Review: It Takes Two

It Takes Two by Natalie Cox
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Clem is a bit of a soft touch. She has a massive dog that she can't really afford to feed. She manages an artisanal cheese shop, her upstairs neighbour has taken out a restraining order against her dog, and she's still friends with her ex-boyfriend even though he's really boring.

Then Clem finds that someone has stolen her identity - and appears to be having a much better life, even if it is a bit creepy that this person is visiting the same bars, restaurants and shops, oh and she seems to look very similar too.

When Clem is arrested, because of frauds her doppelganger has perpetrated, she determines to track down this mysterious identity thief.

I started this book three months ago and gave up after a short period because Clem seemed such an idiot, I mean who doesn't realise that someone is spending on your card for months on end? Especially when a barman accuses you of borrowing money from him and not repaying it?

I restarted this yesterday and finished it today, while I did enjoy it it had a very Goldie Hawn feel to me; Clem is just so dipsy and insists on tailing people around London wearing a dodgy wig on her rollerblades. Also, I felt that almost everything was a plot device to enable something else to happen later in the plot. And there were lots of kooky characters with bizarre interests which all felt a little overblown.

Overall, it was an okay, fun read but I have a feeling that this style of character could get very tiresome.

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

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Review: A Casterglass Garden

A Casterglass Garden by Kate Hewitt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a series about the Penryn family who own Casterglass Castle in Cumbria. each book features a different sibling's romance, set against trying to save the castle.

This book concerns Olivia. Shy, quiet and self-effacing, she worked at a garden centre in Leeds until a disastrous romance with a married man sent her fleeing home. Now she's been charged with restoring/transforming 30 acres of unloved grounds in a matter of months on no budget and with no assistance, other than a few hours of her nephew's time every few weeks.

Fortuitously Olivia meets Will Turner in the local pub one night. Will is a landscape gardener, although since his move from Norfolk to Cumbria he has spent more time doing mundane gardening and fencing than the grand projects he envisaged. Enthralled by Olivia's rough sketches of Secret Garden she envisages, Will invites himself along to view the gardens and gets a part-time job helping Olivia. But Will is a widower with two small children, whose wife only recently died, he's not in the market for romance, and after nearly destroying a marriage Olivia is guarding her heart this time.

If creating a secret garden in the grounds of a dilapidated castle, cute moppets and irritating siblings is your cup of tea then I think this will be right up your street.

Ideal for lovers of Katie Fforde, Sue Moorcroft and Milly Johnson.

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

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Review: Rachel Ryan's Resolutions: A heartwarming, laugh out loud romantic comedy for 2021

Rachel Ryan's Resolutions: A heartwarming, laugh out loud romantic comedy for 2021 by Laura Starkey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rachel Ryan works in advertising. She might be thirty and single, but she has her best friend Anna, Anna's boyfriend, and his flatmate - together they spend evenings and weekends together as a group.

Then Rachel's world is turned topsy-turvey, her agency is bought by a large Manchester firm and her college ex Jack Harper (who cheated on her and broker her heart) is part of the Manchester team, not only that, he's also joining the London office and Rachel has got a big promotion, but it means that she has to work with Jack on a series of difficult not-for-profit accounts.

Rachel thinks she's immune to Jack's good looks and charm, but soon she starts to fall for his smiles and awe-shucks eye-rolls. Can she keep his past behaviour in mind or has he really turned over a new leaf?

I thought Laura Starkey did this very well, too often the reader sees or guesses something that is resolutely kept secret (if that makes sense) which can become frustrating, in this case Laura only keeps the reader in suspense for a short time before revealing the love interest's feelings - now we just need Rachel to catch a clue LOL.

Funny, charming, with a bit of a tear-jerker in the middle, this was a great fun read.

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Review: The Woman Who Took a Chance

The Woman Who Took a Chance by Fiona Gibson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jen is a fifty-something, single mother of an adult daughter, a flight attendant with a budget airline based in Glasgow. When the airline goes bust she's suddenly unemployed, living alone and hasn't had a date in two years. Pushed into joining a dating app by her daughter Hannah and colleagues she finds there are slim pickings for a mature woman, Jen's not necessarily looking for true love, just someone to share a luxury holiday in Greece she won for selling the most airline mascot toys in the period before the voucher expires.

Will Jen realise that her daughter's father could be the man for her? Or will it be the suave solicitor with a way with words? Will it be the dentist or the fencing specialist? Or what about the silver fox Jen sees running effortlessly while she's struggling with her Couch to 5K app? It's probably not the guy who stares at her boobs or the reformed thief though ...

As with so many of Fiona Gibson's books this took me on a journey I wasn't expecting and the reader really is left guessing until the last minute who Jen falls in love with (with whom Jen falls in love). Funny, yet with serious concerns about ageing parents and being jobless over fifty, quirky and charming. Another winner from one of my new favourite authors.

