Review: Sugar Spun Sister by Anna Garner

Life isn’t exactly sweet for Cricket Whittier. Her boss hates her, her work is soul-destroying, and the sexy guy she’s hooking up with doesn’t want to date her. But this girl is far from hopeless. When Cricket’s in the kitchen with her ice cream maker and a few choice ingredients, her troubles slip away as she becomes a delectable dessert-designing powerhouse. She loves it so much, she dreams of opening her own ice cream shop one day.

As it turns out, “one day” just might be closer than she thinks. Propelled by the help and encouragement of her best friends, Lindsay and Nora, Cricket starts making plans to set up shop. Which is easier said than done what with the internal squabbling, the sky-high costs, her parents forecasting failure and her increasingly complicated love life. Despite all these hurdles, will Cricket be able to make her sweet dreams come true?

Review: wow! I loved Anna Garner's First novel, last year but I think I loved this one even more, and better than that, this is the first novel in a new series which she has written. I love the cover of this novel too, it would look gorgeous in paperback! I literally couldn't out this book down because it was such a fun easy read and yet at the same time a real page turner. The book deals with strong themes from friendship and entrepreneurship something which not many books I've read recently have really dealt with and so it was nice to read something about these themes for a change...

This book does come with a health warning: do not read this book unless you have easy access to ice cream. The main storyline deals with Cricket setting up her own ice cream business and experimenting with different flavours and they all so sound so co,platelet delicious, I was craving her yummy ice cream all the time! It's best to have some to hand or an ice cream shop nearby! I loved the storyline and thought it was such a good idea. It deals with her right from when she begins making it for fun in her little kitchen so when she finds a property to renovate and rent and finally, starting up the business itself. Real money and terms are used and I have great respect for the author for researching and including all of these details. 

Cricket is a great characters. She comes from hippy parents and so is fairly laid back when it comes to life. Her relationship with her friends is an interesting one. I'm not sure I found their complete closeness entirely believable, I wouldn't fancy going into business with any of my friends, but overall I loved cricket! Her boss was the real villain of the story, and he was a great character to love to hate. There are two potential love interests for cricket who are both great additions to the role call, although did find myself rooting for one over the other! The story is set in San Francisco, which is fast becoming a new favourite of mine as a setting. It was brilliant hearing about the different areas and I think the ice cream shop would fit in there perfectly! 

Overall I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was entertaining, fun and a nice quick storyline! I liked the characters and thought the whole concept was really good. Even though this is the start of a series I think this works really well as a stand alone novel as well, jus make sure you read it with some ice cream close at hand and plenty of time because you're not going to be able to out this one down! 

Review! The Love Detective by Alexandra Potter

"People always ask me what kind of books I write and I guess you'd call them love stories, but I also think of them as mysteries. After all, what makes two people fall in love? I've written three novels on the topic and I'm still looking for the answers.

In a way, I'm a bit of a love detective. Because what's a greater mystery than love?"

Ruby Miller has lost her faith in love. In an effort to forget her cheating ex and clear her writer's block, she joins her sister for a week's holiday in India... and embarks on an extraordinary adventure.

Swept up on a magical mystery tour, amid silks and spices, palaces and weddings, Ruby investigates different stories of love lost and found.

But will a romance of her own remain always out of reach? Or can she find her happy ever after?

Review: firstly can we all just take a moment to appreciate the gorgeous cover of this book. This is something completely different, a new look for this author and I am completely in love with it! Having read this novel on my kindle, I am actually toying with the idea of buying the paperback just so I can have this cover sitting gloriously on my shelf! Now onto the actual content of the book. I was totally drawn into this book right from the word go. The idea of a writer sitting there in her dressing gown with her cold coffee was the perfect way to hook me into this book and I fell in love with Ruby right from that moment on! 

