Book Review: My Geeky Valentine by Jeanne McDonald

My Geeky Valentine
by Jeanne McDonald

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA / B&N

It is often said that love is blind. It goes beyond normal conventions, and true love sees a person for the soul within. Love is finding that perfect someone even when they don’t necessarily meet your preconceived notions for your perfect match. In this charming collection of short stories by Jeanne McDonald, three couples discover that love is more than what meets the eye, and to never judge a geek by their cover.

Three short stories in one sweet and spicy book.
Included: Love Wanted, All of Me, You’re the One

*note: not all stories are Valentine’s day themed. This book was named as a tribute for Jeanne’s dearly departed mother who was a Valentine’s Day baby and married and loved her own geek until the day she died.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Life doesn’t always adhere to storybooks. Sometimes love isn’t all fireworks. Sometimes the one you need isn’t the one you seek. Sometimes love takes us by surprise and never lets us go.

 

I have to know more about a man who can use the term bumbling buffoonery in a sentence.

 

His voice! Good God, it was like angels singing. The choirs of Heaven opened up, and I was somehow lucky enough to get a live performance.

 

My Review:

 

This quick and easy to follow book consists of three unrelated yet amusing and engaging short stories that were very easy to fall into and provided three satisfying HEAs, which is what I always want from any story and no less from those with a Valentine’s Day theme.

About the Author

 Twitter

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Jeanne McDonald enjoys writing contemporary romance filled with spice, drama, and humor. As JM Dodd, Jeanne explores the supernatural, relishes in the world of fantasy, and dabbles in contemporary fiction.

Jeanne is the founder of the author co-op, Enchanted Publications, and is an avid supporter of autism awareness.

When she’s not spending time with her amazing son or her dog, Bacon, she can be found reading, writing, enjoying a great film, or cooking for friends. In her house, there’s always music or a podcast playing.

A proud Texan, Jeanne currently resides in the Dallas/Fort Worth area with her son and Bacon.

You can learn more about Jeanne and her books at www.jmdodd.us

Book Review: New Beginnings At Glendale Hall (Glendale Hall #2) by Victoria Walters

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New Beginnings At Glendale Hall
(Glendale Hall #2)
by Victoria Walters

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA / Kobo / Apple

Two weddings and a baby…but who will get their happy ever after?

Emily Prescott’s life isn’t going to plan. Her dreams of starting a family with fireman boyfriend Greg and opening up her own bakery in London feel like they will never come true. So when a wedding
invite arrives from her oldest friend, Beth Williams, Emily is thrilled. Not only will she get to return to her childhood home in Scotland, but best of all – Beth wants her to bake the wedding cake!

However, her excitement is cut short when she discovers that Greg has cheated on her. Devastated by his betrayal, Emily flees to Glendale Hall, Beth’s grand estate in the Highlands, and tries to distract herself with helping with the wedding plans, but that’s not easy when Greg keeps hounding her to forgive him. Then she’s introduced to Glendale’s new young and handsome vicar Brodie, and things become even more complicated.

When Emily discovers that Greg’s betrayal runs deeper than she imagined, she finds herself with a whole host of decisions to make, especially when she discovers her long-awaited dream is finally being fulfilled – at exactly the wrong time…

Escape to Scotland and fall in love with this gorgeous and inspiring romance from the bestselling author of Coming Home to Glendale Hall! The perfect feel-good read for fans of Holly Martin, Heidi Swain, and Jill Mansell.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I can only hope you never have any problems in your life, Hazel, because no one will be at all sympathetic if this is how you treat other people going through a tough time.

 

I think that if you’re the kind of person who worries about not being good enough then you have nothing to worry about. The people who think they can do anything and everything are not always the people you want to be around, are they?

