for squares, alongside a deeply conventional sister who escapes home as soon as she can, fiction is eminently preferable to reality.

The only problem is that fiction isn’t the best way to learn about the real world. When Andi starts her new live-in job at Templewood Hall for the eccentric Lady Dawe and her enigmatic son Hugo, it’s tempting to think she’s fallen into the pages of one of her favourite gothic novels.

But the plot twists at Templewood Hall are stranger than fiction and it’s not long before Andi questions if she’s living in a romance novel or a whodunnit.

I rarely use the blurb for books - because that's not a review - but in this case I felt it was the only option. This book vaguely reminded me of Northanger Abbey, a naïve young woman with a vivid imagination goes to stay in a stately home and lets it run riot. The trouble is, all of the characters are eccentric, Lady Dawe who is in love with her late father-in-law, her mysterious elder son Jasper who renounced his inheritance, the skittish younger son Hugo, the surly cleaning lady/cook Mrs Compton, and the vaguely threatening gardener. Don't even get me started on the cat ('the Master') who appears to be the only sane creature there. This really is a case of throwing the kitchen sink at a plot with almost every conceivable protected characteristic (if I can put it that way) thrown in. Yes there was some misdirection but also some of it was blindingly obvious to this reader from an early stage.

I've got to say I think I preferred Jane Lovering's earlier novels, I have been underwhelmed by her most recent novels. Maybe I should stop requesting them and accept we have moved in different directions.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Available on Kindle Unlimited.

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Review: A Fashionable Indulgence

A Fashionable Indulgence by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Harry Vane was the son of two radicals, he spent his childhood on the run and abroad because of their anti-government stance. After their deaths he returned to London and took up work with Silas in his bookshop, whilst also helping him to secretly print radical tracts and newsletters in the basement.

Then after getting drunk and indiscreet in a pub with a stranger one night, Harry is astonished to be visited by a aristocrat to be told he is the long-lost grandson of an illustrious member of the Vane family and potentially heir to a fortune. The aristocrat, his cousin Richard, has been ordered by Harry's grandfather to make him presentable for society and Richard can think of no-one better than his friend Julius Norreys. Julius may have a cutting wit and be a dandy but he knows everything that is needed to turn Harry from a guttersnipe into a gentleman.

Harry feels torn, whilst he hated being dragged from pillar to post by his parents, and being rich feels like a much easier life, he can't help but feel grateful to Silas for taking him in and looking after him all those years. He may not be the same sort of radical as his parents but that doesn't mean he supports the suppression of the masses either. Added to which, he feels altogether too friendly to Julius but feels there would be no way an aristocrat like him would ever be involved with another man.

Set against the backdrop of the Peterloo massacre and the calls for reform of the rotten boroughs (how vividly I recall those names from history lessons at school and how remote I felt at the time). Harry is torn between a life of privilege and standing up for his principles.

Hate the covers for this series but this was an enjoyable read which really brought home the struggles of the time for fair representation and LGBTQIA+ rights.

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Review: The Players

The Players by Minette Walters
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Four and a half stars.

England, 1685, the scars and division between Catholics and Protestants still run deep after the Civil War, neighbour informing on neighbour, spies everywhere. Charles II had done much to bring stability to England but after his death without legitimate heir his younger brother James (James II) ascended the throne.

When Charles II's illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth launches an ill-advised Protestant rebellion in the West Country, it is quickly quashed and Monmouth escapes the battlefield only to be captured shortly afterwards. In the following days and weeks thousands of 'rebels' are arrested across Devon, Dorset and Somerset. Where Charles had adopted an attitude of let bygones be bygones, James was still smarting over his father's (Charles I) execution and consequently decided to charge all rebels with high treason, for which the sentence was hanging, drawing and quartering. His agent? Judge Jeffries, who later became notorious as Hanging Judge Jeffries as a result of his adherence to James II's desire for revenge.

So far that's historical fact, what Minette Water does is to weave a fascinating and engrossing human tale around these historical facts featuring lady Jayne Harrier (who I now gather - thank you Google - is a character from another book by Minette Walters) and her enigmatic son. Her light touch is wonderful, no turgid historical politics, just a clever man, and two clever women who try to save as many 'rebels' as possible.

I absolutely loved this, I don't want to go into more detail about the story because so much of it depends on the cleverness unfolding gradually. This was a bit of a blank spot in history for me so it was wonderful to have it brought to life so vividly and so clearly, so often family relationships are so complex I get totally lost (don't get me started on the sheer number of Elizabeths and Henrys during the Wars of the Roses) but this was wonderfully clear and I loved the way that all the characters had light and shade. My only gripe was that I could have read a book twice as long!

