Blog Tour: Review of Christmas at Mistletoe Cove Holly Martin

It's my stop on Holly Martin's blog tour today where I bring you my review of Christmas at Mistletoe Cove! This book came out on Friday and is the third in the Hope Island series. The buy links and all the info about Holly and her wonderful writing is below the review-enjoy!

Christmas has arrived at Hope Island, promising snowflakes, surprises and plenty of seasonal joy. So snuggle up and fall in love at Mistletoe Cove …

Growing up on Hope Island, Eden Lancaster always believed that if you wished hard enough for something, dreams really could come true. But Eden’s greatest wish is also her biggest secret: she has been completely in love with her childhood friend, the charming and attractive Dougie Harrison, for as long as she can remember. And he has no idea. 

When Dougie leaves his successful life in New York to return home to Hope Island for good, Eden can’t escape her feelings. Her heart is full of hope that her romantic dreams are finally, at long last, going to come true…

This Christmas could change everything. But can a lifelong friendship really turn into the perfect romance? And will Eden get the happily ever after she’s always wished for?

Review: I LOVED being back on Hope Island with the Lancaster family again, I have so enjoyed getting to know them and getting to revise them across these three books, I really hope this is not the end and we get to hear more from these siblings! I was so pleased to finally get caught up with Eden and Dougie's story because we have got to know a lot about them and about their friendship and so it was great to spend some more time with them to see the 'will they? won't they?' aspect of their relationship play out. 

These are both great characters and because we have met them both before, it doesn't take too long to get to know them in more detail. I love Eden as a person and really wan t the best for her because she is so good to her friends and family and deserves all the happiness in the world. I know what it must be like for Dougie being back in the UK after being in America for so long and trying to fall back into a friendship after that friendship being mostly long distance, and it was great to find out just what sort of a person he was too. These are very likeable characters and so you will definitely find yourself rooting for them the whole way through this book. 

As with the other books in this Hope Island series, there is an element of, perhaps there is something more than friendship here, perhaps there isn't, are they going to get together or not and that definitely makes for a real page turner, you have to keep going to find out what is going to happen and what the consequences of certain actions and events are going to be. Holly Martin is awesome at writing romantic male leads, I don't know what's in the water on Hope Island but Holly really should bottle it so we can all have this kind of romance in our lives! As I have mentioned before, she also knows how to write a seriously hot sex scene, hold onto your hats because this will have you more than a little bit hot under the collar!

Because this is the third book in a series, surrounding three siblings who live in Hope Island, if you start with this book, you will be spoiled for the other tow, so I would definitely recommend reading the books in order. If you are in the mood for some truly lovely characters and the ultimate in romantic reads though, I would recommend spending the week reading all three back to back and swooning over these hunky males and flirty females-you won't be sorry. This will also give you a taste for Island life and the sea air so don't be too surprised if you find yourself planning a trip to Hope Island, or its nearest equivalent as soon as you start reading!

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

Holly has been writing for 8 years. She was shortlisted for the New Talent Award at the Festival of Romance. Her short story won the Sunlounger competition and was published in the Sunlounger anthology. She won the Carina Valentine’s competition at the Festival of Romance 2013 with her novel The Guestbook. She was shortlisted for Best Romantic Read, Best eBook and Innovation in Romantic Fiction at the Festival of Romance 2014. She is the bestselling author of 18 books

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HollyMAuthor 

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Website: https://hollymartinwriter.wordpress.com/my-books/

Review: Together by Julie Cohen

This is not a great love story. 
This is a story about great love.

On a morning that seems just like any other, Robbie wakes in his bed, his wife Emily asleep beside him, as always. He rises and dresses, makes his coffee, feeds his dogs, just as he usually does. But then he leaves Emily a letter and does something that will break her heart. As the years go back all the way to 1962, Robbie's actions become clearer as we discover the story of a couple with a terrible secret - one they will do absolutely anything to protect.

Review: Wow! I can tell that this is one of those books that is going to stay with me for a long time. This book is about Emily and Robbie and their story and its really hard to say anything else about the synopsis without giving any spoilers. Don't you just love books where you have to talk to someone else who has read the book in order to actually speak about it properly-so please let me know if you have read this book, I need to talk about it!

First of all the thing that I loved most about this book was the structure. This book is written backwards, yes backwards! Hats off to Julie Cohen for managing to write a book backwards and yet still filling it with so many details to keep even the most avid reader happy. This book begins in Maine in 2016 and then ends up all the way back in England in 1962 and follows Emily and Robbie over various points of time in between. 

Then we have the love. This novel is, as it says, about great love. We see Emily and Robbie's lives together and apart and how their love affects them when they are with each other and when they are not with each other. We also explore the love that they have in their own families and with their children and the lengths that they would both go to to protect their familial love. I love that these two characters are so passionate and such romantics and also so into the love for their children, it blew me away!