  

My Review:

 

This story needs a warning label for dieters as the delicious descriptions of divine baked goods had my mouth watering and ample stomach area groaning for sugar and butter.   The tale was insightfully written from the first person POV of Emily, a character I often wanted to give a pinch and swat to the back of the head for being so indecisive, lily-livered, and easily manipulated by her selfish boyfriend, even after knowing he had betrayed her.   ARG!  But then again, maybe I’m too harsh, as I do tend to espouse to the Lorena Bobbitt School of Revenge. The engaging storylines were relevant, slowly paced, heartfelt, and highly caloric. But be aware – this book is a bane to dieters everywhere and apt to cause diabetes 😉

 

About the Author

Victoria Walters writes up-lifting and inspiring stories. Her moving debut novel THE SECOND LOVE OF MY LIFE was chosen for WHSmith Fresh Talent and shortlisted for an RNA award. Victoria was also picked as an Amazon Rising Star. Her heart-warming new novel SUMMER AT THE KINDNESS CAFE is available to download now.

As well as being an author, Victoria also works as a Waterstones bookseller and buys far too many books there. She lives in Surrey with her cat Harry (named after Harry Potter). Victoria is not only obsessed with books but loves buying slogan tops, mugs, and notebooks, and posting them all on Instagram.

You can discover more about Victoria – and find pictures of Harry the cat – by following her on Instagram at @vickyjwalters, on Twitter at @Vicky_Walters or by visiting her blog at https://victoria-writes.com/

 

Book Review: Witness Protection Widow (Winchester, Tennessee #5) by Debra Webb 

Witness Protection Widow
(Winchester, Tennessee #5)
by Debra Webb 

Amazon US / UK / AU CA / B&NApple / GP / Kobo

Don’t miss the high-stakes police procedural thriller from USA TODAY bestselling author Debra Webb.

Can the witness protection program keep her identity secret?

After Allison James finally escapes her marriage to a monster, she becomes the star witness in the case against her deceased husband’s powerful crime family. Now it’s up to US Marshal Jaxson Stevens, Ali’s ex-boyfriend, to keep the WITSEC widow safe. But as the danger escalates and sparks fly, will Jax be able to help Ali escape her ruthless in-laws?

Discover more spine-tingling suspense in the Winchester, Tennessee Thriller series:
In Self Defense
The Dark Woods
The Stranger Next Door
The Safest Lies
Witness Protection Widow

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

It was hard to believe now that she hadn’t recognized her fairy-tale life was too good to be true. The trouble was, she had needed it to be true. Sometimes a need was so powerful that it overrode good sense.

 

She’d expected to possibly end up in a funeral home before this was over. She just hadn’t expected to be alive.

 

 My Review:

 

Despite her prolific body of work, I had not sampled Debra Webb’s storytelling skills until recently stumbling into several books in her highly engaging series of The Undertaker’s Daughter, and I was an instant fan. Lucky me, this installment had an all too brief drop-in visit with my beloved characters from the previously mentioned series, which brought a delighted smile to my face. Ignore the cheesy cover and unimaginative book title as this was a quick, intriguing, active, satisfying, and well-paced hybrid tale of romantic suspense and second chance romance for first loves with likable and admirable characters, a hauntingly realistic storyline, and a pervasive sense of tension and peril.

 About The Author

Instagram: @DebraEWebb
Facebook: @DebraWebbAuthor
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Debra Webb is the award-winning, USA Today bestselling author of more than 130 novels, including reader favorites the Faces of Evil, the Colby Agency, and the Shades of Death series. With more than four million books sold in numerous languages and countries, Debra’s love of storytelling goes back to her childhood on a farm in Alabama. Visit Debra at www.DebraWebb.com
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Book Review: Dreaming of Verona by T.A. Williams

Dreaming of Verona
by T.A. Williams

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA

B&N Kobo

.Verona is the City of Love. But will Suzie find romance there or, like Romeo and Juliet, will it all end in tears?

When Suzie is hired to accompany spoiled, abrasive Lady Alexandra Tedburn on an all-expenses-paid holiday to Italy, she fears the trip will be a disaster.

But she soon discovers there’s more to Alex than shopping and tantrums, and she’s determined to help her realize her potential – against Alex’s authoritarian father’s wishes.

