Raving About Rhys
by Jessica Redland
Goodreads
Amazon US / UK
.
Bubbly Callie Derbyshire loves her job as a carer, and can’t believe she’s finally landed herself a decent boyfriend – older man Tony – who’s lasted way longer than the usual disastrous three months. Tony’s exactly what she’s always dreamed of … or at least he would be if he ever took her out instead of just taking her to bed. And work would be perfect too if she wasn’t constantly in trouble with her boss, The She-Devil Denise.
When the new gardener, Mikey, discovers her in a rather compromising position at work, Callie knows that her days at Bay View Care Home could be numbered. Can she trust him not to tell Denise? If she’s issued with her marching orders, who’ll look out for her favorite client, Ruby, whose grandson, Rhys, seems to constantly let her down? What does Ruby know about Tony? And what is Denise hiding?
Surrounded by secrets and lies, is there anyone left who Callie can trust?
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
Believe me, I’ve kissed more than my fair share of frogs. And toads. And snakes.
‘Please don’t tell anyone I said rude words. Especially The She-Devil.’ … I’d been hauled into her office only the week before and lectured on the ‘inappropriateness’ of shouting out, ‘Who’s farted?’ during film night. It didn’t matter to her that the residents had found it hilarious… Apparently, ‘The elderly frequently suffer from flatulence issues and staff should know better than to draw attention to it using vulgar language’. Whoops.
I like sugar daddies. Did I tell you about my first one? I was sixteen and he was the fifty-eight-year-old lion tamer at the circus. There was nothing that man couldn’t do with a whip…
My Review:
I have read this series out of order but that doesn’t seem to have mattered as every installment has strong enough legs to stand on its own. I have enjoyed each of the Whitsborough Bay stories that I’ve read and fervently hope that Ms. Redland continues the series into perpetuity. I enjoy her amusing storylines and uniquely vulnerable characters, as most of us in the real world are struggling with something even if the issues appear of no consequence or minuscule to others. Her stories are well balanced with humor, angst, and an interesting and relevant storyline with a few twists and surprises tossed in to keep us alert.
Author Bio – Jessica Redland
Jessica had never considered writing as a career until a former manager kept telling her that her business reports read more like stories and she should write a book. She loved writing but had no plot ideas. Then something happened to her that prompted the premise for her debut novel, Searching for Steven. She put fingers to keyboard and soon realized she had a trilogy and a novella!
She lives on the stunning North Yorkshire Coast – the inspiration for the settings in her books – with her husband, daughter, cat, Sprocker Spaniel, and an ever-growing collection of collectible teddy bears. Although if the dog has her way, the collection will be reduced to a pile of stuffing and chewed limbs!
Jessica tries to balance her time – usually unsuccessfully – between being an HR tutor and writing.
Social Media Links –
Twitter: @JessicaRedland
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JessicaRedlandWriter/
Website and blog: www.jessicaredland.com
Thank you for the lovely review. So glad you’re loving the series! There will be loads more Whistborough Bay books to come so thank you for your continued support.
Jessica xx
Fabulous review. I love it when I find a series that has scope to run and run. That second quote gave me a real chuckle.
Ha ha. Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
I’ve written 7 books now and they’re all in the same setting. I love the idea of building a community where characters and places re-appear but all the books can be read as stand-alone for those who haven’t read the books since the start.
Jessica xx
I enjoyed this one too!
Aw, thank you so much 🙂
How can you read a series out of order? This sounds really cute! 🙂
Great question! Funnily enough, I actually wrote this out of order in that I wrote a trilogy and my publisher asked if I would write a short story featuring one or more character that they could give away for free before the release of the first book in the trilogy, Searching for Steven. The ‘short’ story grew into a novella so we didn’t end up giving it away for free. It came out first, it is set before the trilogy, but it was set up to be a completely stand-alone story and quite a few readers have read it after the trilogy.
All the books in the trilogy are completely stand-alone too, each featuring the story of one of three friends. Chronologically they pick up where the last one left off but each story is wrapped up in each so you’re not left on cliffhangers at the end of each book. I personally thing it makes less sense to read the trilogy out of order but I know of readers who have done x
That’s so interesting! It’s not often that I hear a series was actually written out of order but it’s good to know that each book is wrapped up with no cliffhangers.
Great review. I enjoyed it too.
Love the kissing frogs comment! This sounds like an interesting read 🙂