Ruby was wonderful as a main character, she was a strong female lead, full of integrity and was determined to get what she wanted, what was best, not matter what. No one could call Ruby a quitter! She was also very suspicious of love and had kind of given up on it, I could definitely identify with this, there are some other really cool characters in this novel. Ruby's sister Amy is your kind of typical spoiled brat but she does have some endearing qualities, jack is an obvious love interest for Ruby right from the word go, but with Ruby's disinterest in love, will she be able to see this herself. Then there is drive Rocky who leads Ruby on hr adventure around India and back into love again. I loved this character, I thought he was so funny and totally tied everything together! 

The setting of this novel couldn't get any better, starting off set in London and then moving onto a beautifully described colourful setting of India-splendid! I really enjoyed the descriptions of the sounds and smells as well as just the sights that potter put into this, my mouth was watering at the descriptions of some of the tastes too! Potter always has an element of escapism in her novels and a slight nod to mysticism or magic which I really enjoy and so what better setting could she have chosen to incorporate both of these things?

Overall this is definitely another hit for this author, if you haven't read any of her other novels, this would be a great place to start and then work your way through her back catalogue! This is a stand alone novel and reading about the heat of India and Ruby's exhausting voyage of self discovery will definitely heat you up in the cold winter months! I loved it! 

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Bookish Resolutions for 2014

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists over there at The Broke and the Bookish. I'd love to share my lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

This weeks top ten gave me time to reflect on what I really want to achieve with my reading and with my blog this year and I really enjoyed compiling it. I'm really interested to see what other people have listed as their goals for th year. They're fairly general goals but will keep me focused on enjoying the books and the reading that's for sure! 

1. Read at least 100 books, last year I read 127 having upped my target from 55 to 100. I'd like to at least read 100 again this year! 

2. Read more of my own books. I love the feeling of reading a book I've actually brought home from the shop and so I'd like to try and clear my shelves of these a bit this year. Which leads me nicely onto...

3. Read more paperbacks. I became a little bit sick of reading kindle books last year as I had so many review books in the summer that were in ebook format and I found myself actually craving a paperback! So I'd definitely like to read more of these! 

4. Read more hardbacks. I took a load of hardbacks home with me this summer and then never got round to reading any of them, barely picking up a physical book at all. I've got some gorgeous hardbacks sitting on my shelf and so I'd like to take a weekend and sit down and read a couple of them! 

5. Meet more authors. I was lucky enough to meet so many of my favourite authors this year and so I'd definitely like that to continue in 2014. This again leads onto...

6. Attend bookish events. I loved the blogger events and the author signings I attended last year. I missed out on a couple though just through not being observant enough and so I'd like to attend more of these this year, I already have like four lined up so that's good! 

7. I would also like to attend a literary festival such a Hay or Edinburgh. I almost went through to Edinburgh for an event last year but I was tied up in Glasgow unfortunately so maybe this year...

8. Continue using my local library. They have a great selection of books and audiobooks and I've only recently started using my library here, even though I used the one at home when I was back up there so I'd like to continue this next year. 

9. Continue to enjoy reading! Sometimes when the TBR piles becomes a bit overwhelming reading can seem like a bit of a chore. I don't want this to happen and so I need to remind myself that reading is a pleasure and not a chore! 

Number ten is slightly specific to my job so apologies for that but it's possibly one of my biggest goals this year...

10. Continue to inspire children to read and love books. The kids I teach seem to find the fact that I have a blog and get to meet famous authors fairly inspiring and so I would like this to continue next year. I have even more authors lined up to come and speak to the kids about reading and writing and they all benefit from the news about kids and YA books that I get and so I want to continue to work hard to make reading and writing fabulous fun for them too! 

Apologies for the slightly corny number 10 but it's something that's important to me. Let me know in the comments below what you think of my goals and if you have any help or advice in achieving these, number 10 especially...

Bout of Books Readathon and Goals

This is my sign up post to let you guys know that this week I will be taking part in the Bout Of Books Readathon this week.

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 9.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.

I won't be taking part in any of the challenges but I will be trying to read as many books as possible. Now I have a few books that I was sent before Christmas that I need to read and review so I figure that this is a good time to read those books and get back on track with reviews that are owed to people. This means that I can get back on schedule ready for the start of the new year. I am going to aim to read 4 books this week, thanks double my usual total of two but I am going to try and get in a whole day of reading on Saturday. The books that I'll be reding this week will be mainly Chicklit books as this is my favourite genre and so will definitely spur me on to keep going. 