As they settle in Verona, Suzie can’t stop thinking about local artist Michael, who is still mourning the tragic death of his wife. With Suzie’s future uncertain, and Michael’s past holding him back, it seems there’s no hope for romance in the city of star-crossed lovers… or is there?

A gorgeously uplifting and moving story, Dreaming of Verona is the perfect read for fans of Holly Martin, Tilly Tennant, and Jenny Oliver.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

She and Alex had been getting on so well, she had even started to forget that they were staying in an exorbitantly expensive hotel, but this place brought back to her the fact that she was an insignificant speck of very ordinary cosmic dust at the edges of the glittering Milky Way inhabited by the rich and famous.

 

My Review:

 

This was my introduction to the smooth flowing and descriptive writing of T.A. Williams. I enjoyed his colorful writing style, which heavily featured lush and lavish depictions of the beautiful Italian scenery, environs, and delectable dishes. I appreciated his unique and enticing characters as well and was absolutely adoring Suzie until I found out she was most likely part demon during a scene in which she was interrupted when reading a beloved book and, “…Suzie folded the corner of the page…” how monstrous!   😉

The storylines evolved gradually and gently but I found I was losing my patience with the spoiled and entitled twenty-five-year-old designer-clad Alex when she was whining and bemoaning that her wealthy father would not allow her to make her own decisions or take art lessons and if she disobeyed he would cut off her allowance and credit cards and she would be destitute… I actually growled aloud to my Kindle, “Suck it up, Buttercup, and get a job!” Which she later did and redeemed herself quite well in fact.

I picked up three new additions to my Brit Words and Phrases List with: agony aunt – a British advice column like the American Dear Abby, blowing a hoolie – a raging storm, and happy as a sandboy – blissfully contented.  

About the Author

I’m a man. And a pretty old man as well. I did languages at university a long time ago and then lived and worked in France and Switzerland before going to Italy for seven years as a teacher of English. My Italian wife and I then came back to the UK with our little daughter (now long-since grown up) where I ran a big English language school for many years. We now live in a sleepy little village in Devonshire. I’ve been writing almost all my life but it was only seven years ago that I finally managed to find a publisher who liked my work enough to offer me my first contract.

The fact that I am now writing romantic comedy is something I still find hard to explain. My early books were thrillers and historical novels. Maybe it’s because there are so many horrible things happening in the world today that I feel I need to do my best to provide something to cheer my readers up. My books provide escapism to some gorgeous locations and, as a writer, I obviously have to go there in person and check them out first. I love my job…

Social Media Links –

Website: www.tawilliamsbooks.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/tawilliamsbooks

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

 

 

Book Review: The Leaving Party by Leslie Sanderson

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The Leaving Party
by Leslie Sanderson

Amazon / Kobo / Apple Books  / Google  / B&N

Every year on the same day, on the anniversary, I receive a single black rose. Thirteen years of dark petals, jagged thorns, dredging up memories I’ve tried to forget…

I’ve packed up my life. All my belongings are carefully sealed in labelled boxes, my suitcases ready for my big move. I’m just days away from a new life abroad with my boyfriend, Ben.

No one knows the real reason I’m desperate to leave.

My best friend, Lena, is throwing me a leaving party. A celebration, to say goodbye. Champagne to toast my farewell. Speeches, full of fond memories.

No one knows what I’m running from.

Then another black rose appears, dragging up thirteen years of buried memories. My passport goes missing. The very people I am trying to escape from turn up to our house.

Someone knows what I did.

This party was meant to be the first night of the rest of my life – but now I don’t know if I’ll see tomorrow.

Someone knows my secret. They’re in my home, at my party, and they’re making me pay for it.

Psychological thrillers don’t get more addictive or gasp-worthy than this! Fans of K.L. Slater, The Girl on the Train and The Wife Between Us will love this unputdownable page-turner.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Joe had long hair and John Lennon glasses and wasn’t her type at all. He looked as if he listened to old hippy music and played a guitar.

Our eyes meet and her smile flickers at me. It’s one of those unpleasant smiles that looks like it hides a mouthful of rotten teeth.