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Promise Me Sunshine

Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Lenny has been a bit of a mess since her best friend, Lou, died from cancer. Best friends since school days and room mates, their bond was closer than sisters. Now she can't face her parents, can't face going back to the apartment they shared, she is barely holding it together and is scraping a living with short-term babysitting gigs.

A plum job comes up, looking after seven-year-old, Ainsley for her busy single mom. Unfortunately, her technique for building rapport and comforting Ainsley when her mother leaves are seen by Ainsley's uncle Miles as irresponsible and immature so he tries to get her fired, arguing that he can look after Ainsley just as well or even better.

Miles too has known heart-breaking grief and recognises it in Lenny, he offers her a step-by-step plan to learn to live again IF Lenny can help him to connect to Ainsley and her mother, his half-sister who he only met shortly before their father died.

I don't know how to review this, I did really like it and Miles is an absolute sweetheart under the gruff exterior - he just wants to make everyone safe, but it was also so very sad. Even now I feel sad just thinking about it!

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Bad Reputation

Bad Reputation by Emma Barry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cole James was a teenage actor on a much loved long-running teen drama twenty years ago (ish). The character he played always made stupid mistakes (I thought of him like Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl/Joey from Friends) but everyone loved him for it. Unfortunately, Cole let it go to his head and got a reputation for partying hard off screen too. He's spent the past few decades trying to learn to act properly (as opposed to showing off his abs on demand) and has rehabilitated himself one small role at a time guided by his agent. Finally, the work has paid off and he has been cast as the male lead in the next series of Waverley (think Bridgerton but in the Scottish Highlands and I don't think it is anything to do with the Walter Scott novel of the same name). This role could lead to him getting meaty roles, with depth of character rather than the shoot-'em-up fast car films he's been doing.

Maggie Niven was a High School drama teacher until certain elements in her town tried to stop her directing a play that had 'subversive elements'. Maggie felt so strongly that her students should be allowed to perform the play, which only reflected the truth of some children's experiences, that she took on the school district publicly. Unfortunately her notoriety didn't help her keep her job, or her boyfriend who didn't want to be associated with her in case it lost him business. Whilst appearing on a daytime women's chat show (think of the UK TV show Loose Women), Maggie is approached by the producer of Waverley who asks her to be the intimacy coordinator for the next series. I have to admit I didn't understand the story with this play (although since You Know Who was elected and started signing executive orders willy nilly I can see where that could happen) or how standing up for the right to put on a controversial play automatically qualified her to be an intimacy coordinator, but never mind.

Cole and Maggie hit it off from day one, but Cole's co-star and best friend is a tougher nut to crack, she dismisses all Maggie's attempts to discuss scenes or how she feels about them, yet Maggie notices that she has not had any nudity in any of her films since she was about eighteen and Maggie suspects there may be some drama there.

As Maggie and Cole work together, especially when Maggie advises a young actress that despite signing a waiver she can still make stipulations about what she wears and how love scenes are shot, Cole realises that he has been equally as exploited over the years, made to expose his body at the drop of a hat, never consulted about how he feels about the characters he plays, and he becomes very conflicted about playing his character in Waverley, who treats women very badly initially. Maggie helps him to understand his character's motivations, why he loves and leaves one woman but would sacrifice himself for another, etc.

But how would the outside world view an off-screen romance between an actor and the intimacy coordinator? And how would it affect Maggie's second career?

I saw this available on NetGalley and thought the premise of a romance with an intimacy coordinator felt weird, hence I didn't request it. But I had read Chick Magnet and recently read an ARC of Bold Moves so when it became available on Kindle Unlimited I snapped it up. Oddly, I think I liked it more than Bold Moves which felt too close to the TV series Queen's Gambit.

So anyway, thoughtful forty-something romance that I really enjoyed.

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Review: The Prince and the Player

The Prince and the Player by Nora Phoenix
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Two and a half stars.

This is clearly part of a series where young royalty go undercover for a year to 'find themselves'.

Prince Tore is fourth in line to the Norwegian throne, he had a chance of playing professional football (soccer) for the Dutch team Ajax but his father forbade him, saying his duty was to the throne and country. However, (don't ask, plot hole) he has now persuaded his father to allow him to attend college in the USA at Hawsley College for one year - a college which happens to have a pretty good soccer team.

Farron is the soccer captain and a year above Tore. His father was from a wealthy family which disowned him for marrying Farron's mother. Then when his father died they washed their hands of Farron, his mother, and his siblings. Life has been tough, Farron has had to work to support his family, and act as a father figure to his siblings. You could say he has a chip on his shoulder about rich people.