Let me know if you're doing the readathon too and how many books you've pledged to read in the comments below, or if there are any books you can recommend that are nice and quick, therefore readathon friendly! Check back soon so find out how I got on and don't worry there will still be my usual reviews this week too! 

A Thousand Twitter Follower Giveaway

Ok so a while back I said that I would do a giveaway when I reached 1000 twitter followers. I've received so many new followers in the last couple of weeks that I'm well past the 900 mark now and so I'm going to reveal what the giveaway is going to be. I thought long and hard about this but I eventually decided that I would giveaway some of my favourite books from the last year. Now these might be added to by the time I get to the 1000 but at the moment I will be giving away one prize which consists of these three books:

This Child of Mine by Sinead Moriarty. A fabulous novel that had me turning pages in a frenzy wanting to find out more! 

Take a Look At Me Now by the amazing Miranda Dickinson. A novel which now has me desperate to visit San Francisco. 

It's Raining Men by Milly Jonson. Something entirely different from this author and a fabulous summer read! 

I know any winner will love these novels and like I say I may add more nearer to the time. The giveaway will not open until I reach 1000 followers so keep your eyes peeled for the post on that one and I'll be back soon with some more reviews for you! 

Mini review: A Vintage Christmas by Ali Harris

Evie has the perfect job and the perfect man, but keeping both in her life has become a serious balancing act...

With the sales coming to a close at Hardy's, Evie must source new stock for the season ahead. Her mind is constantly buzzing with ideas and layouts, so much so that she is forgetting all about Sam.

Can she learn to keep her work separate from her home life? Or will she lose everything...

Review: what a fabulous novella catching up with an old character! I loved Miracle on Regent Street when I read it last year and so I was very excited about reading this one. I left it to read over the Christmas period as its the perfect time of her for a novella as I've already said. It felt wonderful to revisit old relationships and most importantly catch up with Evie and her friends at Hardy's. the storyline deals with something that most people at one time or another in their lives will struggle with-work/life balance. Evie is doing fabulously at work but she also has a new man in her life, this means that one thing or the other will have to give. Sam is equally busy with his work and his daughter, this makes for some fraught moments in their household. With Evie putting in long hours at work and Sam having to travel abroad a lot for his, we don't know how things are going to work out for the pair who were so much in love! 

It felt fabulous going back to the comfort of Hardy's department store and the friends Evie made there in the previous novel. It was a comforting place and so perfect to go back to at Christmas. Evie has a new shoe line which she is launching in the store and the description o the shoes and the display that is created for them is just magical. They send exquisite and they were amazing fun to read about. It was wonderful to visit the tearoom and wander around Hardy's windows again and I really hope that we might get chance to go back again if this wonderful author writes us any more novels or novellas dealing with Hardy's or Evie. The way this story ends sets it up perfectly for a sequel! 

I don't think you would've had to have read the previous novel to enjoy this novella but I thinkit would   definitely help. As I said, most readers will be able to identify with the work/life balance issue and so as a stand alone novella, this would really work, but I think if you have read the previous novel, you will enjoy, as I did, revisiting the characters and the setting and catching up with their lives once again! A wonderful Christmas read that would definitely work at any time of year! 

Happy New Year!

Just a quick post to wish you all a very happy new year. I hope you saw in the new year with a bang or with a good book, either way!

Thank from for all your support in this, my first year on my own blog, and I hope you continue to follow in 2014!

There is plenty coming up next year including some blog tours I'm included in, some more fabulous giveaways, my top ten Tuesdays including my bookish New Years resolutions and of course tons of lovely reviews.

I'm going to aim to read 100 books again next year as I managed 127 this year including novels, novellas, audiobooks and biographies and I hope to read a little bit of everything next year as I have down this year.

I hope to be bringing you more news of new books, author events, signings and interviews but if there's anything else you'd like to see, just let me know. You can tweet me, leave a comment, send me an email or leave me a Facebook message.

Thanks again and happy new year!