On paper, Merina Wilde has it all: a successful career writing the kind of romantic novels that make even the hardest hearts swoon, a perfect carousel of book launches and parties to keep her social life buzzing, and a childhood sweetheart who thinks she’s a goddess. But Merry has a secret: the magic has stopped flowing from her fingers. Try as she might, she can’t summon up the sparkle that makes her stories shine. And as her deadline whooshes by, her personal life falls apart too. Alex tells her he wants something other than the future she’d always imagined for them and Merry finds herself single for the first time since – well, ever.
Desperate to get her life back on track, Merry leaves London and escapes to the windswept Orkney Islands, locking herself away in a secluded clifftop cottage to try to heal her heart and rediscover her passion for writing. But can the beauty of the islands and the kindness of strangers help Merry to fool herself into believing in love again, if only long enough to finish her book? Or is it time for her to give up the career she’s always adored and find something new to set her soul alight?
Review: Ah this was such a lovely conclusion to Merry's story but I really really REALLY hope that this isn't the last we've seen of this setting because I, for one, am not ready to leave yet! Please tell me there's more.
This last installment just solidifies the whole series mentality of community and new friends. It also says a lot about found family. Merry and Jess are so close knit and we get to find out more about their relation ship as friends who are basically family in this last installment. Merry has also made so many new friends as writer in residence and seeing her become part of the community was really lovely.
This book is also a whole love letter to books and the power that they have. And also libraries and how important they are especially in more remote commentaries like this. This finally installment has just as much wonderful description of the crashing waves and the craggy rocks as the previous offerings and I just felt like I was there with Merry in her cottage, a large dram of Highland Park keeping me company (yes i ordered some after reading the first book) and I really am not ready to leave.
I loved getting to meet Merry and the gang and I would love to catch up with them again next year. I really recommend this series and now you can read all four parts together!
Warning: This is a trilogy review and so may contain spoilers for books 1 and 2!
I posted a video on my channel reviewing this series. Synopsis of each book and buy links are all listed below.
Lara Jean keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her.
They aren't love letters that anyone else wrote for her, these are ones she's written. One for every boy she's ever loved—five in all. When she writes, she can pour out her heart and soul and say all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly Lara Jean's love life goes from imaginary to out of control.
She and Peter were just pretending. Except suddenly they weren’t. Now Lara Jean is more confused than ever.
When another boy from her past returns to her life, Lara Jean’s feelings for him return too. Can a girl be in love with two boys at once?
In this charming and heartfelt sequel to the New York Times bestseller To All the Boys I've Loved Before, we see first love through the eyes of the unforgettable Lara Jean. Love is never easy, but maybe that’s part of what makes it so amazing.
Lara Jean’s letter-writing days aren’t over in this surprise follow-up to the New York Times bestselling To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and P.S. I Still Love You.
Lara Jean is having the best senior year a girl could ever hope for. She is head over heels in love with her boyfriend, Peter; her dad’s finally getting remarried to their next door neighbor, Ms. Rothschild; and Margot’s coming home for the summer just in time for the wedding.
But change is looming on the horizon. And while Lara Jean is having fun and keeping busy helping plan her father’s wedding, she can’t ignore the big life decisions she has to make. Most pressingly, where she wants to go to college and what that means for her relationship with Peter. She watched her sister Margot go through these growing pains. Now Lara Jean’s the one who’ll be graduating high school and leaving for college and leaving her family—and possibly the boy she loves—behind.
When your heart and your head are saying two different things, which one should you listen to?
Today is publication day for the final part in Bella Osborne's serialised novel Ottercombe Bay. I reviewed parts 1, 2 and 3 together and I have added my review for part 4 to that post as well as a summary of my thoughts on the series. So you can click here to read my review of all four parts.
The cover for the complete book has now been released so here's what all four parts together is going to look like:
Ottercombe Bay was originally published as a four-part serial. This is the complete story in one package.
Daisy Wickens has returned to Ottercombe Bay, the picturesque Devon town where her mother died when she was a girl. She plans to leave as soon as her great uncle’s funeral is over, but Great Uncle Reg had other ideas. He’s left Daisy a significant inheritance – an old building in a state of disrepair, which could offer exciting possibilities, but to get it she must stay in Ottercombe Bay for twelve whole months.
With the help of a cast of quirky locals, a few gin cocktails and a black pug with plenty of attitude, Daisy might just turn this into something special. But can she ever hope to be happy among the ghosts of her past?
The whole book is released on June 28th in the UK you can pre-order here!
Ok this is going to be my review of this series as a whole but I thought I would break it down and do it as one post but book by book with a few comments on each and then a summary of my final thoughts at the bottom for you. Obviously if you haven't read any of this, there may be spoilers in my thoughts for books 2-5 because they are sequels-beware!