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

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Review: Welcome to Your Life

Welcome to Your Life by Bethany Rutter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Serena jilts her fiancé just minutes before their wedding, he's the only man she's ever slept with and they've been together ten years, everyone says she's lucky to have someone as good-looking and solvent and h=kind as Alistair but Serena realises (almost too late) that they've become cosy friends and the spark has gone.

So, to the horror of her family, she cancels the wedding and moves to London to stay with her best friend Lola, who gets her a job as a copywriter with a jewellery company owned by a college friend. Serena decides to put herself out there and resolves to go on a Tinder date a week, not realising that she is sabotaging herself by only swiping right on men than she thinks might fancy a plus-sized woman (ie mediocre) rather than men she finds attractive. Inevitably what follows are a series of appalling dates with weird men!

With the help of her work friend Nicole, who is also plus-sized but carries herself with a confidence and panache that Serena can't emulate, and Lola Serena realises that old cliché that in order to be lovable you first need to love yourself, and if that don't work, fake it 'til you make it.

I did enjoy this, don't get me wrong, it was charming and funny without trying too hard. I liked Serena and I liked the way that there was no Hollywood ending,(view spoiler)[her side hustle of dress-making doesn't suddenly turn into a huge business making her a millionaire, (hide spoiler)]
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Lessons in Chemistry

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Elizabeth Zott has struggled against sexism all her life, she is a brilliant chemist but everyone from her college lecturers to her colleagues at Hastings Research Institute seem to think she's more interested in snagging a husband than cutting-edge chemistry research. As the only woman in the team she is expected to make the coffees, bring equipment to the male scientists and clear up after them, despite being more intelligent and having more insightful research. The only exception is the equally gifted enfant terrible Calvin Evans, Hastings' Noble prize winning chemist, all the other chemists hate him but the two of them fall in love.

Fast forward a few years and Elizabeth is a single mother to an equally gifted daughter, unable to get a job as a research chemist at Hastings, she has somehow been offered a job presenting a daytime cookery show for housewives, but Elizabeth refuses to kowtow to the network's sexist ideas about how she should look, how the set should look, or even what she should say. She's teaching cookery as chemistry.

See that describes the book, and yet it doesn't. There's a whole tragic, almost French farce surrounding Calvin's past which the reader guesses at, but could have changed his whole life if things had gone differently. The style sort of reminded of The World According to Garp, maybe it's just because I rarely read a book written entirely from the view of a third party narrator, but it also had that slightly surreal element to it, especially when we hear Elizabeth's dog's thoughts.

Kooky and quirky don't really hit the mark. I wouldn't say it was loud-out-loud funny, more mildly amusing with a dark underbelly. All of the main characters have something terrible happen(ing) in their lives. Most of the ancillary male characters are just plain awful, and the women aren't much better.

It was slow to start and the unemotional delivery took some getting used to, yet, by the end, I really enjoyed it. Very different.

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

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Review: Take Mum Out

Take Mum Out by Fiona Gibson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Alice is a thirty-nine year old single mother of two teenage boys, Logan aged sixteen and Fergus aged thirteen. Their father Tom spent years lying on the sofa, not working, drinking too much and generally being a slob, then when Alice kicked him out he somehow transformed and is now married to a woman with her own business (think Boden/ White Company levels of aspirational middle-class living) and has a young daughter.

Alice works as a school secretary during the day and bakes meringues for additional cash in the evenings. Since she and Tom split she hasn't had much time for dating, what with her jobs and bringing up two teenagers but her three best friends are urging her to 'get back on that horse' and each decide to set her up with a lovely man that they know.

I think to describe this as a humorous look at dating in your late thirties kind of sells this book short because it is much more than that. It's about being friends even when you have very little in common, it's about seeing people clearly (but it's also about not judging too quickly). Alice and her sons have a tense relationship, not helped by Tom or Logan's best friend Blake whose parents have just converted their attic into a self-contained apartment for him.

Overall, this was funny, charming, and ultimately life-affirming. I also liked that what I thought would be the romantic twist turned out to be wrong.

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Review: Once a Laird

Once a Laird by Mary Jo Putney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Two and a half stars.

Kai Ramsay has spent years away from his home in Scotland's remote Thorsay Islands being a spy and an archaeologist. Then he receives a letter to tell him his only living relative, his grandfather the Laird of Thorsay, is dying and he must come home. The letter is sent by his dead fiancé's little sister Signy, who has blossomed from a child to a beautiful woman (Nordic goddess is mentioned far more than necessary). Signy has been the Laird's estate manager and general support for years and still blames Ramsay for her sister's death.

Despite their rocky start, Ramsay and Signy soon bond over their love for the Laird and the islands, together they discover an ancient settlement which has been uncovered by a strong storm, but the financial burden of years of hard winters puts Ramsay in a difficult situation.

I'm sorry but I'm bored just writing this summary. There are two half-hearted attempts at binging some dramatic tension to the story but frankly they are both damp squibs. Everything interesting seems to happen off-stage so the reader is simply presented with a fait-accompli - like they used to say at school, show your workings!

