But I Smile Anyway…

Can you believe February has come to a close? And one with an extra day thrown in for reading, since it was a Leap Year!

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

I started the month with 6 NetGalley ARCs and around another 50K to write on book three…

I ended with 5 NetGalley arcs, a poetry book to read for a friend, and around 30k to write on book 3. That’s not too bad, considering I read 8 arcs this month, so it is my problem of accepting arcs to read that means my actual TBR is not getting any smaller!

Shout Out To My Ex by Sandy Barker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sandy Barker is another of my ‘Must Read’ authors. Having read the first in the Ever After Agency series with much joy, it was a no-brainer to read the second, Shout Out To M Ex.
Cassie loves her fashion designer sister, Elle, very much and hates seeing her failing in her relationship goals, even though her professional star is rising. She contacts the agency to see if they can help her locate and possibly reignite a flame that burned bright and then extinguished ten years ago, suddenly.
To put it plainly, she wants them to find Elle’s first love, Leo, who, despite them being love’s dream for four years, suddenly upped and left, with no contact. It seems Elle cannot move forward in love unless she gets closure or finds the one who got away.
But this all needs to be done secretively.
Engineering a meeting between Elle and Lorenzo (Leo) is the first step once he has been located. The rest just gets better and better as we learn more about Leo, his reasons for disappearing for such a long time, and the wily ways of PR managers as they twist the truth to benefit their clients.
Set in the dramatic, colourful world of fashion, we see so much uncovered as Poppy, Nasrin, and the gang at the agency come up with ideas to overcome the endless blocks that keep being thrown at them, including a fake engagement.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Elle and Leo’s story and felt all the butterflies with Elle as she navigated her feelings towards the one who got away.
Though it can be read easily as a standalone, I loved that we were revisiting the story of Poppy, who works at the elite matchmaking agency, as well as coming on board for another matchmaking journey that she has been tasked with piloting, and Tristan, her husband, who, she meets and marries in the first book.
And it; is always great to read about other key characters who were in past books.
Roll on book 3!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an ARC

Released 14th February, 2024

The Bordeaux Book Club: A BRAND NEW gorgeous, escapist romance from TOP TEN BESTSELLER Gillian Harvey for 2024 by Gillian Harvey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love books, and I’m rather partial to a Gillian Harvey story. So when you combine the two, there is no way I’m going to pass up reading it. And when the Bordeaux Book Club popped up, it was an immediate must-read.
Set in Bordeaux and surrounding areas, five ex-pats begin to meet up for a book club. They feel more comfortable communicating through their mother tongue rather than stumbling through a French one, murdering the language as they go.
Grace is a fifty-something woman who is a bit of an enigma. She lives alone, is well-established in the area and has her fingers in all the pies, seemingly knowing everyone and everything. The book club is her initial idea.
Leah is a wife and mum to a sullen teenage daughter. She’s moved here with her family with the idea of living a sustainable life, growing their own produce to eat and sell, chickens for eggs, etc., but not everything is falling into place as easily as they hoped. Grace is her acquaintance, and she goes along to support her.
George is in the middle of a job, renovating a property for a client and living in the area for around a year. He doesn’t know many people and decides the Book Club might be an interesting place to meet others.
Monica is a young mum. Her husband’s job has brought them to the area, living in a beautiful apartment, but unfortunately this job also leaves her alone with their new baby for long stretches of time. The book club feels like a way to reconnect with adults rather than have a life filled with the four walls of her home and only a baby for company.
Alfie is a young man who moved to Bordeaux with his mum. He’s quiet and an unlikely participant in the book club. He keeps himself to himself, but a series of strange phone calls and a slip of the tongue from his girlfriend, Camille, bring his own tragic situation to the forefront.
Each member has his or her own tale to tell, which unravels as the story is told while the books are discussed within the book club. And it is beautiful to see how friendships are forged between some unlikely characters and how they become support networks for one another.
Another emotion-filled tale with such a wide range of characters that there is someone there for most readers to identify with. I, for one, was drawn to Leah, who is feeling a bit lost, but it is her struggles to deal with her teenage daughter that really hit home with me.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an ARC.