I'll also leave the buy links at the very bottom for you.
It’s the chance of a lifetime and 17-year-old America Singer should feel lucky. She has been chosen for The Selection, a reality TV lottery in which the special few compete for gorgeous Prince Maxon’s love.
Swept up in a world of elaborate gowns, glittering jewels and decadent feasts, America is living a new and glamorous life. And the prince takes a special interest in her, much to the outrage of the others.
Rivalry within The Selection is fierce and not all of the girls are prepared to play by the rules. But what they don’t know is that America has a secret – one which could throw the whole competition… and change her life forever.
My Thoughts: So I was worried that I wasn't going to like this book because it has a slight fantasy element to it but I was really wrong about that because the setting for this book has a slightly fantastical note to it, in that it is set in the future, but everything else is totally recognisable and so I often forgot that this was set within the royal household in the future and not just the royal household now. I think the thing that stops it being unreal is that I don't know what it would be like living inside a palace anyway and so it was all cool. This is the book in the series where we really get to know the characters and I was intrigued to meet them all. We don't find out everything about all of these characters but we really get to know the main characters, Maxon and America. We also get to find out about The Selection itself, which it basically a reality TV show to find a wife for the prince, a show which I would so watch! I found this book slightly slower than the rest in the series because of the all the information, but it was in no way an info dump and I still really enjoyed this book!
The second book in Kiera Cass’s #1 New York Times bestselling Selection series, The Elite is a must-read for fans of fairy tales, The Bachelor, and dystopian YA fiction. This sequel to The Selection delivers even more glamour, intrigue, and swoon-worthy romance, and will captivate readers who loved Veronica Roth’s Divergent, Ally Condie's Matched, and Lauren Oliver's Delirium.
Thirty-five girls came to the palace to compete in the Selection, and to win Prince Maxon’s heart. Now six girls remain, and the competition is fiercer than ever. But America Singer’s heart is torn. Is it Prince Maxon—and life as the queen—that she wants? Or is it still Aspen, her first love?
My Thoughts: I would say that this is my favourite book out of the original trilogy. We get to know more about the ins and outs of The Selection itself, more about the royal family and more about the history of the country. I also really liked the fact that we see America's friendships with the other girls in The Selection, now The Elite grow. I think this was the aspect that I liked best about this book. The action in this book also ramps up a notch because there is more suggestion of another war and threat from the rebels. America also becomes a stronger contender in this race because she shows what a powerful female she can be and I think she has really found her groove by the time we get to this book.
THE SELECTION changed the lives of thirty-five girls forever. Now, only one will claim Prince Maxon’s heart…
It’s swoon meets the Hunger Games in the third instalment of THE SELECTION series!
For the four girls who remain at the palace, the friendships they’ve formed, rivalries they’ve struggled with and dangers they’ve faced have bound them to each other for the rest of their lives.
Now, the time has come for one winner to be chosen.
America never dreamed she would find herself anywhere close to the crown – or to Prince Maxon’s heart. But as the competition approaches its end and the threats outside the palace walls grow more vicious, America realises just how much she stands to lose – and how hard she’ll have to fight for the future she wants.
My Thoughts: This book has action right from the word go as the violence is stepped up another notch. Obviously we know going into this one that this is going to be the end of The Selection process and we will finally find The One, Maxon's wife and future queen. There is quite a lot of unpleasantness in this book though and so I am glad that America showed her true strength in the last book because I wouldn't have thought she would be able to handle things in this book otherwise. By the time i got this far in the trilogy, I really felt like I knew the characters and so when some of them come under threat, I felt genuine emotion and shed a tear or two. I really enjoyed this conclusion and I can see why people felt that this series should have stayed as a trilogy.
Eighteen years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won Prince Maxon’s heart. Now the time has come for Princess Eadlyn to hold a Selection of her own. Eadlyn doesn’t expect her Selection to be anything like her parents’ fairy-tale love story…but as the competition begins, she may discover that finding her own happily ever after isn’t as impossible as she’s always thought.
A new generation of swoonworthy characters and captivating romance awaits in the fourth book of the Selection series!
My Thoughts: I really enjoyed the fact that Kiera Cass added another aspect to this series. I know I am controversial in saying that but this book flips the whole royal family lineage on its head and now it is the princess that has to choose a prince for when she becomes queen. I really really enjoyed this book because I found it really interesting making the comparisons between the first all-female selection, and this new, all-male selection. I think that having Eadlyn as the star of this novel was great. She is a strong, confident girl who definitely knows her own mind and this creates for some brilliant moments in the Royal family. She has some great dramatic scenes and it isn't any less romantic because it is men vying for the crown this time. I really loved revisiting characters from the original selection series as well.
35 suitors entered the Selection. Only 1 will win her heart. The fifth and final captivating novel in Kiera Cass’s #1 New York Times bestselling Selection series!