Our eyes meet and I bat away that sliver of uncertainty about her that wriggles inside me like a tapeworm.

 

My Review:

 

This slowly evolving tale was maddeningly paced and zigzagged through two timelines which were thirteen years apart, with frequent vague mentions of a significant event, although we aren’t given the exact details until much later of what that significant antecedent entailed.   And I was all about the knowing. So many shifty trick cards this canny author pulled from her sly sleeves. I was totally crushed amidst all the ruthless twists and turns to learn that no one was trustworthy, everyone had their own agenda, and most ended up a bit screwed over, hmm, sounds a lot like real life come to think of it…

About the Author

Lesley spends her days writing in coffee shops in Kings Cross where she lives and also works as a librarian in a multicultural school. She has lived and worked in Paris and speaks four languages. She attended the Curtis Brown Creative novel writing course in 2015/6, and in 2017 was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish fiction prize. Lesley discovered Patricia Highsmith as a teenager and has since been hooked on psychological thrillers. She is particularly interested in the psychology of female relationships.

 

Book Review: The Perfect Sister by Sheryl Browne

The Perfect Sister
by Sheryl Browne

 Amazon / Kobo / Apple Books / Google / B&N

.‘You don’t know me, but I’m your sister.’

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Claire is shocked when she receives a message out of the blue from Sophie, a beautiful young woman who tells Claire that she’s their father’s secret child. Having spent years nursing her sweet little daughter Ella through a life-threatening illness whilst dealing with the emotional fall-out of a devastating marriage breakdown, Claire feels tentatively excited to meet Sophie. Perhaps she might finally have someone in the family to lean on…

As Claire welcomes her sister into her life, she’s delighted to see just how much Ella loves her new Aunt Sophie. But as the pair spend more time together, Claire begins to wonder where exactly her perfect new sister came from and what kind of person she really is. With their elderly father’s mind rapidly deteriorating, is it possible that he’s hiding something from Claire about Sophie’s sudden appearance in their lives?

When Sophie suggests a family day at the seaside, little Ella is beyond excited. But as Claire takes an important phone call from her demanding ex-husband, leaving Sophie in charge of Ella, something unthinkable happens. And as Claire rushes into the ice-cold sea towards the small, limp figure of her daughter, she realizes that Sophie was watching the whole time. But why would Sophie want to hurt Claire’s precious daughter? Was trusting her new sister with Ella the biggest mistake of Claire’s life?

If you enjoyed The Girl on the TrainMy Lovely Wife and Lucinda Berry’s The Perfect Child, you’ll love this heart-stopping psychological thriller from bestselling author Sheryl Browne.

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My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

‘Don’t forget your helmet, Jimmy,’ she called after him. ‘Wouldn’t want you damaging your one brain cell, would we?’

 

Was it her fault she’d had nobody interested enough in her to show her the basics in the kitchen? Her gran’s idea of haute cuisine was to pour curry sauce on her chips.

  

My Review:

 

Secrets, lies, betrayals, infidelity, mistrust, cons, revenge plots, chilling mind games, and a ton of prickly and complicated family drama were heavily featured in this twisty brain itching tale. The characters were untrustworthy, more than a bit frustrating, and not all that likable, but I pitied the poor husband, too bad he couldn’t seem to get his tongue to work and I periodically wanted to give him a swat to the back of the head to knock it loose.

 

My own wild theories were mostly, well, partly correct. I would doubt the veracity of anyone claiming they had it all figured out, as there is just no possible way to have unraveled or predicted all those deviously tangled and perplexing plotlines without psychic abilities.   This was my first visit into the devilishly clever mind of Sheryl Browne and I enjoyed her wily written and intriguing tale while feverishly bumping around in her oddly compelling characters’ zigzagging reasoning. More, please!

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About the Author
Sheryl Browne writes psychological thriller and edgy contemporary fiction. A member of the Crime Writers’ Association, Romantic Novelists’ Association and awarded a Red Ribbon by The Wishing Shelf Book Awards, Sheryl has several books published and two short stories in Birmingham City University anthologies, where she completed her MA in Creative Writing.

