Month: September 2018

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Book Review: The Oddest Little Romance Shop by Beth Good

The Oddest Little Romance Shop

by Beth Good

Goodreads

Amazon US / UK  / B&N

‘I love Beth Good’s quirky style!’ – Katie Fforde

Izzie has the perfect plan for a perfect life. Work hard, get married, settle down, start a family. But when a mysterious Valentine’s day card arrives, asking in a bold scrawl, ‘Will you marry me?’, it upends everything.
Because Izzie thought she’d found Mr. Right – and the card isn’t from him.

Puzzled, she sets out to discover the identity of her secret admirer . . . and is shocked by the truth. Torn in two directions, Izzie doesn’t know what to do.

Should she stick to the plan, or is it time to take life in a bold new direction?

Another quirky, charming novella in the ‘Oddest Little Shop’ series from popular romantic comedy writer Beth Good.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

‘Oh get a grip, you can’t seriously marry someone called Norman. I mean . . . Norman.’ Her friend said his name with breathless emphasis as though in the throes of passion, then shook her head. ‘No, it’s not a name to send chills of expectation down your spine. Unless you’re desperate for a truly comprehensive insurance policy.’

 

She did want to marry Norman, she really did. He was a really nice guy, and he was so amazingly keen on her . . . It was just that, in the middle of the night, she did keep waking up in a cold sweat, wondering if she was making the biggest mistake of her life.

 

She clasped her handbag tight on her lap. Like an old granny worried about losing her lottery tickets. Not a good look.

 

As their lips met, bodies pressed together, Isabel realised that forcing Norman to kiss her tonight was the worst thing she had ever done in her life. Possibly barring the incident with the snail sandwich in Year 3. Which had been unspeakably grim… Then there was the fact that his breath smelt a bit whiffy. And his lips were damp. Not wet, exactly, which would have been horrible. But kind of clammy. Eww.

 

He sounded like her dad the time he discovered a steamy romance novel hidden under her mattress when she was only twelve. And she did not really want to marry her dad, did she? Quite apart from the fact that any Freudian therapist would have a field day with it.

 

One of the women, wearing a leopard-print fake fur hat and a thick winter scarf, made an obscene gesture at Lewis. Or she might simply have been rubbing her nose.

 

My Review:

 

I smirked and giggled-snorted my way through this delightfully entertaining and gleefully amusing tale. I may have even bounced in my chair a few times with unrestrained joy.   I have a new favorite author and I am totally fangirling as I venerated her clever wit, writing style, and engaging storylines. I am greedily hungering for every word this clever author has ever penned, like pronto.   I adored this – start to finish.

 

Author Bio –

Born and raised in Essex, England, Beth Good was whisked away to an island tax haven at the age of eleven to attend an exclusive public school and rub shoulders with the rich and famous. Sadly, she never became rich or famous herself, so had to settle for infamy as a writer of dubious novels. She writes under several different names, mainly to avoid confusing her readers – and herself! As Beth Good, she writes romantic comedy and feel-good fiction. She also writes thrillers as Jane Holland, historicals as Victoria Lamb and Elizabeth Moss, and feel-good fiction as Hannah Coates.

Beth currently lives in the West Country where she spends a great deal of time thinking romantic thoughts while staring out of her window at sheep. (These two actions are unrelated.)

You can find her most days on Twitter as @BethGoodWriter where she occasionally indulges in pointless banter about chocolate making and the Great British Bake Off. Due to a basic inability to say no, she has too many children and not enough money, which means she needs as many readers as she can get.

Social Media Links –

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BethGoodAuthor

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/BethGoodWriter

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Book Review: Tear Me Apart by J.T. Ellison

Tear Me Apart

by J.T. Ellison

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

 

SYNOPSIS:

The follow-up to her critically acclaimed Lie to Me, J.T. Ellison’s Tear Me Apartis the powerful story of a mother willing to do anything to protect her daughter even as their carefully constructed world unravels around them.

