Christmas on the Island

by Jenny Colgan

HarperCollins | Amazon | B&N

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (October 16, 2018)

On the remote Scottish island of Mure, the Christmas season is stark, windy, and icy—yet incredibly festive and beautiful…

It’s a time for getting cozy in front of whiskey barrel wood fires and enjoying a dram and a treacle pudding with the people you love—unless, of course, you’ve accidentally gotten pregnant by your ex-boss, and don’t know how to tell him. In the season for peace and good cheer, will Flora find the nerve to reveal the truth to her nearest and dearest? Will her erstwhile co-parent Joel think she’s the bearer of glad tidings—or is this Christmas going to be as bleak as the Highlands in midwinter?

Meanwhile, Saif, a doctor, and refugee from war-torn Syria is trying to enjoy his first western Christmas with his sons on this remote island where he’s been granted asylum. His wife, however, is still missing, and her absence hangs over what should be a joyful celebration. Can the family possibly find comfort and joy without her?

Travel to the beautiful northern edge of the world and join the welcoming community of Mure for a Highland Christmas you’ll never forget!

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

…when you grow up somewhere with a population of about a thousand, secret internet shopping came as a boon on par with electricity…

I am definitely and absolutely in the process of considering getting around to telling Joel…

I just wanted to say, if you guys want to keep this secret, you have to stop ignoring everyone else to stare at each other like you want to eat each other up. I mean it, honestly, it’s gross. It’s putting people off their mince pies.

My Review:

This was the third book in the series but my first visit to the island of Mure, so I was unfamiliar with the daunting number of characters residing there, although I quickly grew to adore their individual oddities and the quirkiness of the small community and greedily covet all the previous books as well as all books written by this gifted scribbler. The writing flowed smoothly and easily drew clear visuals across my gray matter as effortlessly as a movie reel. I was transported and felt the chill of their winter and heard the howl of the wind. The storylines were insightfully written and eloquently hit all the feels, although considerable tragedy and real-world problems were front and center despite the season. My eyes may have been stinging and my throat may have closed up a few times, sigh. This author has to have mad skills to have squeezed my cold heart. Her word voodoo is strong.

I was provided with a review copy of this lovely book by HarperCollins and TLC Book Tours.

About Jenny Colgan

Jenny Colgan is the New York Times-bestselling author of numerous novels, including The Bookshop on the Corner, Little Beach Street Bakery, and Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery, all international bestsellers. Jenny is married with three children and lives in London and Scotland.

Find out more about Jenny at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

This post was chosen as a Booktastic Link Up

Booktastic Link it up Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Jo Linsdell where book bloggers can link up their latest book related post.

Christmas at the Lakeside Resort

Adorable Fat Girl and the Mysterious Invitation

by Bernice Bloom

Mary Brown receives an invitation to a funeral. But she has absolutely no idea who the deceased is. She’s told that he invited her on his deathbed, and he’s very keen for her to attend, so she heads off to a dilapidated old farmhouse in a remote part of Wales. When she gets there she discovers that only five other people have been invited to the funeral. None of them knows who he is either.

NO ONE GOING TO THIS FUNERAL HAS EVER HEARD OF THE DECEASED. WHAT IS GOING ON??

Then they are told that they have 20 hours to work out why they have been invited in order to inherit a million pounds.

Who is this guy and why are they there? And what of the ghostly goings-on in the ancient old building?

Featuring Mary Brown, star of the Adorable Fat Girl series of books, in her greatest adventure yet.

This is BOOK NINE in the series but can be enjoyed as a stand-alone book or as part of the series.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

“I met a yogi, banged my head, lay there as some bloke’s tackle fell out of his shorts when he was coming down from downward dog, then came home again.” … “What about the bloke with the runaway testicles?”

He indicated the seat next to him and put the phone on the table in front of us, clicking it onto loudspeaker. We leaned over it like the French resistance and Ted dialed the number.

I am a size 22, I convince myself that I’m 20 but since I can’t get into clothes that are size 20, it’s an entirely inaccurate conviction.

At Llanelli station I was the only person to get off the train, and I stepped onto the deserted platform like I was in some film from wartime… I was half waiting for the steam to clear to reveal my family, running towards me to greet me after I’d been away at war for years.