Book Review: A Winter Wedding at the Little Duck Pond Café (Little Duck Pond Cafe #8) by Rosie Green

 

A Winter Wedding at the Little Duck Pond Café
(Little Duck Pond Cafe #8)
by Rosie Green

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA 

With Zak and Ellie’s wedding day approaching, there’s high excitement in the pretty village of Sunnybrook, especially among the Little Duck Pond Café crew. Ellie is over the moon with her romantic surprise wedding gift from Zak, and Madison is promising to organize a hen party to remember. Everyone has high hopes for a magical Christmas Eve wedding celebration at gorgeous Brambleberry Manor. (Even Maisie-Moo has a sparkling new outfit.)

But sometimes, even the best-laid plans can go wrong. And with the journey to the altar turning out to be rockier than expected, it’s going to take nothing short of a Christmas miracle to ensure a happy ending. 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

The only time Zak gazes into my eyes these days is if I’ve got a bit of grit in them.

 

You have reached your final destination. Welcome to the Pleasure Palace. Calories do not count on a hen do, ladies.

 

I don’t believe in signs. Except for ones that say, “Free cake this way”.

 

Apparently nicotine patches work like magic… Yeah. You stick one over each eye and then you can’t find your fags.

 

 My Review:

 

This quick and easy to follow installment was written from multiple POV and was a fun and busy update featuring the plans for rapidly approaching wedding as well as the family issues experienced by all the ladies working at the café. The storylines varied from light and amusing to tense personal issues and anxious concerns, although it all leveled out at the end with happy news across the board. I still adore the sweet and mellow character of Rob best of all.

About The Author

Rosie has been scribbling stories ever since she was little.

Back then, they were rip-roaring adventure tales with a young heroine in perilous danger of falling off a cliff or being tied up by ‘the baddies’.

Thankfully, Rosie has moved on somewhat, and now much prefers to write romantic comedies that melt your heart and make you smile, with really not much perilous danger involved at all – unless you count the heroine losing her heart in love.

Rosie’s brand new series of novellas is centered around life in a village cafe. The latest, ‘Bonfires & Hot Chocolate at the Little Duck Pond Cafe’, is out now.

Watch out for ‘A Winter Wedding at the Little Duck Pond Cafe’, which will be published in December 2019.

Rosie is also writing a full-length, standalone book for Christmas 2019, entitled ‘Snowflakes over Moondance Cottage’, which will be out in November.

Follow Rosie on Twitter

Book Review: Almost Just Friends (Wildstone, #4) by Jill Shalvis

Almost Just Friends
(Wildstone, #4)
by Jill Shalvis

William Morrow – Jan 21, 2020

KINDLE ➤https://amzn.to/2LK9EHo

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NOOK ➤http://bit.ly/2MgVFbs

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GPLAY ➤http://bit.ly/2K3uxdr 

PAPERBACK ➤https://amzn.to/2LHtens

AUDIO ➤https://amzn.to/2SP4WJj 

CH 1 ➤http://bit.ly/AJF_SneakPeek   

BB ➤http://bit.ly/AJF_BB

Series Buy Link: https://www.jillshalvis.com/the-wildstone-series 

Piper Manning’s about as tough as they come, she’s had to be. She raised her siblings and they’ve thankfully flown the coop. All she has to do is finish fixing up the lake house her grandparents left her, sell it, and then she’s free.

When a massive storm hits, she runs into a tall, dark and brooding stranger, Camden Reid. There’s a spark there, one that shocks her. Surprising her further, her sister and brother return, each of them holding their own secrets. The smart move would be for Piper to ignore them all but Cam unleashes emotions deep inside of her that she can’t deny, making her yearn for something she doesn’t understand. And her siblings…well, they need each other.

Only when the secrets come out, it changes everything Piper thinks she knows about her family, herself…and Cam. Can she find a way to outrun the demons? The answer is closer than she thinks—just as the new life she craves may have already begun.