One moment will change their lives forever…

Competitive skier Mindy Wright is a superstar in the making until a spectacular downhill crash threatens not just her racing career but her life. During surgery, doctors discover she’s suffering from a severe form of leukemia, and a stem cell transplant is her only hope. But when her parents are tested, a frightening truth emerges. Mindy is not their daughter.

Who knows the answers?

The race to save Mindy’s life means unraveling years of lies. Was she accidentally switched at birth or is there something more sinister at play? The search for the truth will tear a family apart…and someone is going to deadly extremes to protect the family’s deepest secrets.

With vivid movement through time, Tear Me Apart examines the impact layer after layer of lies and betrayal has on two families, the secrets they guard, and the desperate fight to hide the darkness within.

My Rating:  

Favorite Quotes:

 

There is a nurse named Eleanor Snow who runs the ward, but we all call her Ratchet because she is a bitch. No one said we had to be original.

 

She doesn’t want to die. She feels the cancer moving through her, like a shadow in her blood. It has grown in the past few days, is becoming harder and harder to fight… Its snapping jaws are just there, out of reach, but for how long?

 

The words are absurd. This is one of those bizarre nightmares where you’re dreaming inside of a dream, and you know you’re dreaming, so you tell yourself to go ahead and wake up because this isn’t fun at all.

 

“Show me the Milky Way, Mommy. I want to see the candy bars in the sky”… She was so mad when she found out that the sky didn’t have chocolate in it.

 

Everything here is dirty; though it’s been cleaned, again and again, the stink of raw bleach hangs on every corner like a blanket. Bleach and fear, the prison olfactory. Plus the dirt of a thousand people, grimed into the history of the place.

 

My Review:

 

There was much beneath the surface of this slowly developing and captivating story; it was maddeningly paced yet in the end, I appreciated the cunning and craftiness of the plot. J.T. Ellison is an evil genius. I had initially devised a theory of a terrorist plot but quickly abandoned that when I easily identified the culprit although I had no idea of all the complex twists and turns and nuances there were to this tale. There were lots of clues as well as misdirections, yet the mounting incidents and the number of deceased in various cities and occupations were cleverly situated and although the deaths seemed incidental and easy to explain their occurrence was far too often to not be foul play. The writing was top quality, engrossing, and flowed smoothly in an alluringly addictive and enticing manner and while I wouldn’t call it a thriller, it certainly held my attention and kept me well entertained and glued to my Kindle. I also greatly treasured the recognition of Project Semicolon in the author’s ending notes.

About the Author

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author J.T. Ellison writes standalone domestic noir and psychological thriller series, the latter starring Nashville Homicide Lt. Taylor Jackson and medical examiner Dr.  Samantha Owens, and pens the international thriller series “A Brit in the FBI” with #1 New York Times bestselling author Catherine Coulter. Cohost of the Emmy Award-winning literary television series, A Word on Words, Ellison lives in Nashville with her husband and twin kittens.

Visit JTEllison.com for more insight into her wicked imagination, or follow her on Facebook, Twitter @thrillerchick, and Instagram @thrillerchick

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Book Review, Giveaway: I Give You My Heart by SarahJane Ford

I Give You My Heart

by SarahJane Ford

Goodreads

Amazon US / UK  / B&N

𝗔 𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘀. 𝗔 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲-𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲. 𝗔 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁.

Alice Richards looked forward to watching the seeds of love she and her husband planted bloom and grow well into their old age. But her plans for the future shrivel up and die when she learns she has an inoperable brain tumor.

Determined that she won’t die in vain, she decides to become an organ donor. With a few precious months left, Alice begins documenting her fairytale romance—from their first meeting to the children they dreamed of having. She’ll pass on every detail to her heart’s next owner… along with careful instructions to send her husband reminders of her undying love. Before her time runs out, Alice must find the perfect candidate to guide her husband through unimaginable grief and hold the memory of their love in her heart.

I Give You My Heart is an emotional romantic fiction novel with an uplifting message. If you like strong-willed women, undying love stories, and honest portrayals of coping with a terminal illness, then you’ll love SarahJane Ford’s heart-warming epic.

