But I Smile Anyway…

August, you have flown by, and I cannot believe that as I type this, I am preparing to return to school on Monday!

Summer holidays have whizzed by, with our Gran Canaria trip and me going to the Romantic Novelist’s Association Conference for a whole weekend (Such fun!|) and taking Lil (big) Man out driving a lot.

The Big News was that Lil Princess got her GCSE results and passed everything, including some fantastic grades in her English subjects! Those of you who know her recent struggles will appreciate how much of an achievement this is. She will be starting 6th form and her A-Levels next week!

I am now also looking into the possibility that I am lactose intolerant… that will be fun, cutting dairy out… (Do I have the Fibromyalgia to thank for that, Perimenopause, or just my silly body? Who knows?)

Also, I spent at least one, if not two, days a week in school preparing my new classroom. I am in a different room this year, so I had a lot to do from scratch. (So much for teachers having a six-week break, eh!)

Back is aching, and I am tired, but content!

The big question is, what did I read, and did I continue to get words down?

I started the month with 6 NetGalley ARCs. Finally, I started with less than the previous month.

I began to plan the next book I want to write… you will have to keep tuned about that!

I also binge-watched a few things. I had never watched BBC’s Waterloo Road, a series set in a secondary school in northern England. With 13 series out there, it was going to be a long haul, but one day, it automatically started playing on BBC iplayer, and I ended up watching. I’ve watched five series so far! I also watched part one of the new Emily in Paris Netflix series.

I also caught up with my dear friend Amanda Prowse’s podcast episodes with her best friend, Penny Dommet. It’s called Chit Chat and All That, and is so funny. I listen to them, and it’s like I am sitting there at the table with them, mug in hand, giggling along to their hilarious chatter. They go off-tangent so quickly, crease up into laughter at any moment, and talk about all sorts of stuff. I had 15 episodes to catch up on, and I listened to them all in the car or when ironing or cooking!

I read ten books, all of which were ARCs, and have a list of five left to read. (Again, this is less than what I started with, but I’d admit to adding a lot to the list and reading them, too!)

That’s Just Perfect by Nicola Gill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is an intergenerational story about a brother, father, and grandmother and the untruths they keep hidden from one another for fear of being found out and not perfect.
Emily is a teacher, yet things are a bit rocky for her because she worries about not being perfect, and her fiance has just left.
Ed—her dad—is in deep money trouble. He feels the only solution is to make up with his estranged daughter to show his mother he is the perfect dad, and then she may help him financially.
Liz is stuck in a care home after ‘falling down’. She’s in a bit of a financial bind after helping her online “friend’ despite words of warning from her best friend.
Things come to a head, and honesty is found to be the best policy, but not before a lot goes wrong in the name of perfection.
A good read.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Bedford Square Publishers for an ARC.

Releasing 12th September, 2024

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Here I am, back with Olive Ketteridge and her strange way of telling stories about people around her.
She’s joined by Lucy, this time, an author who has a deep connection with the area and the people. We dig deep into the psyches of different people and help solve a murder!
It is an odd book style, but that is not a criticism. It’s just different and compelling at the same time.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Books for an ARC.

Releasing 19th September, 2024

Honeybee by Dawn O’Porter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Two best friends whose relationship faltered reconnect on the island where they grew up, and they both realise they need one another more than they care to admit.
Flo and Renee meet in Guernsey at an unexpected funeral and move in together amidst awkwardness. They wrestle through an argument that caused their strong friendship to break a few years ago.
Renee dreams of leaving her childhood home and becoming a writer in London.
Flo is escaping London with a secret that she battles to hide.
Then, they both end up working at the same marketing company and living together, which puts additional strains on their friendship and gives them an opportunity to be there for one another once again.
It’s funny but tragic, too, at times—the kind of humour you expect from a Dawn O’Porter book.
I enjoyed reading this, an easy summer read filled with more serious topics and humour.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for an ARC.

Releasing 24th September, 2024

My Sister’s Boyfriend: A gripping and absolutely unputdownable psychological thriller by Nicola Marsh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve read a few of Nicola Marsh’s thrillers, and this is written in that same distinctive way.
A three-POV story between two estranged sisters, Brooke and Lizzie, and Noel, the surviving half of a set of twins, introduces us to some crazy family dynamics, a whole load of lies, and pretty twisted characters!
Brooke and Lizzie’s relationship is fragile due to the lies they have been told their whole lives, and mistrust is still at the forefront of their minds.
Then Noel enters. He is a seemingly decent guy, even though he was incarcerated for an accidental death he was responsible for.
But things are off from when Lizzie meets him, and she cannot get her sister, Brooke, to listen.
I must admit I figured out one of the twists along the way, but there were plenty of other betrayals and untruths that emerged later in the story.
It kept me turning the pages!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for an ARC.

Releasing 9th September, 2024

Review to follow on Blog Tour.