Emily and Robbie were really easy to like as characters even if they haven't always been open and honest with the rest of the world, they have always been open and honest with each other and once I saw that I could trust them as characters, I was ready to go on this journey with them! As I said, I loved that they were both such romantics, but Emily was much more practical than Robbie and their relationship needed that. Robbie is physically practical, a boat builder, but she kept their decisions practical and thought of the consequences of their actions and not just the here and now. They both have their faults but they have owned them and moved on from them and that's what makes them so real that they just jump off the page!

The beginning of this book is set in Maine and then moves from Miami to Cambridge to Norfolk. I loved that I could identify these settings and particularly loved that Maine was featured, having visited there recently. I could picture it all so well and the sea scenes in particular were described incredibly well by this author. 

I would definitely advise you to pick this book up. It is romantic but also real; it is covers serious issues but these characters are so much fun; it is full of detail but in no way confusing; it will sweep you away! If you are a fan of Julie Cohen then you will know the heart and soul that goes into her novels, and if you are new to this author then this will be a great place to start.

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

Review: Brief Encounter At The Picture House by The Sea: Part One by Holly Hepburn

The little picture house by the sea is the Palace at Polwhipple - a lovely art deco cinema, nestled in front of azure Cornish seas. But it is long past its heyday now, and its only saving grace is Ferelli's, the family run ice-cream concession in the foyer, which is widely known as the best ice cream for miles.

When Ferdie, the owner of Ferelli's, falls ill, his granddaughter Gina drops everything to come and help out. But when she arrives she is dismayed by the state of the cinema, which she remembers fondly from summer holidays when she was little, and she is determined to do anything she can to help. Alongside her old friend Ben Pascoe, she sets about reviving the Palace to its former glory with a themed Brief Encounter night. 



Review: I was so excited for this new series and as soon as I started reading this first installment, I knew my excitement was entirely appropriate. For a novella that I thought was going to be about a picture house, this book started off being far more about ice cream than anything else so this one definitely comes with a warning-reading this will make you hungry! I loved the premise behind this first installment though. Gina travels down to Cornwall to help out with her grandparents' gelato business and ever the events planner, gets sucked into planning something with the dilapidated cinema in the town. 

I loved Gina as a character, she is independent and forward thinking, and like may of us, she can't seem to leave her job behind. I liked that she was able to sort herself out with somewhere to stay, I admired her organisation. I also liked the fact that she is so loyal to her family, there isn't enough of that in books these days! Her grandparents are also excellent characters. I know there are going to be more fun times with them around and they certainly know how to make a good cappuccino! And then we have Ben, old childhood friend of Gina's. There is so much more to Ben than meets the eye and he is definitely shaping up to be a mystery man that we are all going to fall in love with. 

What is great about this first installment is that there is so much history that is alluded to that is obviously going to re-surface as the series goes on, but there are also other characters that are introduced that are going to take the story in another direction. I loved meeting Carrie in this first part, she seems like she's definitely going to be a keeper and an asset to Gina. Max is definitely the villain of the piece and so I'm looking forward to hearing how his story line develops. 

Obviously brief encounter is also featured in the storyline and so now I am going to go and check this out from the library so I can have my own magical moment with it, just like Gina planned. I loved this read, not only does it have my favourite flavour of ice cream in it, it finishes at the perfect point, leaving me wanting more. I so cannot wait for the next installment. Definitely get this one downloaded and spend an afternoon with Gina, Ben and a big bowl of ice cream!

To start reading this series now, click here!

Guest review: High Tide by Veronica Henry

High Tide is out 24th September 

Meet the inhabitants of Pennfleet, a small town nestling on a Cornish estuary with a view to die for. As the boats bob in the harbour and summer draws to an end, it’s time for new beginnings. There’s Kate, who has come to clear out her parents’ house and put it on the market, Sam, whose gamble to open a cafe-cum-deli is proving a success, and Nathan, who runs picnic cruises up and down the river. As summer slips into autumn, all of their lives change while the leaves turn from green to gold.

What a tremendous story from one of my favourite authors, Veronica Henry. She takes us back to the lovely Cornish coastal town of Pennfleet, the setting of one of her previous novels, The Long Weekend. There are lots of new characters alongside some that we recognise from the earlier tale. The descriptions of the little town make it sound a charming place to go for a quiet holiday.

The main characters in this story are: Kate, a party-planner returning from New York to her childhood home in less than happy circumstances; Sam, an incomer who is trying to make a success of his new deli business; Vanessa, a newly-bereaved widow unsure of her future; and Nathan, a young man born and bred in the village and wondering which direction he should take. There are, of course, also a host of supporting characters, with their own interesting stories. Through her powerful story telling, Veronica leads us through their trials and tribulations, including some happy and some sad moments.

I found this book quite literally hard to put down. It engages you from page one, and it's not one of those stories where you can predict the outcome from very early on. It would definitely make a good holiday read or even a great book to curl up with on a winter's evening. I am a big fan of Veronica Henry, but I think that this book is one of her best.

I hope that Veronica will be taking us back to Pennfleet. It would be great to be re-acquainted with some of these interesting characters and find out what the future held for them.