View all my reviews

Releasing March 15th, 2024

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a novel concept for a book in which Lauren, the MC, somehow ends up with an attic that keeps generating new husbands for her.
Lauren is an unmarried young woman coming home from an innocent night out with her friends when she stumbles up the stairs to her flat and finds a random stranger already in her home.
After a bit of confusion, she discovers that she is in an alternate universe where she is married, but she can’t remember how or when she met her husband, their wedding, or anything else.
Then she finds out that the attic is doing a ‘thing’, where if the husband disappears up there, he disappears, sending her another in his place.
It’s not like Groundhog Day, where you relive the same 24 hours again and again. Instead, life continues, and her life changes with every husband’s change.
I was intrigued by the whole idea of this. She could search and search for perfection, sending the faulty hubby back to the attic for another, but let’s be honest. It’s not a sustainable life? Is it?
I loved reading and just had to get to the end to find out what Lauren chooses to do because I’m not sure I could live an infinite loop of husbands…
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for an ARC.

Releasing 4th April, 2024

The Day Shelley Woodhouse Woke Up by Laura Pearson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

TW: Domestic Abuse
Oh, what a sensitively written, tragically beautiful book!
We start off with the main character, Shelley, slowly waking up in the hospital.
As she comes around, she slowly pieces together information regarding how she ended up in the ICU of her local hospital.
But a huge chunk of her life has been erased. In fact, she believes it is 2017 when it is actually 2024.
There is a dual timeline as we see how Shelley’s life progresses, from childhood to the cyclical life patterns that abusive relationships can trigger.
I don’t want to go into much detail, but it is truly sad to see how she finds herself in a situation much like her mother and the end result. However, as we read on, there are silver linings which give us and her hope.
There are some wonderful supporting characters that grace the pages of this book, from Granny Rose to Shelley’s best friend, Dee, and then there’s Matt. Another beautiful soul whose importance in her life becomes clearer as the story progresses.
I loved this so much I read it in a day!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an ARC.

Releasing 6th April, 2024

Funny Story by Emily Henry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was extremely excited to be approved for this arc, seeing as I have loved all of Emily Henry’s books so far.
We fall into this ‘funny’ story with our main character, Daphne, having just found out her fiance, Peter, is breaking up with her and getting together with Petra, his childhood best friend. What’s ‘funnier’ is that she ends up moving in with Miles, who happens to be the guy Petra broke up with in order to get together with Peter.
Daphne is a woman who’s had a lot thrown at her in life, with an absent father and a long list of places she and her mother moved to over the years. The one constant in her life was books. And her job as a librarian is perfect for her. She’s used to disappointment and not feeling good enough.
Then, when things start to change with regard to her feelings for Miles, who happens to be rather hot and is living in the room next door, she isn’t sure if this is the right thing to happen or not.
I don’t want to regurgitate the story, but what I will say is that it was filled with lots of brilliant, imperfect characters, and oh, my, the spice was definitely present in a few scenes! I had to shield my Kindle away from other train passengers when reading one particular scene! (And my face!)
A fantastically written story about a woman who needs to learn to trust again and to believe in herself and the people around her who really do care. And to remember that we never know what will happen next, but we cannot live afraid of ‘what ifs’. We all have our own way of telling our story…
Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for an ARC.