Releasing 24th September, 2024

The Ravenswood Witch by Jenni Keer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have just come up for air after immersing myself in the glorious story of The Ravenswood Witch by Jenni Keer.
Having read some of her previous books, I knew I was in for a treat.
We start with a runaway being pursued by the police, and she collides with Marcus Greybourne as she attempts to escape their clutches. Having suffered an injury, party Mr Greybourne’s fault, he insists on looking after her, but with a condition.
She continues the charade of being his wife, the excuse he used to stop the local constable from continuing his chase.
Once in the house, she discovers that this isn’t a straightforward deal, as Luna Greybourne is a woman accused of being a witch.
I don’t want to go into too much detail, as that will give away parts of the story, but the storyline has wonderfully complex twists and a dark romance at its base.
Jenni Keer draws us in with beautifully crafted characters and plenty of page-turning moments that keep the reader hooked until the end.
I absolutely LOVED it!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an ARC.

Releasing 30th September, 2024

Counting Miracles by Nicholas Sparks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Nicholas Sparks has the exceptional storytelling talent of drawing you into the lives of total strangers and making you care about what happens next.
In Counting Miracles, we have the POV of three people. Total strangers whose lives end up entwining in ways you wouldn’t have imagined.
Tanner Hughes, an ex-Army Ranger, is alone now. He’s grieving the loss of his grandmother, the last of his family, and the woman who, along with his grandfather, brought him up after his mother died after childbirth. And she left him with a mystery: the name and possible location of his birth father, who he’d never known.
Kaitlyn Cooper is a doctor and single mum to two kids. She lives a peaceful life in Asheboro, content with her job and her charity work. She also keeps tabs on her teen daughter, who always seems to be up to something, and her young son, whose innocence she wants to preserve for as long as she can.
Elderly Jasper lives alone in his wooden cabin by the forest. Sure, he knows the Dr. and sometimes spends time with her young son, but he doesn’t need anyone except Arlo, his faithful mutt. No one else in his life has stuck around, and most of those around him steer clear of him, allowing him to grieve a tragic accident that changed his whole life.
Twists of fate and another traumatic incident lead these three unconnected individuals through a journey of discovery and an unexpected but heartwarming ending.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK, for an ARC.

Releasing 24th September, 2024

The Little Provence Book Shop: Escape to France with a BRAND NEW uplifting read from Gillian Harvey for 2024 by Gillian Harvey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I may say this every time I read one of Gillian Harey’s France-based books, but a little bit of me wants to find a small village somewhere in France where I can lose myself!
This time, in The Little Provence Book Shop, the main character, Adeline, has taken a big step after a tumultuous period in her life. She has uprooted herself and Lili, her five-year-old daughter, from London to a sleepy village in rural Provence, where she has somehow found a job in a tiny bookshop.
Armed with enough French to get by and not much more, Adeline starts work and develops an interesting relationship with the shop’s owner, Monique, with whom she feels a strange connection she cannot pinpoint.
She is running from a secret and a possible answer she is looking to find, and at the bookshop, she slowly realises that she might not be the only one with something she is hiding, and secrets rarely stay in the box we put them in.
Of course, there is a chance of romance – why would there not be? But whether it comes from hunky patissier Andre or more friendly Michel is not for me to tell!
The Little Provence Bookshop is a feel-good, heartwarming story about a woman looking for her roots. Along the way, she finds them and helps others find their branches.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood for an ARC.

Releasing 9th October, 2024

Christmas at the Board Game Cafe by Jennifer Page
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve enjoyed the Boardgame Cafe series by Jennifer Page, and to find another book was fantastic!
Kate is happy (ish) in life, being Little Miss Perfect at work and being there to help and support her friends and the community around her. However, it feels like she’s stuck in one place while everyone else is moving on. Her best friend, Jo, is loved up, and happy with her partner and running a successful business, and her other close friends are in relationships or even pregnant. It’s just her sitting there alone, even though the others never make her feel like an outsider or a spare part.
She embarks on a relationship she’s unsure of and finds another cause to support, as the local businesses and residents lament the B&B generation where summers are lovely and busy. The cold weather starts, and there is no one here… no holidaymakers, no affordable housing for those who would like to live there, and no trade…
I won’t go into it too much, as you need to read for yourself, but it was great to read about how Kate grows as a person, coming to grips with some long-held beliefs, repairing some relationships, and severing others.
Oh, and I just loved Xander! I’m just saying… who can resist a man who cooks?
Of course, we are treated to updates on all the old characters through this book, as their stories entwine, however you could read this as a stand alone.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Aria & Aries for an ARC.

Releasing 10th October, 2024

Anyone But The Superstar by Sara L. Hudson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Note: I have not read the previous book, so this can easily be read as a stand-alone. (But now I know there are more; you know what I’d be reading!)
A funny, sexy story involving two attractive people, astronauts, family politics, blackmail, and a sphinx cat named Mike Hunt (Yup, she went there!)
And though there aren’t loads, the spice scenes there are hot! 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Liz, or Anne as she is known to John, and Felix, or Johnny as Anna/Liz recognises him, meet in a bar, and one thing leads to another, but not quite how they imagine.
Cue an embarrassing moment that comes back to haunt them as they meet again, and one identity is revealed. However, there are still secrets, as the other is still very much under wraps.
There are so many laugh-out-loud moments in this story and that spice I mentioned earlier, and the cat scenes are exquisitely done.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an ARC.

Releasing 1st October, 2024

So, tell me what you have been reading, and what caught your eye from the above!