When Tore joins the soccer team Farron is beyond annoyed that this rich kid just waltzes in and snags a spot. Even worse, Tore plays European football where he can rove the field looking for opportunities whereas the Hawsley team play strict positions, leading him into clashes with Farron.

Soon, inevitably, the smouldering looks of hatred turn to lust and after a particularly heated argument they kiss, despite both of them believing up until that point that they were heterosexuals. Yeah, not so keen on the 'gay for you' vibe.

Anyway, they try to get it out of their systems but are just falling for each other for real. But no-one knows Tore's true identity and that secret is going to bite him in the posterior.

So this gave me The Prince and Me vibes (loved the film), but a bit too much. The soccer descriptions seemed okay but frankly there wasn't much more than Tore running, passing and scoring. I'm not sure we know more than two other players on the team (and them only because they share a room with either Farron or Tore). Also the writing felt stilted, I get that Tore speaks 'posh' with an English accent but Farron also had the same tone of voice.

As a devotee of all things Alexis Hall, I would say this is not in the least bit comparable, the characters had no depth. Am okay read.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Subtle Blood

Subtle Blood by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Will and Kim are happy and as settled as two gay men from different social classes could be in the 1920s. Then Kim is called to a gentlemen's club (one from which he was asked to resign), his older brother has been accused of murdering a fellow member after a heated row. Kim and Will go along to the club and note a few oddities, not least of which is that the dead man appears to have a large (comparatively) tattoo under his watch strap - reminiscent of the defunct Zodiac gang. Kim's brother refuses to explain what he argued with the deceased about, admits he tried to pull the murder weapon out of the body and is generally doing everything to make himself look guilty. Then Kim's father orders Kim to do everything (pull strings, bribery, etc) to get his brother off the charges because he didn't do it!

I really enjoyed this third foray into the Will Darling adventures. My only gripe would be that it felt a little too similar to the previous one and had shades of the Asimov Foundation series which I recall (actually I think totally erroneously) as ending each book thinking they had found Earth and then starting the next book with a 'whoops no, that wasn't the real Earth' and repeat.

Anyway, loved the book, love the series, hopefully one day KJ Charles will write a fourth book.

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Review: Wes and Addie Had Their Chance: A Love Story

Wes and Addie Had Their Chance: A Love Story by Bethany Turner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Wes and Addie were small-town childhood sweethearts in Adelaide Springs, Colorado. Then he abruptly walked away from her on their wedding day without a word. Initially heartbroken, Addie joined the Airforce and became an analyst for the CIA where she met her husband Joel. Meanwhile, Wes went into politics under the aegis of his long-last father in Washington and eventually married another girl from their small town a few years younger than Wes and Addie.

Twenty odd years later, Addie's husband is dead, killed in a hush-hush CIA operation so secret that Addie couldn't tell anyone he'd died for eight months and Wes' wife has died of cancer. Addie has returned home to live with her father after leaving the CIA and Wes is the front-runner for next President of the USA, although he would probably not get a single vote in Adelaide Springs after dumping Addie all those years ago.

Wes is on the brink of a massive announcement, he's not going to run for President, and decides to secretly return to Adelaide Springs before breaking the news, not realising that Addie has also returned home ... in fact she drives the taxi that collects him from the airport.

There felt like a lot of dissonance between the blurb and the artwork which both promised a light-hearted rom-com and the reality which was darker and more introspective. Also, this felt like it was part of a series with other couples (and I have just checked and at least one other couple have their own book) so characters had whole back stories which weren't explained and/or their relevance to the story at hand seemed stretched.

Overall, it was okay.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Playing for Keeps in Starr's Fall

Playing for Keeps in Starr's Fall by Kate Hewitt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Maggie is a widow, she and her son have decided to move to Starr's Fall and open a Board Games café, which is far cry from their consumeristic, McMansion, keeping-up-with-the-Joneses lifestyle encouraged by her late husband's high-flying job. Her son is an introvert, happier playing online games than participating in team sports, which led to him being bullied at his last (private) school and they have agreed that he will be home-schooled for the foreseeable future.

Zach has a reputation as the town lothario, having dated every woman under forty within a 20 mile radius (allegedly). He and his sister inherited the family store after their parents retired to Florida but he is finding it an uphill battle to get his sister to agree to any changes to make the store more profitable. Overall, he feels firmly pigeon-holed by all and sundry and no-one can allow him to change. Sure, he was an entitled jerk of a jock in high school but he also gave up his college plans to nurse his mother when she got cancer.