Releasing 25th April, 2024

Love at First Knight by Megan Clawson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Falling Hard For The Royal Guard was a fun book to read, so when I saw that Megan Clawson had another book coming, I was keen to read it.
Centred around the Tower of London, again, Love at First Knight is the story of Daisy, a LARPing enthusiast.
Well, her and her whole family.
Daisy is a simple girl, nothing to write home about, looks-wise, quiet, shy and boring in her eyes, who finds it increasingly difficult to deal with social situations, instead finding solace in her little job helping her father in his ‘hobby’ shop in a sleepy Lincolnshire village and taking the form of her LARP character, Lady A. But then, her twin brother throws a curveball, finding an advert for a job in London that he feels she would be perfect at, helping at a Knight School at the Tower of London for the summer.
After a lot of persuasion, she finally took the steps to build her confidence and took the job. But she doesn’t foresee the one big possible hindrance.
Viscount Theodore Fairfax.
A spoilt media-hungry royal, she ends up being assigned to mentor.
A pompous royal who seems to find pleasure in causing her discomfort.
A rude royal who tramples over others’ emotions with no apparent realisation of what he leaves in his wake.
A handsome royal who can’t help but get under her skin.
Okay, so I won’t rehash the story. After all, this is a review, not a synopsis! But it was an entertaining read.
Daisy is a character who appears to have some form of neurodiversity, meaning she finds it hard in social situations and has a fear of being out there. Of being herself.
Theodore, or Teddy, as he becomes affectionately known, is another kind of character. He shows the darker side of being a part of a famous family.
And then there is the inevitable happily ever after, attained after a complex set of events.
I love the historical details woven into the threads of the story, as well as the detailing about LARPing. It all sounds like a right larp; sorry, lark!
There is a colourful cast of supporting characters, including Bobble, Daisy’s London flatmate, who is as eccentric as she is loveable.
A little unbelievable, but hey, that’s what stories are for, aren’t they? To take us out of the realms of our boring normality so we can live a modern fairytale as we dive into our books?
If you like a bit of a fairytale, then I would recommend this. I certainly enjoyed it.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books for an ARC.

Releasing 25th April, 2024

A Wedding in the Sun by Leonie Mack
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve read a few of Leoni Mack’s books, and I love the feel-good factor and armchair travel involved, as well as the hefty dose of romance and tension within.
A Wedding In The Sun is no different in those areas, but there is a totally different kind of enemies-to-lovers/forbidden love scene going on here.
We are given a dual POV of Jo and Adrián, two people being forced to go to the wedding of their exes to one another, and a calamitous journey that should have taken a couple of hours lasts days, with so many unfortunate incidents peppered throughout, including a storm, lost luggage, a lift with Godspeed bikers, hospitals, the police, that it is a miracle that they arrive at their final destination!
But you come to love Jo, a woman of a certain age who has finally realised she needs closure and to learn to live for herself, too.
And Adrián would light a fire under anyone, let’s be honest. A Spanish longhaired hunky dude who plays guitar and is a fantastically loving father, on top.
Throw in two temperamental teens and a young child who is filled with confusion, seeing his divorced parents develop different lives adds more layers.
Oh, and the fiery Catalonian temperament of the Spanish family gives it a good sprinkle of heat, too!
Beautiful descriptions of the different places they have to stay, as well as the simmering tension between the two, make this a fantastic read.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an ARC.

Releasing 17th May, 2024

The Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh, what a brilliant book!
I wouldn’t have put it down if I had an empty day because I loved every minute of this story.
Delphie, our unfortunate heroine (I say unfortunate because of the situation she finds herself in), begins the story tragically by dying on us readers, literally within the first few paragraphs!
The story follows her attempt to get her life back after being set an interesting, and maybe impossible, challenge by her afterlife coach.
You see, she meets her soulmate in the corridors of the afterlife before he is somehow snatched from her. She is given an opportunity to live again if she can find this man back in the alive world within ten days and she can get him to kiss her.
I shall not tell you about the story. What kind of review would it be, if I just added all manner of spoilers, but what I will say is that this is a proper romcom! I laughed, cried, and awwed many times!
The supporting cast of characters is brilliant, too, with Mr Yoon, Dephie’s non-verbal neighbour, Cooper, the neighbour she never thought she’d want to know, and her colleagues at the pharmacy where she works.
How she accomplishes her task is a bit mad, and all without telling anyone exactly what she is doing and why, because, let’s face it, who’s going to believe a woman who says she’s come back from the dead and just needs a kiss to stay alive?
Such a fun read!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for an ARC.

Releasing 20th June, 2024

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

The first month of the year has flown by, hasn’t it? I cannot believe we are in 2024, now!

I started the year with a few ARC requests that I was waiting on, one sitting waiting to be read, and one I hadn’t quite finished last year… I end the month with a few more.

I also promised myself that I would prioritize my writing over reading.

Don’t worry – that doesn’t mean I am going to stop reading! I couldn’t exist without the wonderful worlds created by other authors. It’s just that last year was such a crazy time in my life that my own writing took a real hit.

So, I am still reading ARCS and my other books, obviously, but I will be getting through them a little slower. My Goodreads goal is at 52, and if I go over, all well and good, but I won’t beat myself up if I don’t.

