But I Smile Anyway…

Right, so it’s the month we head back to school. Highly unlikely that I’ll hit the giddy heights of twenty books, like last month, but, then again, I am hoping that when I have spare time that I might just write, too, this month!

On a Night Like This by Lindsey Kelk
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A new Lindsey Kelk book?
Er, yes please! I’ve been a fan since the early Shopaholic days, and Kelk truly doesn’t disappoint with her latest, On A Night Like This.
Fran Cooper is kinda stuck in a rut. On the outside, things look fine with her life. She’s engaged, they have a house, family and friends around her.
But, inside, she’s feeling a little unfulfilled.
Having put all her career aspirations to one side, to concentrate on her life with her fiancee, she loses sight of her own dreams.
Until an opportunity falls into her lap. Something she’d be a fool to turn down.
And, despite what her c0mmon sense tells her, she takes it.
Thrust into the whirlwind life of celebrity, Fran finds herself as the PA for an extremely famous person, for a short while, and the few days she is with this individual, changes her thinking. But it’s that one night that truly changes everything.
I loved it. Like, literally every little bit of the book! I have to admit, there were times I wanted to shake Fran, as she refused to admit her relationship was floundering.
But, oh, the chemistry Kelk builds, between Fran and Evan was amazing. It just goes to show that you don’t need all over the top explicit scenes to create steam… and I loved the end!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Releasing 11th November, 2021

Review to follow on 20th Oct during Blog Tour, but here’s the blurb!

April 18, 1906 – A devastating earthquake rocks San Francisco and Templeton Morehouse fears her husband is lost forever. A powerful and compelling story from USA Today bestselling author Bette Lee Crosby

Chances were a million to one that a girl born and raised in Philadelphia would encounter a stranger from California on the trolley and fall madly in love, but that’s what happened. Templeton was not only taken with John Morehouse, but also with his tales of life in San Francisco. As an aspiring fashion designer, the dazzle of a city called the Paris of the West, with its towering department stores and European couture was too much to resist.

Despite her family’s objections, she and John are married and, on their way back to California, before the month is out. To ease the heartbreak of such a move, Templeton promises her family that they will return for a visit every summer. She fully intends to keep that promise, but as her fashions gain popularity, the business grows increasingly more demanding. The trips back to Philadelphia become less frequent and she makes foolish choices she will come to regret.

Now, when she is on the verge of having everything she’s ever wanted, a devastating earthquake has torn across San Francisco and she awakes to discover the father of her baby is missing.

With the city in flames, Templeton’s daddy leaves Philadelphia and sets out in search of his son-in-law. He’s too old for such a trip and ill-equipped for the challenges he will encounter, but he’s the only hope of saving his daughter’s happiness.
Lines of communication are down and the city in shambles, so the only thing Templeton can do is pray she doesn’t lose both her daddy and her husband.

Releasing 11th November, 2021

Review to follow on 14th October for part of the Blog Tour

Here’s the blurb!

From bestselling author Hannah Beckerman comes a moving story about memory, secrets, and what it really means to feel that you’re one of the family.

When Nell’s father makes a deathbed declaration that hints at a long-held secret, it reignites feelings of isolation that have plagued her for years. Her suspicions about the family’s past only deepen when her mother, Annie, who is losing her memories to dementia, starts making cryptic comments of her own.

Thirty-five years earlier, Annie’s life was upended by a series of traumas—one shock after another that she buried deep in her heart. The decisions she made at the time were motivated by love, but she knew even then that nobody could ever understand—let alone forgive—what she did.

As the two women’s stories unravel, a generation apart, Nell finally discovers the devastating truth about her mother’s past, and her own.

In this beautifully observed and emotionally powerful story of identity, memory and the nature of family, Hannah Beckerman asks: To what lengths would you go to protect the ones you love?

Releasing 5th October 2021

Midnight in the Snow by Karen Swan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve read a couple of Karen Swan books, and have thoroughly enjoyed them, so when I saw this, I was compelled to read, purely on previous experience.
Midnight In The Snow is filled with the adrenalin highs and lows that come with the sports it features, heavily, Surfing and snowboarding.
I’m not a sports junkie, but the story that carries the book was compelling.
Clover Phippils makes films.
She’s just finished one where accolades have been showered upon her, covering the story of a talented surfer, Cory, whose career was ruined by the actions of a competitor in one of the championships.
Having got herself extremely close to the family, she feels a need to try and find out why things happened as they did, ultimately leading to the loss of life.
Managing to get an all-access pass to the life of surfing champion, Kit Foley, the surfer responsible, she heads off to Austria, where he has now come, having changed his life path from surfing to snowboarding, hoping to find out why he did what he did to Cory.
It was a fantastic build-up of tension between Kit and Clover, seeing as he holds her responsible for ruining his professional life, whereas she lays the blame for the ultimate loss of Cory’s life at Kit’s feet.
Things are never that simple, though, and the way we learn snippets of the truth, throughout the book, alongside the chemistry that steps up a notch, between the interviewer and the interviewee, was fantastic,
Thoroughly enjoyed this book, and would highly recommend it!
Many thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Releasing on 14th October, 2021