This is the sixth (possibly last) book in a series and (not having read the other five books) it feels as though Mary Jo Putney had to write a book for the final member of the group but wasn't feeling the love ... and neither was I. I felt that Mary Jo Putney had read a lot about ancient sites on remote Scottish islands and wanted to put it in a book. As a consequence neither Ramsay nor Signy felt like fleshed out characters, their 'romance' was laughable and the tension was non-existent. (view spoiler)[Oh no! I owe my snake of a cousin £25,000 repayable in full in only a few weeks, I have no money, I will lose everything. Never mind, at the last minute five of my old friends will literally sail in at the last minute and each give me £5,000 for saving their lives. Reminds me of that insurance advert where they say they won't make a drama out of a crisis! (hide spoiler)]

Okay, I was under the impression that I liked Mary Jo Putney's books and that this was an aberration but looking at Goodreads my highest rating was only a three, so maybe this is me persisting in requesting an author who doesn't really work for me.

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

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Review: Once a Laird

Once a Laird by Mary Jo Putney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Two and a half stars.

Kai Ramsay has spent years away from his home in Scotland's remote Thorsay Islands being a spy and an archaeologist. Then he receives a letter to tell him his only living relative, his grandfather the Laird of Thorsay, is dying and he must come home. The letter is sent by his dead fiancé's little sister Signy, who has blossomed from a child to a beautiful woman (Nordic goddess is mentioned far more than necessary). Signy has been the Laird's estate manager and general support for years and still blames Ramsay for her sister's death.

Despite their rocky start, Ramsay and Signy soon bond over their love for the Laird and the islands, together they discover an ancient settlement which has been uncovered by a strong storm, but the financial burden of years of hard winters puts Ramsay in a difficult situation.

I'm sorry but I'm bored just writing this summary. There are two half-hearted attempts at binging some dramatic tension to the story but frankly they are both damp squibs. Everything interesting seems to happen off-stage so the reader is simply presented with a fait-accompli - like they used to say at school, show your workings!

This is the sixth (possibly last) book in a series and (not having read the other five books) it feels as though Mary Jo Putney had to write a book for the final member of the group but wasn't feeling the love ... and neither was I. I felt that Mary Jo Putney had read a lot about ancient sites on remote Scottish islands and wanted to put it in a book. As a consequence neither Ramsay nor Signy felt like fleshed out characters, their 'romance' was laughable and the tension was non-existent. (view spoiler)[Oh no! I owe my snake of a cousin £25,000 repayable in full in only a few weeks, I have no money, I will lose everything. Never mind, at the last minute five of my old friends will literally sail in at the last minute and each give me £5,000 for saving their lives. Reminds me of that insurance advert where they say they won't make a drama out of a crisis! (hide spoiler)]

Okay, I was under the impression that I liked Mary Jo Putney's books and that this was an aberration but looking at Goodreads my highest rating was only a three, so maybe this is me persisting in requesting an author who doesn't really work for me.

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

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Review: A Cottage Full of Secrets

A Cottage Full of Secrets by Jane Lovering
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tamzin leaves Cornwall for the Yorkshire Moors, fleeing an abusive relationship with Dominic. She buys a small cottage, uninspiring called Cottage Two, Bracken Ridge Farm and determines to make it her own, not realising the parallels between her life and that of a former occupant, Stella, who moved into the cottage as a newly-wed in the early 1970s.

Cottage One is occupied by a morose single man who seems to spend a lot of time dressed like a tramp and staring, Tamzin can't decide if he's creepy or a bit simple. Little does she know that she has more in common with her new neighbour than she thinks.

Told partially in flashbacks to Stella and partly in the present day, this novel is pure Jane Lovering, cute, quirky and yet with a serious undercurrent. Loved it.

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

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Review: One Night Only

One Night Only by Catherine Walsh
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sarah Anderson is a young architect in New York, after a brutal break up with her ex, Josh, she's become a love 'em and leave 'em one-night stand artist. Imagine her horror when her latest one-night stand turns out to be the best man at her BFF Annie's wedding in Ireland, where Sarah is the maid of honour. What's worse, the groom's mother is trying to set her up with the best man, her son Declan!

I loved the sound of this, who doesn't like the idea of being stuck at a destination wedding with your last one-night stand when you barely know anyone else other than the bride and groom?

Unfortunately, this started to wane around the halfway mark, first it just dragged. Second, Sarah had that irritating habit of not believing what she was told, whether it was Declan or her friends saying he was smitten with her, she just didn't believe it. Third, Declan was a bit of a tool TBH. (view spoiler)[Allegedly he has seen Sarah several times at the bar which he runs and really liked her but he always lets/makes her make the first move and is very quick to detonate the relationship at the first sign of Sarah wavering. (hide spoiler)] Fourth, there were just too many tropes for one book to carry single-handedly.

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