Category: General Fiction

Lucy in The Sky by Paige Toon

51+K42IHzmL._SY346_Synopsis: Settling down for a 24-hour flight to Australia, Lucy finds a text message on her phone – not from her boyfriend James, as she fondly hopes, but from a woman claiming to have slept with him four times in the past month. Trapped on the plane, she questions everything about her relationship with James. She finally calls him and he reassures her: it was only his mates playing a silly joke.

James is a lawyer, persuasive and gorgeous and Lucy adores him. So why, at the wedding in Sydney of her best friend Molly, does she have niggling doubts, and find herself attracted to Molly’s brother-in-law Nathan? The sooner she gets back to her regular life in London, the flat she shares with James, her job in PR, the better. Nathan is a happy-go-lucky surfer boy, with no prospects, no place to live, an almost-girlfriend in tow. And the other side of the world…

Lucy – a girl caught between two distant continents – and two very different men…

My Rating: 3/5

My Review: Having read Paige Toon’s newer books I was keen to go back and read her debut novel. This was originally published over 10 years ago back in 2007. This book concentrate’s on Lucy and the opening few chapters were brilliant. Lucy is on a flight to that is going to last 24 hours and all she can think of is a text message claiming her boyfriend James has been unfaithful to her. Soon enough she has landed and is spending time with her friends and is introduced to Nathan.

Now normally I am quite constructive (or try to be) but this book just felt ‘blah’.  Yeah Lucy was an okay character, but there were way too many cliches and it felt a little bit contrived. That sounds like I am being super critical, but I think this is due to the fact that her more recent books are brilliant and this is a sure sign that sometimes going back to read debut’s isn’t the best idea. I know for a fact that I have changed over the course of 10 years, and I am pretty sure Paige Toon has too. I think this clearly shows in her writing.

This was what I would consider a fluff book. Easy enough to read, nothing too horrible about it, but overall largely unremarkable and unmemorable. I am just thrilled that I picked up Paige’s more recent books.

One New York Christmas by Mandy Baggot

40731112Synopsis: Will this Christmas romance be just for the holidays?

A fun, festive romantic comedy to curl up with this winter. If you love Josie Silver’s One Day in December, you’ll love Mandy Baggot’s heart-warming festive romance.

Lara Weeks is heading to New York with best friend Susie for the Christmas trip of a lifetime.

A festive break in the snowy Big Apple visiting the tourist hotspots, not to mention the shopping, seems like the perfect way for Lara to get over her ex-boyfriend. Or maybe make him so jealous he begs for a second chance.

Enlisting the help of gorgeous actor, Seth Hunt, doesn’t quite go to plan, but there’s something about him that has Lara wishing for a different kind of happy ever after… Continue reading “One New York Christmas by Mandy Baggot”

Publication List – Jenny Hale

  1. Coming Home for Christmas (2013)
  2. Love Me for Me (2014)
  3. A Christmas to Remember (2014)
  4. Summer by the Sea (2015)
  5. Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses (2015)
  6. Summer at Oyster Bay (2016)
  7. A Barefoot Summer (2016)
  8. All I Want for Christmas (2016)
  9. The Summer House (2017)
  10. We’ll Always Have Christmas (2017)
  11. One Summer (2018) aka The Summer Hideaway
  12. It Started With Christmas (2018)

Publication List – Alex Brown

  1. Cupcakes At Carrington’s (2013) Carringtons #1
  2. Me and Mr Carrington (2013) Carringtons Short Story
  3. Christmas At Carringtons (2013) Carringtons #2
  4. Ice Creams at Carrington’s (2014) Carringtons #3
  5. The Great Christmas Knit Off (2014) Tindledale #1
  6. The Great Village Show (2015) Tindledale #2
  7. The Secret of Orchard Cottage (2016) Tindledale #3
  8. Not Just for Christmas (2016) Tindledale Short Story
  9. The Wish (2018)
  10. A Postcard From Italy (2019)

Publication List – Tilly Tennant

Publication List – Dorothy Koomson

  • The Cupid Effect (2003)
  • The Chocolate Run (2004)
  • My Best Friend’s Girl (2006)
  • Marshmallows for Breakfast (2007)
  • Goodnight, Beautiful (2008)
  • The Ice Cream Girls (2010)
  • The Woman He Loved Before (2011)
  • Where I Found You (2012)
  • The Rose Petal Beach (2012)
  • The Flavours of Love (2013
  • That Girl From Nowhere (2015)
  • When I Was Invisible (2016)
  • The Friend (2017)
  • The Brighton Mermaid (2018)
  • Tell Me Your Secret (2019)
  • I Know What You’ve Done (2021)
  • My Other Husband (2022)
  • Every Smile You Fake(Due 2024