 

Excerpt: 

*Read the First Chapter, https://www.jillshalvis.com/excerpts/almost-just-friends 

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Look, I’d have gotten to it eventually. But you’ve got to understand, my ability to remember to tell you things is far outweighed by my ability to remember every song lyric from the eighties.

 

Yes. I had my patience tested. I’m negative.

 

“Take your time.” He gave Cam a meaningful look. “And I mean that. Women like when you take your time.” Cam’s grimace said he’d maybe finally found the end of his patience. Emmitt held up a hand. “I know, who wants to take advice from your dad, right? But, son, I’ve been on Tinder for two years now, and trust me. I know these things.”

 

I’m not useless, at least not completely. For instance, I can be used as a really bad example.

 

… she was arrested at Walmart last week for driving one of those electric carts while drinking wine from a Pringles can in the parking lot. I don’t date felons.

 

She tried to look half as graceful as he while moving toward him, but instead she probably looked like an elephant fighting its way through a lake made of peanut butter.

 

My Review:

 

This amusing and engaging tale was laced with complicated characters, loads of family drama, obnoxious siblings, snarky banter, a swoony sexy soldier, and clever levity. This was a considerably more tense and angsty read than I was expecting but thankfully the humor and sizzling romance balanced out all the stress and HEAs were generously spread across the land. Sigh, I do loves me some Jill Shalvis.

About the Author

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jill Shalvis writes warm, funny, sexy contemporary romances and women’s fiction. An Amazon, BN & iBooks bestseller, she’s also a two-time RITA winner and has more than 10 million copies of her books sold worldwide.

 

Author Links:

 WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOODREADS

Website:  http://jillshalvis.com/

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

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/JillShalvis/

GoodReads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22370.Jill_Shalvis

Newsletter: http://jillshalvis.com/faq/newsletter/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jill-shalvis

Book Review: The Day That Changed Everything by Catherine Miller

 

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The Day That Changed Everything

by Catherine Miller

Amazon / B&N / Kobo /

Apple Books / Google Play

When you lose the love of your life, how do you find yourself again?

For Tabitha, the day that changed everything started like any other.

She woke up, slid her feet into fluffy slippers, wrapped herself in a dressing gown and tiptoed out of her bedroom, leaving her husband Andy sleeping. Downstairs, she boiled the kettle and enjoyed a cup of tea as the sun rose.

Upstairs, Andy’s alarm sounded, and Tabitha took him a freshly brewed coffee, like every other morning.  Except today, the incessant beeping rang out and her husband hadn’t stirred. She called his name, she nudged his shoulder. But Andy wouldn’t wake up.

Three years later Tabitha is trying her hardest to get by in the shadow of her grief. She may have lost the love of her life but she won’t give up on the family they dreamed of. Fostering troublesome teenage girls and a newborn baby is a chance to piece together her broken heart.

But being a mother isn’t easy, and neither is healing the heartache she carries around. After losing everything, could saving these three children help Tabitha save herself too?

This stunning tale will make you laugh and cry in equal measure, hold your loved ones close and see the beauty in the little things in life. Fans of Jojo Moyes, Jodi Picoult and Diane Chamberlain will love this moving and uplifting story.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

She wished she could grab a handful of his ashes and scatter them in all the places they’d loved. She wished they were like seeds and in planting them, they’d bring him back. That in sowing them in the quarters of the world that they’d loved, she’d be able to capture moments as if they were happening all over again. That by bringing him back in that way she’d feel that she was being held by him once again and somehow his seed would settle inside her and they’d go on to have the family they’d dreamed of.

 

‘You don’t want to talk about it because it hurts. Some things are better left unsaid. Some things are better dealt with by eating ice cream.’ And just like that, Tabitha had been schooled by a fifteen-year-old. Because how could she argue with that.