Point in case – 7 this month, but also almost 30K written by me, too, so I’d count that as a WIN!

The Dubrovnik Book Club: Escape to Croatia and join a new book club with friends, favourite reads and a mystery to unravel in 2024… by Eva Glyn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A wonderfully told story set in the city of Dubrovnik. Claire has come to live with her grandparents after suffering the aftereffects of Long Covid for far too long. Here, she has a job to manage a small bookstore with one employee, Luna.
They host a book club, and strong friendships are forged through this meeting. Karmela, a professor, is a reluctant member. Vedran, Claire’s cousin, is another person who is only there to support his cousin and would much rather be back in his apartment alone.
Each of these four characters has a history they are either trying to escape or a secret they need to be able to open up about. Through the book club, the characters become closer, but not without their own ups and downs, and help one another to come to terms with their lives.
So many heartrending issues are touched upon within this book: loss, grief, being unable to be yourself, LGBTQ and religion, and all handled with sensitivity.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the whole story, as well as learning more about a beautifully historic place: Dubrovnik.
It was part of a series, but I didn’t need to read the first at all, so it was a great stand-alone.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter for an ARC.

Releasing 8th March, 2024

The Curious Secrets of Yesterday by Namrata Patel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Tulsi Gupta is training to take over the mantle from her grandmother in their family trade. The Gupta women are spice healers, using Ayurveda to suggest blends of spices to customers to ease aches and pains and ailments and to give them a chance to better their health and well-being.
They also operate their small one-shop business, Rasa, in Salem, a town known for witchcraft.
The thing is, Aruna Ba, and Devi, Tulsi’s mother, feel the spice healing running through their blood. Tulsi? Not so much. She’s never known anything other than working alongside her tiny family but has resisted the final test her grandmother wants her to take, which would show she is ready to be an official spice healer.
Keeping their centuries-old skills and knowledge to themselves, they advise those who come in. It’s a small business with a true personal touch.
Then social media happens. An influencer happens upon their store, and despite them asking her not to publicise their business, things snowball to uncontrollable levels.
Every family has secrets, and the Gupta women are no different. As Tulsi uncovers different snippets of her family history she had no idea about, she begins to dig deeper.
Meanwhile, in her personal life, Tulsi has her own worries. She wants to get away, whereas her grandmother is eager for her to find love so she can birth the next generation of spice-healing Gupta women. And there is someone, Lucay, but she’s not convinced she should get involved with anyone else, especially given the ‘curse’ on the women of her family.
I don’t want to say more about the story, as you should read it for yourself, but something that hit home greatly was how cultural appropriation could warp the simplest, most innocent traditions that people in different parts of the world have been practising for generations.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable read, filled with cultural snippets I could identify with, and the power of belief, friendship, family, and social media are all explored in a sensitive manner.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an ARC.

Releasing 11th June, 2024

Island in the Sun by Katie Fforde
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have always enjoyed Fforde’s writing, and Island in the Sun was no different.
A young woman with a passion and talent that she is unable to publicise to her family ends up in a situation where her talent is what can save a situation.
Cass visits her father on the remote Scottish Isle where he lives. While there, he requests that she complete a special photography mission for her on the island of Dominica.
She ends up travelling there with Ranaulph, a friend of her father’s. Though he is a bit older than her, she feels a connection.
While over there, they encounter disaster, which overshadows her reason for going there, and in the end, she uses her hidden talent to save the day.
She meets some interesting characters along the way, some of whom impact her life for good.
I’m not going to recount the story here, for it doesn’t end there. Plenty happens to keep a reader captivated. Will she find love? Will she be able to admit to her passion?
The descriptions of the beautiful island made me want to visit straight away, despite the hurricanes that can hit!
Another captivating Katie Fforde story, and made all the more interesting knowing her connection to Dominica.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for an ARC.