My Review:

The Adorable Fat Girl series is indeed just that, Mary Brown is sweet, adorable, and a ton of good fun. And so are the scribblings of her talented creator, Bernice Bloom. I am totally enamored with the both of them.   There was a mystery afoot and the taxi driver transporting Mary to the funeral was a tad confused and introduced her as Miss Marple upon arrival. Mary didn’t have a chance of solving the intriguing and well-crafted conundrum, but neither did anyone else. Mary’s sincere attempts and wry observations were highly amusing and entertaining.   And joy, I have two additions to my Brit Word List with faffing about – dithering or wasting time, and bender – slang for a male homosexual.

Author Bio 

My name is Bernice Bloom and I write funny novels about a crazy lady called Mary Brown in my ‘Adorable Fat Girl’ series. 

Mary is funny, gorgeous and bonkers. She’s also about six stone overweight. When she realizes she can’t cross her legs and has trouble bending over to tie her shoelaces without wheezing like an elderly chain-smoker it’s time to take action. But what action? She’s tried every diet under the sun.

This series is the hysterical story of what happens when Mary joins ‘Fat Club’ where she meets a cast of funny characters and one particular man who catches her eye.
The series follows Mary as she goes on safari, on a cruise, to a weekend yoga retreat, and on an incredible adventure when she receives a mysterious invitation to a funeral.

The stories are laugh-out-loud funny and will resonate with anyone who has dieted, tried to keep up with any sort of exercise programme or spent 10 minutes in a changing room trying to extricate herself from a way-too-small garment that she ambitiously tried on and is now completely stuck in. xx

My website is: www.bernicebloom.com

Social Media Links –

https://www.facebook.com/BerniceBloombooks/

https://twitter.com/Bernice1Bloom

I’ll Be Your Blue Sky

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (December 4, 2018)

The New York Times bestselling author revisits the characters from her beloved novels Love Walked In and Belong to Me in this captivating, beautifully written drama involving family, friendship, secrets, sacrifice, courage, and true love for fans of Jojo Moyes, Elin Hilderbrand, and Nancy Thayer.

On the weekend of her wedding, Clare Hobbes meets an elderly woman named Edith Herron. During the course of a single conversation, Edith gives Clare the courage to do what she should have done months earlier: break off her engagement to her charming—yet overly possessive—fiancé.

Three weeks later, Clare learns that Edith has died—and has given her another gift. Nestled in crepe myrtle and hydrangea and perched at the marshy edge of a bay in a small seaside town in Delaware, Blue Sky House now belongs to Clare. Though the former guest house has been empty for years, Clare feels a deep connection to Edith inside its walls, which are decorated with old photographs taken by Edith and her beloved husband, Joseph.

Exploring the house, Clare finds two mysterious ledgers hidden beneath the kitchen sink. Edith, it seems, was no ordinary woman—and Blue Sky House no ordinary place. With the help of her mother, Viviana, her surrogate mother, Cornelia Brown, and her former boyfriend and best friend, Dev Tremain, Clare begins to piece together the story of Blue Sky House—a decades-old mystery more complex and tangled than she could have imagined. As she peels back the layers of Edith’s life, Clare discovers a story of dark secrets, passionate love, heartbreaking sacrifice, and incredible courage. She also makes startling discoveries about herself: where she’s come from, where she’s going, and what—and who—she loves.

Shifting between the 1950s and the present and told in the alternating voices of Edith and Clare, I’ll Be Your Blue Sky is vintage Marisa de los Santos—an emotionally evocative novel that probes the deepest recesses of the human heart and illuminates the tender connections that bind our lives.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Maybe it comes from having spent most of my childhood alone with my mother, who even before her breakdown and subsequent bipolar diagnosis, was all quicksilver, mutable brilliance, and so necessary to me that I kept track of her with what could only be called vigilance, half worried she’d disappear in a puff of colored smoke and sparkles.

She never fit… All her life, she had never managed polish or tidiness, never, even as a child, been perky or pretty or cute… A gangly girl, now she stood tall, narrow hipped, broad shouldered, leggy as a heron. In an era of things staying in place, of starch and hairspray, she was loosely gathered, pieces of her forever apt to ravel, crease, fly away.

“The world is big and life is long. You never know,” said my mother, giving a shrug that managed to be chic and wise and jaded and careless all at once. It was the kind of shrug for which words like insouciant and urbane were created.

