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.
So, tell me what you have been reading, and what caught your eye from the above!
But I Smile Anyway... 