In The Heir, a new era dawned in the world of The Selection. Twenty years have passed since America Singer and Prince Maxon fell in love, and their daughter is the first princess to hold a Selection of her own.
Eadlyn didn’t think she would find a real partner among the Selection’s thirty-five suitors, let alone true love. But sometimes the heart has a way of surprising you… and now Eadlyn must make a choice that feels more difficult – and more important – than she ever expected.
My Thoughts: This was a really strong conclusion to the series and this duology for me but I didn't like this book as much as the crown. I think Eadlyn begins to think about the country and the royal family more in this book than she does her own wants and needs and that's what I liked about her in The Heir so I think that's why I didn't like this book as much as the first. Again I liked having other characters come up and I really liked the suitors that she has left in this book. All the characters felt real and didn't seem like characters from a fantasy novel but characters involved in a fairytale, in a royal kingdom wanting to be kings and queens. There is of course more drama in this book because it is the conclusion to the series and I really liked that. Overall I enjoyed the ending and thought this was a fitting conclusion to the whole thing.
Overall I am really glad I finally read this series. It really felt like fairytale and I felt like I was reading just a little bit of a Disney story mixed in with a reality TV show that would be on TV today. It allowed me to revisit my childhood in terms of the fairytale element of it and yet it indulge my love of some good drama on the TV with the contest element of it. I didn't have massively strong feelings about the characters or events in these books, I think I only cried once. Some of the characters did grate on me a little with their shallow attitudes but overall it was a bit of fun, nothing too taxing and definitely something to read if you're in the mood for a lovely story and some easy to like characters. This was also a great series to read one after the other and I would highly recommend doing that.
Katey Lovell is a wonderful author who I discovered in 2016. She has one paperback novel currently in the charts. I posted a review of The Singalong Society for Singletons in October. You can find that here.
But she first came to my attention for her short stories. The meet cute series! Here's a link to Katy's blog so you can find out more about her!
The Meet Cute Series are short stories that cover just that, girl meets boy, something amazing could happen. The way each story differs is that they meet in several different scenarios. You can tell from each title, where they're going to meet and that's the wonderful thing about this series. Each story is about 20 pages long and so that's why I'm reviewing these as a series rather than individual short stories.
Review: I just love these short stories because each one is a full story in itself with a beginning, a middle and an end. You see things from our main character's perspective and therefore get to live out her feelings when she first spots the person she is about to meet. Sometimes she has been watching them from afar for a while, sometimes she has seen them on more than one occasion and sometimes we get to see their interaction the first time they met. This series has got variety I tell you!
The great thing about the fact this this is a series is that it isn't a series! When I first began reading them, I thought I was going to have to read them in order but each one is a stand alone meet cute and so you get a new experience every time. You will therefore definitely find yourself downloading more than one at a time because you will find yourself drawn into the irresistibly romantic world of the meet cute!
I think my favorite of these was the Boy in The Bookshop, and not just because it was set in a bookshop, but I also really liked the Boy Under the Mistletoe. These are the two that have stayed with me longest and you can definitely go and read both of these just not because the description of 'the boy' the description of the meeting and the pure romance is just such high quality and that's part of what makes these so readable.
I would say that each of these short stories takes me less than 15 minutes to read and so trey are perfect for bedtime reading, for reading when you are early to an appointment or for reading on a shorter commute. They are also very easy to binge read and you may find yourself reading three or four of these at once. Each one is its own story and I am sure that you will love them all!
What if the person who broke your heart, is the only one who can help you find your future?
Great friends. Amazing Apartment. An incredible job. Paige has ticked off every box on perfect New York life checklist. Until disaster strikes and instead of shimming further up the career ladder, Paige is packing up her desk.
Her brother’s best friend Jake might be the only person who can help her put her life back together. He also happens to be the boy she spent her teen years pining after, and Paige is determined not repeat her past mistakes. But the more time she spends with Jake, the more Paige realises the one thing that was missing from her world all along. The perfect New York love story…
Review: These three titles represent Books 1, 2 and 3 of the From Manhattan With Love trilogy by Sarah Morgan. I hope that she won't mind me reviewing them all at the same time. They do each stand alone, but really deserve to be read in sequence. Also, the stories are quite intertwined, so it is difficult to write about them without giving away plot points, so apologies for any spoilers.
The books deal with the lives and loves of three girls from the same small island community who have moved to live in New York and work for the same events company. The girls, Paige, Frankie and Eva, live in a rather magnificent sounding Brooklyn brownstone owned by Paige's brother, Matt. A landscape designer, he has created a rooftop terrace where they and their friends can relax and share the view. It sounds an idyllic place to spend summer evenings.