My Review:

A five-star rating is nowhere near enough, nor would ten.   Fifteen appears to be a more accurate assessment, which is rare air indeed. Marisa de los Santos is a stunning and mesmerizing wordsmith.   This beautiful and intricately crafted book had a soul, and it was lovely, heartbreaking, devastating, gorgeous, and profoundly moving. The writing was exquisite and I didn’t want it to end. At times I couldn’t seem to catch my breath or read fast enough while I also didn’t want to rush, as I wanted to savor every artfully chosen and well-honed word. I was intrigued and enthralled with Edith’s story, which could suddenly and unexpectedly spin with a poignancy that stung my eyes and put hot rocks in my throat.   In a word, this book was divine.

I was provided with a review copy of this elegantly written tale by TLC Book Tours and  HarperCollins. 

This was chosen as a  Review of the Month for the review collection on LovelyAudiobooks.info

About Marisa de los Santos

Marisa de los Santos is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning poet with a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing. She lives in Wilmington, Delaware, with her family.

Connect with Marisa on Facebook and Twitter.

The Accidental Beauty Queen
by Teri Wilson

Amazon US / UK / AU / CA /  B&N 

Gallery Books | Trade Paperback Original

In this charming romantic comedy perfect for fans of Meg Cabot and Sophie Kinsella, critically acclaimed author Teri Wilson shows us that sometimes being pushed out of your comfort zone leads you to the ultimate prize. 

 Charlotte Gorman loves her job as an elementary school librarian and is content to experience life through the pages of her books. Which couldn’t be more opposite from her identical twin sister. Ginny, an Instagram-famous beauty pageant contestant, has been chasing a crown since she was old enough to enunciate the words world peace, and she’s not giving up until she gets the title of Miss American Treasure. And Ginny’s refusing to do it alone this time.

She drags Charlotte to the pageant as a good luck charm, but the winning plan quickly goes awry when Ginny has a terrible, face-altering allergic reaction the night before the pageant, and Charlotte suddenly finds herself in a switcheroo the twins haven’t successfully pulled off in decades.

Woefully unprepared for the glittery world of hair extensions, false eyelashes, and push-up bras, Charlotte is mortified at every unstable step in her sky-high stilettos. But as she discovers there’s more to her fellow contestants than just wanting a sparkly crown, Charlotte realizes she has a whole new motivation for winning.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Ginny chose this life, just as surely as I chose mine. She also gets paid more for one sponsored Instagram post than I make in a week, and when I remember this, I keep my sympathy in check.

 The Hogwarts T-shirt I’m wearing might as well be an invisibility cloak… I’m here for the chance to stay in Ginny’s luxury hotel room for a week, for free, and completely nerd out at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I’m also here for moral support, of course. I plan on being at every single pageant event, cheering like a maniac while inwardly cringing in horror at the very thought of prancing around in only a tiny swimsuit and a crown.

 I prefer the scent of ink on paper and old library books to perfume. And while I want to see world peace happen, I’m not convinced that a real-life Barbie can hasten it by uttering those words into a microphone.

 Her complexion is covered in red splotches and she looks weirdly out of proportion, almost like a Picasso painting.

 I’m so totally in over my head. Last week I was shelving picture books and now I’ve got more secret lives than I can keep up with. I’ve somehow become the beauty pageant version of Jason Bourne.

My Review:

I loved this adorable and cleverly amusing tale. The writing was refreshingly crisp and laden with smart wit, skillful levity, and heart squeezing and insightful observations.   I was quickly enamored with Ms. Wilson’s agile word skills and was soon fully invested in her smartly written, delightfully humorous, and well-crafted tale. This was my first exposure to Ms. Wilson’s genius and was an immediate smitten kitten and instant fangirl.

About the Author:

Teri Wilson is the author/creator of the Hallmark Channel Original Movies Unleashing Mr. Darcy, Marrying Mr. Darcy, and The Art of Us, as well as a fourth Hallmark movie currently in development. Teri is a double finalist in the prestigious 2018 RWA RITA awards for her novels The Princess Problem and Royally Wed. Teri also writes an offbeat fashion column for the royal blog What Would Kate Do and is a frequent guest contributor for its sister site, Meghan’s Mirror. She’s been a contributor for both HelloGiggles and Teen Vogue, covering books, pop culture, beauty, and everything royal. In 2017, she served as a national judge for the Miss United States pageant in Orlando, Florida, and has since judged in the Miss America system. She has a major weakness for cute animals, pretty dresses, Audrey Hepburn films, and good books. Visit her at TeriWilson.net,  Goodreads, or on Twitter @TeriWilsonAuthr.