Releasing 15th February, 2024

Nuclear Family by Kate Davies
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nuclear Family is a very different story to In At The Deep End, the debut by Kate Davies.
Where there was a bit of a steamy shock factor in the first, this was something family-based but just as interesting.
A Christmas present in the form of a DNA test from Lena, one of a twin, to her father causes the beginning of a ripple effect of occurrences, as Tom is forced to admit he is not the genetic father to her and her sister, Alison. They were conceived using donor sperm.
Both girls are in very different situations as it is. Lena is married, as is Alison, but Alison and her wife are trying for a baby using donor sperm. The news sends them in very different directions. Alison is not interested in her genealogy, but Lena can’t help herself. After taking the DNA test herself, she discovers a half-sibling and then becomes obsessed with finding him.
I really enjoyed the story told from all three perspectives: Tom, Lena and Alison.
There were many questions that came to the surface regarding the ethics of egg and sperm donation and how both the donor and the children that result from it might feel.
A great read that had a good ending.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for an ARC.

Releasing 15th February, 2024

Invitation to Italy by Victoria Springfield
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I do love to travel. But life means I don’t get the chance to go to all the places I’d love to visit. Thank goodness for books, eh? Stories set in other far-flung places and ones closer to home but still unvisited mean I get to expand my travel horizons a bit further, and to find another author with the ability to transport me is always a blessing.
This was my first Victoria Springfield book; I can safely say it will not be the last.
Abi is a single mum, aching from the break-up of her marriage, even though it was five years ago. Her ex, Alex, is firmly ensconced in a relationship with Marina, the woman he left her for, and they have what Abi considers to be their longed-for second child, Elsa, without her as the mother. She finds herself distraught at the thought of her daughter, Chloe, going on holiday for the whole summer to visit Marina’s family on Procida, a small island off the coast of Italy.
A bit of lateral thinking from Abi’s best friend, Cherry, and soon Abi finds herself on a flight to Procida to see how her daughter is. She stays at the stunning Hotel Paradiso, ably run by sixty-something Loretta.
What I loved about this book was that several stories ran parallel. We have the POVs of characters other than Abi, including Loretta, who has secrets and barriers to overcome, and Flavia, Marina’s mother, who provides the backstory for another tale of heartache.
The descriptions of the different parts of Procida and the surrounding areas were worded in a way I could just see myself standing there, viewing the pastel-coloured buildings and the dark volcanic sand.
There is subtle romance that kicks in, as the story flows, for more than one person, as well as seeing the development of relationships between mothers and their children. A delightful read that has made me want to visit Italy and its hidden delights even more!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing for an ARC.

Releasing 14th March, 2024

Seven Summers by Paige Toon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Okay, so after reading this, I am almost ashamed to admit that I haven’t read any Paige Toon books before. There is no specific reason, other than I have had so many others to read, that I haven’t got round to reading them.
However, and it’s a big however, I shall be hunting down her back catalogue after reading Seven Summers.
Talk about an author putting you through the rinse cycle about a MILLION times!
The story centres around Liv, a young woman living in St Agnes, Cornwall. She has come back after her studies, fully ready to embrace the life of a hopefully full-time sculptor.
She meets Finn, an acquaintance from secondary school, and they hit it off. Thing is, they want very different things from life, and though they are perfect for one another, there are many reasons why they can’t be in the same place all the time.
Both characters have tragedy etched in their souls that they support one another with, but equally, both have responsibilities and dreams that tear them apart.
Over six years, they are drawn together like magnets each summer, then pulled apart.
Except on the seventh, when Liv meets a stranger, Tom, who looks set to break this cycle of not quite toxic but unhealthy and unmanageable emotion.
I really don’t want to reiterate the story in this review, but I will say that I highly recommend reading this book.
Yes, there is loss, and yes, there are struggles, but there is genuine happiness and love, too.
Be ready to have your heart quivering with anticipation as it sings, then cries with heartbreak, only to rise again before a fall and then come full circle again to happiness.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House, UK, for an ARC.

Releasing 28th March, 2024

At the Stroke of Midnight by Jenni Keer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another amazingly told story by Jenni Keer is about a young woman swept up in a web of secrets spun by her father and others.
Set in the 1920s, we meet Pearl Glenham, a simple woman who asks for nothing. She and her father are invited to a dinner party somewhere she has never heard of- apparently, neither has her father.
Things start to become strange after they arrive, and she suspects she is not being told the truth. Then, a chance accident leads to her reliving the same 24 hours again and again as she tries her hardest to work out what is really going on.
An intriguing cast of characters, and an amazing storyline. I was hooked!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an ARC.

Releasing 12th March, 2024

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