My Other Husband (2022)

  • Every Smile you Fake (due 2024)

Publication List – Carole Matthews

  1. Let’s Meet on Platform 8 (1997)
  2. A Whiff of Scandal (1998) aka The Scent of Scandal
  3. More to Life Than This (1999)
  4. For Better, for Worse (2000)
  5. A Minor Indiscretion (2001)
  6. A Compromising Position (2002) aka Bare Necessity
  7. The Sweetest Taboo (2003)
  8. With or Without You (2004)
  9. You Drive Me Crazy (2005)
  10. Welcome to the Real World (2006)
  11. The Chocolate Lovers’ Club (2007)
  12. The Chocolate Lovers’ Diet (2007)
  13. It’s a Kind of Magic (2008)
  14. All You Need Is Love (2008)
  15. The Difference a Day Makes (2009)
  16. That Loving Feeling (2009)
  17. It’s Now or Never (2010)
  18. The Only Way is Up (2010)
  19. Wrapped Up In You (2011)
  20. Summer Daydreams (2012)
  21. With Love at Christmas (2012)
  22. A Cottage by the Sea (2013)
  23. Calling Mrs Christmas (2013)
  24. A Place to Call Home (2014)
  25. The Christmas Party (2014)
  26. The Cake Shop in the Garden (2015)
  27. The Chocolate Lovers’ Christmas (2015)
  28. The Chocolate Lovers’ Wedding (2016)
  29. Paper Hearts and Summer Kisses (2016)
  30. Christmas Cakes and Mistletoe Nights (2017)
  31. A Million Love Songs (2018)
  32. Happiness for Beginners (2019)
  33. Sunny Days and Sea Breezes (2020)
  34. Christmas for Beginners (2020)

Publication List – Ali McNamara

  1. From Notting Hill with Love… Actually (2010) Actually #1
  2. Breakfast at Darcy’s (2011)
  3. From Notting Hill to New York . . . Actually (2012) Actually #2
  4. Step Back in Time (2013)
  5. From Notting Hill with Four Weddings . . . Actually (2014) Actually #3
  6. The Little Flower Shop by the Sea (2015)
  7. Letters from Lighthouse Cottage (2016)
  8. The Summer of Serendipity (2017)
  9. Daisy’s Vintage Cornish Camper Van (2018)
  10. Secrets and Seashells at Rainbow Bay (2019)
  11. Kate and Clara’s Curious Cornish Craft Shop (due July 2020)

The Not So Perfect Mum by Kerry Fisher

Previously published as ‘The School Gate Survival Guide’.

Maia is a cleaner for ladies who lunch. With mops and buckets in tow, she spends her days dashing from house to house cleaning up after them, as they rush from one exhausting Pilates class to the next.

But an unusual inheritance catapults her and her children into the very exclusive world of Stirling Hall School – a place where no child can survive without organic apricots and no woman goes a week without a manicure.

As Maia and her children, Bronte and Harley, try to settle into their new life, Maia is inadvertently drawn to the one man who can help her family fit in. But is his interest in her purely professional? And will it win her any favours at the school gate?

Kat’s Rating: 4/5 Continue reading “The Not So Perfect Mum by Kerry Fisher”

Maybe This Time by Jill Mansell

Synopsis: Mimi isn’t looking for love when she spends a weekend in Goosebrook, the Cotswolds village her dad has moved to. And her first encounter with Cal, who lives there too, is nothing like a scene in a romantic movie – although she can’t help noticing how charismatic he is. But Cal’s in no position to be any more than a friend, and Mimi heads back to her busy London life.

When they meet again four years later, it’s still not to be. Cal is focusing on his family, and Mimi on her career. Then Cal dives into a potentially perfect new romance whilst Mimi’s busy fixing other people’s relationships.

It seems as if something, or someone else, always gets in their way. Will it ever be the right time for both of them?

Kat’s Rating: 5/5 Continue reading “Maybe This Time by Jill Mansell”