Category: General Fiction

The Garden on Sparrow Street by Tilly Tennant

51i+CbkuNYL Synopsis: As Christmas cheer fills Sparrow Street with excitement, grieving widow Nina is having a hard time. December is always a difficult month to face without her beloved husband Gray, the days feel long and bleak, and to cap it all, she’s just lost her job.

So when Nina hears that Sparrow Street’s Community Garden, one of Gray’s favourite places, is to be put up for sale she knows she must do something. Filled with purpose, she gathers the residents of Sparrow Street around her to turn the neglected patch of land into a Garden of Memories.
Continue reading “The Garden on Sparrow Street by Tilly Tennant”

When Life Gives You Lemons by Fiona Gibson

41D1gSSc0EL Synopsis: Sometimes life can be bittersweet . . .

Between tending to the whims of her seven-year-old and the demands of her boss, Viv barely gets a moment to herself. It’s not quite the life she wanted, but she hasn’t run screaming for the hills yet.

But then Viv’s husband Andy makes his mid-life crisis her problem. He’s having an affair with his (infuriatingly age-appropriate) colleague, a woman who – unlike Viv – doesn’t put on weight when she so much as glances at a cream cake. Continue reading “When Life Gives You Lemons by Fiona Gibson”

Dumped Actually by Nick Spalding

Synopsis: When Ollie Sweet is very publicly dumped by ‘The One’, his seemingly perfect world dissolves into misery, self-pity, and a bizarre rooftop meeting with a suicidal man in flip-flops. While most would seek out the support of loved ones at such a torrid time, natural-born journalist Ollie asks the subscribers of his website: how did they get over their failed relationships?

When Ollie follows some of their more extreme advice, chaos inevitably ensues, including accidentally exposing himself to some unsuspecting wildlife, jumping out of a perfectly serviceable aeroplane, and suffering from an extremely painful bottom, courtesy of a maniacal Scotsman. Continue reading “Dumped Actually by Nick Spalding”

An Almost Perfect Holiday by Lucy Diamond

580C5D72-C21A-4004-8662-7F8F44ACE10A Synopsis: The holidays are here, and down in Cornwall Lorna’s cottages are fully booked. The sun loungers are lined up beside the swimming pool, the sky is blue and a new set of arrivals are on their way . . .

Em’s planned the perfect break with her teenagers plus her new boyfriend, George . . . but now his difficult six-year-old is coming too. Will their romance survive the realities of parenthood?

Maggie’s hoping a seaside holiday will bring her and her daughter closer together, but when her ex makes a surprise reappearance, it changes everything. Can she trust the man who broke her heart? Continue reading “An Almost Perfect Holiday by Lucy Diamond”

Publication List – Lucy Diamond

Coming Home To Winter Island by Jo Thomas

51JhOcODbOL._SY346_ Synopsis: Do you need to find out where you’ve come from before you can know what the future holds?

Ruby’s singing career is on the verge of hitting the big time, when her voice breaks. Fearing her career is over, she signs up for a retreat in Tenerife to recover.

But an unexpected call from a stranger on a remote Scottish island takes her on a short trip to sort out some family business. It’s time to go and see the grandfather she’s never met. Continue reading “Coming Home To Winter Island by Jo Thomas”

The Bookshop on The Shore by Jenny Colgan

JC Synopsis: Zoe is a single mother, sinking beneath the waves trying to cope by herself in London. Hari, her gorgeous little boy is perfect in every way – except for the fact that he just doesn’t speak, at all. When her landlord raises the rent on her flat, Zoe doesn’t know where to turn.

Then Hari’s aunt suggests Zoe could move to Scotland to help run a bookshop. Going from the lonely city to a small village in the Highlands could be the change Zoe and Hari desperately need.

Faced with an unwelcoming boss, a moody, distant bookseller named Ramsay Urquart, and a band of unruly children, Zoe wonders if she’s made the right decision. But Hari has found his very first real friend, and no one could resist the beauty of the loch glinting in the summer sun. If only Ramsay would just be a little more approachable…

My Rating: 3/5

My Review: I have very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand by the time I had finished it I realised I had enjoyed it, however on the downside it took me two attempts to get into the book. Normally with a JC book it just flows, but for some reason I struggled to gel with the main character Zoe and her son Hari. This had a somewhat lacklustre feel to it, which is not at all how I normally feel about her books but there was something missing for me in this latest book. Zoe and Hari start afresh up in Scotland, and Zoe splits her time between running a mobile bookshop for Nina and looking after Ramsay Urquarts children. The story just seems to trundle along with no real eye catching characters which is again slightly unusual with this author. I persevered and by the end it was a reasonably enjoyable book but in truth nowhere near as good as her other books.

An Island Christmas by Jenny Colgan (Mure Series)

download Synopsis: It’s a time for hunkering down, getting cosy in front of whisky barrel wood fires, and enjoying a dram with the people you love – unless, of course, you’re accidentally pregnant to your ex-boss, and don’t know how to tell him. In what should be the season of peace and goodwill on earth, will Joel think Flora is a bearer of glad tidings?

Meanwhile Saif, the doctor and refugee from war-torn Syria is trying to enjoy his first western Christmas with his sons – but without his missing wife. Can the little family possibly find comfort and joy?

My Rating: 5/5 Continue reading “An Island Christmas by Jenny Colgan (Mure Series)”

Christmas At The Beach Hut by Veronica Henry

40542822 Synopsis: Especially Lizzy Kingham. But this year, she is feeling unloved and under-appreciated by her family. The present-buying, decorating and food shopping have all been left to her. So she wonders … what would happen if she ran away and left them to it?

Lizzy heads to her favourite place: a beach hut on the golden sands of Everdene. There she meets an unlikely collection of new friends, all running away from something. But the spirit of Christmas gets under Lizzy’s skin: soon the fairy lights are twinkling and the scent of mulled wine mingles with the sea air. Continue reading “Christmas At The Beach Hut by Veronica Henry”

Hattie’s Home For Broken Hearts by Tilly Tennant

51SRPovwiML._SY346_ Synopsis: Escape to the daisy-strewn windswept Dorset cliffs, to the donkey sanctuary at Sweet Briar Farm, where Hattie Rose is about to find, that in this world, the most unlikely opposites can sometimes attract …

Hattie was once thrilled to call the beautiful city of Paris her home. But when her heart is broken by her boyfriend and she loses her dream job, she bids farewell to the city of love and hurries home to Gillypuddle, a sleepy village on the Dorset coast. But as she returns home she finds her parents struggling to cope with a terrible family tragedy. Continue reading “Hattie’s Home For Broken Hearts by Tilly Tennant”