Maggie doesn't have the bandwidth for romance, especially not with a guy ten years younger who looks like a male model, especially when her new-found friends tell her he's a player. But Zach is a good friend to her son, confessing that he too plays online games (in fact the same one) and they start to fall in love.

I enjoyed this. I thought the backstory with Maggie's son was obvious (but I won't spoiler it in case others don't) and the tension/disagreement between Maggie and Zach felt a bit manufactured, I think if Maggie took a step back she would have realised that it felt wrong.

Overall, however, another sweet small town romance.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Marble Hall Murders

Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Plus ca change!

Susan Ryeland has returned to England after her romance in Crete had run its course. She is freelancing as an editor when she is asked to assist a writer with a continuation of the Atticus Pünd series, originally penned by the loathsome Alan Conway. Susan is reluctant, not just because her last involvement with the series almost got her killed by her then boss/business partner, but also because the young author, Eliot Crace, is known to be a party-boy, drug addict, and drunk whose previous literary attempts sank without trace. In fact his only merit is that he is the grandson of one of the world's most beloved children's' authors (think Enid Blyton/Beatrix Potter) Miriam Crace.

However, Susan is desperate for a permanent job, not least to pay the mortgage on the flat she has bought in Crouch End, so she agrees to read the first 30,000 words Eliot has produced. Despite herself, Susan is impressed. Eliot has captured Alan Conway's writing style effortlessly and the plot draws Susan in, however, she is suspicious that (much like Alan Conway's books) some of the characters may bear a striking resemblance to people close to Eliot and the book may indeed be a thinly veiled story about his grandmother, alleging that she was murdered.

I haven't read either of the two previous books but I watched and enjoyed both the TV series, although I did find them somewhat confusing at times. I found reading this novel much easier than watching the TV series, whether that is just because I found it easier to distinguish between Susan reading the novel and 'real life' in print I just don't know.

There was a lot of self-referential inside jokes/snide comments about authors who continue series after the original author's death - because of course Anthony Horowitz has done just that with Sherlock Holmes and James Bond, I don't know if that is a feature of previous novels or just this one - I did worry that the novel might disappear up its own posterior but luckily point made he moved on.

I feel very proud of myself for guessing whodunnit, both in Eliot's book and in real life, although I didn't necessarily have the how I definitely got the why - yay me!

Anyway. Kept me enthralled right to the end, thoroughly satisfying.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: One Night at the Château: Escape to Provence with the stunningly feel-good and romantic new story from the bestselling author!

One Night at the Château: Escape to Provence with the stunningly feel-good and romantic new story from the bestselling author! by Veronica Henry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Connie's husband has left her for an older woman. Her children have left home for university/work. Her job as a magazine editor ended when the magazine folded and she is totally overwhelmed by everything, struggling to get out of bed. Then her godmother Lismay calls from her chateau in Provence, France, she desperately needs Connie's help.

Lismay's husband needs a hip replacement but just before they are due to come to London for the operation he has sacked the chef, which Lismay thinks is a delaying tactic. She begs Connie to come out and run the chateau for a few months while they are in London. Connie spent many holidays at the chateau with her parents, and one idyllic summer working there, which culminated in a passionate night with the son of the owners of the vineyard next door. Although they both knew it would never be more than one night, Connie still recalls that night fondly and wonders 'what if?'.

When Connie arrives she discovers the once shabby-chic chateau is now just shabby. Everything is a bit grubby and/or broken. Online reviews are scathing, comparing it to Fawlty Towers.

Connie sweeps in a gets the chateau back up to standard, bringing the website up-to-date and generating new ideas for weekend events. Gradually, she begins to feel like her old self. Then she discovers that her one-night stand, Remy, has retired from international rugby and has returned to help run the family vineyard. Connie is surprised, flattered, and perhaps a little suspicious that Remy remembers her and seems keen to renew their acquaintance.

Interspersed with Connie's story is that of Lismay and her husband, and how they came to buy the chateau in the 1980s. Looking at the blurb for other books by Veronica Henry, this seems to be a common trait, weaving two linked stories thirty or so years apart.

Everything seems to be going well, Connie has got her mojo back, she's threatened her ex-husband with legal action unless he returns the money she inherited from her mother (and invested in the marital home) from the house proceeds before splitting the remainder equally, the chateau is thriving - and then she discovers that Remy has 'betrayed' her. I'll be brutally honest, I have no idea why Connie got so angry/upset and that probably knocked this down from a four star review.

Other than the conflict issue, I loved this, just like biting into a buttery French pastry. I mean who doesn't dream of escaping to Provence, swanning around a chateau, being able to cook fabulous meals at the drop of a hat and having a hunky French ex-rugby player with his own vineyard as a lover?

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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