Medusa by Jessie Burton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have seen the hype about this book in Social Media for a while now and knowing the critical acclaim author Jessie Burton has already amassed with her previous books such as The Miniaturist, I was extremely excited to read Medusa.
I’ve always had a thing about Medusa. I’ll let you in on a secret – at college, due to my long curly locks, there was a lad who used to call me Medusa the Seducer! (I am not, in any way, shape or form, a seducer, but still… it was his thing!)
So, to find this book, written from the perspective of this character who has been much maligned within Greek mythology, was absolutely fantastic.
We are put in the shoes of Medusa, a young woman who has been transformed into this creature, feared by many, but how, and why was she made to look this way?
I finished this book with a newfound sympathy for her.
And the illustrations were just the icing on the cake, for me. I think I will need a physical copy of this one!
Many thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Releasing on 28th October, 2021

The Replacement by Melanie Golding
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved Melanie Golding’s previous book, Little Darlings, so was equally excited to be given chance to read The Replacement, upon reading the blurb.
Oh, what a twisted, tangled web she has woven within this story!
A little child found alone.
A man found, left for dead, in a bathtub, miles away.
And two women, missing, who the police are desperate to speak to.
Seemingly distinct separate situations, however, inexplicably linked, as the police find out more and more. And what a joy to find a familiar character, within these pages, DI Joanne Harper, who ends up with stakes, far more personal, than in her last appearance, in Little Darlings.
Folklore and mythology, interspersed within a complicated criminal case… it sure kept my brain ticking over, the whole way through, and I more or less finished it within a day!
I was hooked!
Many thanks to NetGalley and HQ for an ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

Releasing 11th November, 2021

Starry Skies in Ferry Lane Market: Book 2 in a brand new series by the author of bestselling phenomenon THE CORNER SHOP IN COCKLEBERRY BAY by Nicola May
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Having read the first in the Ferry Lane Market series, I was pretty excited to be able to visit again, especially since the author, Nicola May has created a fantastic cast of memorable characters, and I wanted to find out more about what was going on,
This book is centred around Steren, or Star to her friends and family, a single mother, with several layers to her own story, as well as her background. Being the product of a single-parent family, herself, and one which wasn’t the best, she has been determined to be the opposite to her own daughter, Skye, though, she, like her own mother, has been hesitant to let Skye know the identity of her father.
Skye is now older, with a life of her own, and it’s time for Star to think about herself more. Two prospective partners on the horizon; one unavailable, one she’s not sure of, though he’s a loveable Irish hunk…
Across the market, other stories unravel, bringing the community together in ways they never imagined.
I loved how this story ended, and can’t wait for book three, now!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Releasing 11th November, 2021

The Imperfect Art of Caring by Jessica Ryn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a wonderful gift author Jessica Ryn has, for creating those wonderful, hapless characters, who you can’t help but fall in love with. Dawn Brightside was a highlight of my year last year, and I was extremely excited to be able to read her newest offering, The Imperfect Art of Caring.
Within these pages, we are, again, introduced to a main character who has a lot going on, in her mind.
Violet Strong is a woman who has learned to keep everyone at a distance from her – for good reason, She is Bad News. Ever since she can remember, bad things happen, and they always come back to her.
Estranging herself from her family and friends, she ends up near Manchester, with a cleaning job, and a wonderful blog where she reviews books.
Things are fine until her sister drops a bombshell on her: She’s leaving the country, and Violet has to come back home, to help look after her mother, and facilitate a house sale, so her mother can be put into care.
My heart went out to Violet, especially as I got to know her, and realised exactly how wrong her own opinion of herself was. She only wants to help, and sheer coincidence meant that so many awful things happened in her life, that really had nothing to do with her, yet, she had carried the burden of guilt on her own shoulders.
The cast of characters introduced through the story are wonderful, including Tammy, one of the residents in the flats her mother’s house have been turned into, who has a learning disability, but no one to help her learn how to live independently, to Mrs R, the grumpy resident, who is, in fact, a rather lonely woman. To top it off, there is Adam, Violet’s childhood best friend, and first love, who makes up half of the occupants in the third flat, alongside his father, Bill.
The book looks at the often lonely job of carers. What is expected of them, what they have to deal with on a regular basis, as well as the lives of those being cared for.
I was truly touched when reading this beautiful book.
Many thanks to NetGalley and HQ for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Releasing 25th November, 2021

The Arctic Curry Club by Dani Redd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A lovely debut novel, bringing together the heat of spice with the chill of the Arctic!
Maya has accompanied her boyfriend, Ryan out to the Arctic, to help him follow his dream.
Though it’s not hers, by any stretch of the imagination.
Shrouded in anxiety at every step, the story uncovers different layers of Maya’s own story and the reasons for her deep-rooted anxieties, as the inky black nights of the Arctic begin to shed their darkness, revealing new layers of colour along the way.
Maya’s Anglo Indian background gives her a reason to stay in a place she would never have chosen to be, once her relationship crumbles, as she picks up the reins of her own love, cooking, and slowly begins to experiment with the flavours connected to her childhood.
Her mother’s handwritten recipes, in an old book, help Maya to create something the Arctic wasn’t expecting, and the memories that surface, with every new mouthful of food she creates, helps Maya to discover more and more about a past she had learned to block out.
I truly enjoyed this story, with a little hint of romance, but, ultimately, a book filled with self-discovery. It was a tad slow at the start, but as revelations kept popping up, the faster my pages turned.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Releasing 9th December, 2021

So, 9 books – not bad for the first term of the year, and with illness thrown into the mix! And an eclectic selection, at that!

Any caught your eye? What have you been reading?