An unmissable love story full of warmth, beauty and with a huge, beating heart. Perfect for fans of Cecilia Ahern’s ‘P.S. I Love You’ and Jojo Moyes’ ‘Me Before You’.

My Rating:  

Favorite Quotes:

 

He moved words around his mouth, silently, testing how they tasted before releasing them into the air.

 

I wondered when you were going to bring up your eyebrows, Al. What has happened to them? Did two caterpillars go to sleep on your face and you just didn’t notice?

 

She’d be the one on the front row of the nativity play clapping her hands red, her camera blinding all the children the whole way through the play, making her little darling feel like the next Leonardo DiCaprio while donning the back half of a donkey suit. She was the best.

 

Because she has to be perfect, you know? This is Alex we’re talking about. I mean I was thinking looks of Julia Roberts, spirit of Mother Theresa, sense of humour of Steve Martin, heart of, well, me.

 

Well, before I went into that operating theatre, I couldn’t draw so much as a stick man. When I came to, the first thing I asked is, could you pass me my pencils? Since then I’ve hardly been able to stop my hands. My new heart tells them and then they do it… I go in as a lifetime loser at Pictionary and come out as the next Rembrandt.

 

My Review:

 

Despite the expected seriousness of the underlying premise featuring a terminally ill main character, this brilliantly written first person POV narrative was a pleasantly insightful, thoughtful, and witty read.   After the twenty-six-year-old character of Alice was given the life-shattering news of an inoperable brain tumor, she set about filling her last months on earth with enjoying as many pleasant moments as she could with her loved ones while organizing a plan and writing a personal letter for every possible organ recipient.

 

I adored these captivating characters; their stories made my coronary muscle sigh and sing, as well as squeezed and tugged at the poor old thing. There were a few spots that burned my eyes and put hot rocks in my throat, but the vast majority of the book was artful storytelling that was lushly detailed with vivid and amusing observations and oh so many thoughtful touches. The character of Alice was determined to make a difference by donating as many organs and bits and pieces of her body as was possible, but she had a particular plan for the recipient of her heart. She set about writing a detailed instruction manual and was rather bossy in filling it not only with her personal history and special memories with her husband, but with detailed plans, suggestions, and specific requirements for the recipient of her heart to fulfill in hopes of easing her beloved husband back from the grief of her passing. I am fascinated with the idea of cellular memory and relished this thread throughout her storylines. I have a feeling the sweetness of this story will stay with me for quite some time.   To use a phrase from my ever-expanding Brit Vocab list – it worked a treat.

Author Bio 

SarahJane is the debut author of ‘I Give You My Heart’ which is due to be published on September 1st, 2018.

SarahJane was born in Scotland but grew up in the Cheshire countryside, which is home to her. After a few years living in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, where she went to secondary school, she has now settled back in Cheshire in a quirky flat surrounded by trees, birds and rolling fields.

A marketing professional since finishing her formal education SarahJane is delighted to be following her writing dream. She still works part-time as a Marketing Manager, whilst furiously penning her second novel.

Harboring an adventurous spirit, SarahJane loves to travel, be surrounded by the wilderness or be riding Cornish waves.

SarahJane loves to read (ideally by the sea!). She was raised on the greatest love stories, which is where her romantic soul comes from. She is in love with love…Mr. Darcy’s brooding looks in Pride and Prejudice; Julia Roberts and Richard Gere’s arresting chemistry in Runaway Bride; the intensely emotional Titanic; going weak at the knees for Danny Zuko in Grease; Cecilia Ahern’s heartbreaking P.S. I Love You and Patrick Swayze’s mega moves in Dirty Dancing.

Social Media Links – www.facebook.com/sarahjanefordauthor/

Website: www.sarahjaneford.com

 

Giveaway 

Win signed hardback of I Give You My Heart with a personalized message

(UK Only)

*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will be passed to the giveaway organizer and used only for the fulfillment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

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