Each book centres on a different girl. In the first, Paige is on the way to work expecting to be told of her promotion, but instead all 3 girls find themselves out of work and wondering what to do. A way in which they can continue to use all the skills they have learned and contacts made over the years occurs to them and forms the basis of their professional activities in this and subsequent books. Whilst working hard to build a successful business, each of the girls is looking for romance; often it comes from unexpected directions.
I very much enjoyed these books. Sarah Morgan really brought everything to life with her skilful writing and clever descriptions. The last title was a lovely festive read. As I said, each book could be read in isolation, but I would definitely recommend the whole trilogy. The books are easy to read, and you find yourself quickly immersed in life in Manhattan.
To get your copy just click the image of the book that you want!
Mia Maxwell loves food. She loves it so much that she's made it her career. On the surface Mia seems to have it all. She lives in trendy east London with her best friend, Lizzie, who owns a cupcake cafe. By day she runs her own food PR consultancy, and by night she's a food blogger with a burgeoning audience. Mia has a banker boyfriend, Paul, who enjoys travelling the world, enabling her to taste the globe's culinary delights. But Mia is still hungry and, when she heads down to Cornwall to run a food festival, she doesn't realise that her entire life is about to be cast adrift.
Emma Hamilton is the pen name for a journalist and writer who loves food; She was a staff producer and then freelance reporter for the BBC, CBC, and Deutsche Welle. Emma has written for a number of magazines and newspapers, including The Guardian, BBC Magazines, The Mail on Sunday, Four Four Two and Italy Magazine. She has worked on many series and documentaries, including one about food and culture around the world. Emma spent six years reporting from Italy and has made radio programmes in many other countries including Lebanon, Ethiopia, the USA, France, Germany, Russia, and Cameroon. When she's not cooking, reading about food or eating it, she splits her time between presenting, producing and writing. She loves yoga, running, gardening and chilling out with her husband, friends and family at home.
Review: I know I have already reviewed the first couple of novellas in this series, but over Christmas I read right up to the end of the series (plus the Chrsitmas special) and so I wanted to review the books together as a whole series. Firstly I really think that the length of these novellas is perfect. Despite the fact that my Christmas holidays were very busy, I still managed to read the 5 books I had left in this series, one a day. If you are lucky enough to have an hour for lunch, you could probably devour one of these at the same time as that sand which/soup/leftovers!
Secondly I would like to talk about the strength of the characters. Sometimes when you read a novella or a short story, you don't get the character development that you would in a full novel. The characters are almost secondary to telling the story in so few pages, but I loved Mia and Tom and their funny friends/dogs. They really stayed with me long after I had finished. Mia is a totally relatable female character but not someone who is just another clone of every other women's fiction heroine, I like my ladies a little different with an indepedner streak about them and I definitely got that with Mia. I found Tom frustrating at times but in learned to love him too!
The food, these books should definitely come with a warning, the food is seriously tempting. I found myself drinking more coffee, eating more cake and pasta and curry and everything else whilst reading these novellas. Obviously they are food themed and Mia travels to different countries to try their cuisine and experience their food culture for her blog but I didn't think I would be quite so affected by the food. The description Is second to none and you can practically see the Olive oil dripping from the pages! If you're looking for a new series to start or have a New Years resolution to read a novella between each novel you read then definitely definitely start this series now, I'm sure you're going to love it!
We have a real treat today, a middle-grade series reviewed by an actual eleven year old. I was sent these books by random house last year and gave them to one of my more able readers at school. He loved them, devouring them in just over a week. I asked him to write a review of them and here is what we have...
‘Oh, Sky above!’ Linius wailed. ‘If I had known then what I know now…’
Quint, son of a sky pirate captain, and new apprentice to Linius Pallitax, the Most High Academe, has been set some highly important tasks. Just how important, Quint is about to find out as he and Linius’s only daughter, Maris, are plunged into a terrifying adventure that takes them deep within the rock upon which Sanctaphrax is built. Here, they unwittingly invoke an ancient curse — the curse of the gloamglozer…
A dramatic and exuberant fantasy filled with colourful characters and illustrated with exquisite detail.
Review: this action-packed, amazing series will make you never want to close the book once you've opened it. It has cliff hangers, suspense and everything you would need in an action/adventure book.
Quint starts off as a normal knight academy student but when the floating city Sanctaphanx needs help because a giant icy monster is making it winter, only you sky pirate Quint can save the day. Arsons killed nearly all the sky pirates and ran away, but they came back and the last two sky pirates are going to take revenge!
Quint is a heroic main character that always looks for happiness an justice. He is one of my favourite characters because he wants to be like his dad, a great sky pirate and wants to follow in his foot-steps.
The setting is a giant castle that is called Knight Academy, where quite learns and trains to become a great knight. The castle has separate passages and it's huge so I think it's the perfect setting!
I would recommend this book to action/adventure readers but not to romance lovers! I like this book, it has become one of my favourites!