 

My Review:

 

This was a slowly evolving and heart-squeezing women’s fiction tale of loss and family drama. This stubborn young widow must have lost her mind for taking on two obnoxious, challenging, and troubled fifteen-year-olds twins and a medically involved newborn as her first attempt at fostering children; in addition to living out in the middle of nowhere and without transportation. I would have needed a fully stocked wine cellar, bars on the windows, and an Uber and therapist on speed dial before even considering such an insane scheme. This was my introduction to the taut storytelling of Catherine Miller, and her angsty tale was thoughtfully and perceptively written with observant insights while teasing and poking at my curiosity as she doesn’t let us in on the actual events of the day that changed everything until 84% into the book, and by then, I had puzzled out the correct scenario that was, thankfully, far afield of my initial assumption.

 

When Catherine Miller became a mum to twins, she decided her hands weren’t full enough so she wrote a novel with every spare moment she managed to find. By the time the twins were two, Catherine had a two-book deal with Carina UK. Her debut novel, Waiting For You, came out in March 2016. Catherine was an NHS physiotherapist, but for health reasons, she retired early from this career. As she loved her physiotherapy job, she decided if she couldn’t do that she would pursue her writing dream. It took a few years and a couple of babies, but in 2015 she won the Katie Fforde bursary, was a finalist in the London Book Fair Write Stuff Competition and highly commended in Woman magazine’s writing competition. Since then she’s had four novels published.

 

Book Review: The Place We Call Home by Faith Hogan

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The Place We Call Home
by Faith Hogan

AmazonUS UK / AU / CA / 

Kobo / GP / iBooks

Welcome to Ballycove, the home of Corrigan Mills…

Set against the backdrop of the beautiful Irish countryside the famed mills have created the finest wool in all of Ireland. Run by the seemingly perfect Corrigan family, but every family has its secrets, and how the mills came to be the Corrigan’s is one of them…

Miranda and her husband were never meant to own the mills, until one fateful day catapults them into a life they never thought they’d lead.

Ada has forever lived her life in her sister’s shadow. Wanting only to please her mother and take her place as the new leader of the mill, Ada might just have to take a look at what her heart really wants.

Callie has a flourishing international career as a top designer and a man who loves her dearly, she appears to have it all. When a secret is revealed and she’s unceremoniously turfed out of the design world, Callie might just get what’s she’s been yearning for. The chance to go home.

Simon has always wanted more. More money, more fame, more notoriety. The problem child. Simon has made more enemies than friends over the years, and when one of his latest schemes falls foul he’ll have to return to the people who always believe in him.

Ballycove isn’t just a town in the Irish countryside. It isn’t just the base of the famous mills. It’s a place to call home.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

It’s no place for a child, not really. Old Lord Blair is as odd as a hen in a hairdresser’s.

 

The years had taken inches from his height and added it to his waistband; his hair had greyed into the kind of silky thickness most women of his age would trade their best shoes for.

 

In that moment, Ada felt such a mixture of emotion for this man who had always stood by her, but who had turned into someone she hardly saw any more. He blended with the furniture of her life, so much so that she couldn’t imagine what she’d do without him, but on the other hand his presence was as banal as a kitchen appliance, useful but hardly stirring.

 

Simon had a feeling that the softest part of Herr Muller was his teeth, but that was beside the point.

 

 My Review:

 

This was an emotive, intriguing, and melancholy women’s fiction read with ample servings of family drama and romantic complications and told from multiple POVs. While emotional tension isn’t my preferred tone, I didn’t seem to mind the angst as Faith Hogan is a master storyteller. Her engaging storylines squeezed my heart and kept me guessing, although as I was nearing the last few pages I found myself growing increasingly restless and fearful of unresolved storylines, silly me, the crafty wordsmith had a few more tricks hidden in her purse. I gained a new phrase for my British Isles word list with Hooray Henry, which is British slang for an upper-class British male who exudes loud-mouthed arrogance and an air of superiority, and another form of one of my favorite Brit words of toff.

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About the Author

 

Faith lives in the west of Ireland with her husband, four children, and two very fussy cats. She has a Hons Degree in English Literature and Psychology, has worked as a fashion model and in the intellectual disability and mental health sector.
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