Review! Longbourn by Jo Baker

The servants at Longbourn estate--only glancingly mentioned in Jane Austen's classic--take center stage in Jo Baker's lively, cunning new novel. Here are the Bennets as we have never known them: seen through the eyes of those scrubbing the floors, cooking the meals, emptying the chamber pots. Our heroine is Sarah, an orphaned housemaid beginning to chafe against the boundaries of her class. When the militia marches into town, a new footman arrives under mysterious circumstances, and Sarah finds herself the object of the attentions of an ambitious young former slave working at neighboring Netherfield Hall, the carefully choreographed world downstairs at Longbourn threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, up-ended. From the stern but soft-hearted housekeeper to the starry-eyed kitchen maid, these new characters come vividly to life in this already beloved world. Jo Baker shows us what Jane Austen wouldn't in a captivating, wonderfully evocative, moving work of fiction.

Review: wow! What a fabulous retelling! When I first heard about this book I thought it was a wonderful concept and knew that I would have to read it. Now I sometimes struggle with the language and lengthily descriptions in some of Austen's novels and was worried that I might struggle with this one but it was such an easy and compelling read, I had no problems whatsoever. The language, in fact was one of my favourite parts. The narration was in easy to follow English but the thing the servants said to on another and indeed the other characters in the novel, the Bennets, the Bingley folk were all as they would have been phrased at that time and I thought it gave a really good a balance! Some of the things Mrs Bennet or Mrs Hill said had me laughing out loud!

The characters in this novel were fabulous, such a good idea to feature these hard working and yet 

unseen characters from Pride and Prejudice! Sarah is the main character really and like a lot of books that I read, she is a young women who is hard working and wants good things for herself and so is prepared to work for them. She gets herself into a couple of romantic entanglements along the way, readers will be pleased to hear, and she really goes for the things she wants in life, even if it means things are going to be difficult for her. The relationship she has with Mrs Hill (a wonderfully formidable character) is a mother/daughter type and the relationship she has with the younger maid Polly is also like that only in this case, Sarah is the mother figure. 

She also has a good relationship with the two older Bennet girls which means that she does get to travel in this novel. This is not just a story about the everyday comings and goings in the Bennet household, there is a lot more that goes on below stairs than we realise. You get such a good feel for the pain the servants must have been in constantly tramping up and down the stairs, and the description of the aches and pain, and the chilblains are so realistic, you really get to feel their pain.

You learn more about the landscape surrounding Longbourn, the journeys to London, to Netherfield and eventually, of course, to Pemberley.  The novel is divided into three significant parts, the first two parts are mainly based at Longbourn, with a short journey into London, but the final part focuses slightly more on the story of the footman and how he came to be. I didn't find this part quite as enjoyable as the previous two sections, but the very end of this section is where Sarah goes to Pemberley with Elizabeth and this was really very enjoyable so made up for the rest of this part. It was an interesting choice to divide the book into parts like this but I think it really works, and each section is definitely separate from the last!

Overall this book really lived up to my expectations, exceeded them even. I found it a real page turner, the language is beautiful, the characters engaging and what a gorgeous cover too! I think that most readers will really enjoy this book, it does help to know the story of Pride and Prejudice but I don't think it is essential and you certainly don't have to be overly familiar with Austen and her work in order to fully enjoy this wonderful novel! A must buy!

You can order your copy of Longbourn by clicking on the cover picture!

Review Coco's Secret by Niamh Greene

Coco Swan has always been embarrassed by her name.

With a name like Coco, she thinks people expect her to be as exotic and glamorous as the famous designer, not an ordinary-looking small-town antiques dealer who could win an award for living cautiously.

But when a vintage Chanel handbag turns up in a box of worthless bric-a-brac, Coco's quiet world is turned upside down. Where did it come from? And is it just coincidence that it's the same bag Coco's late mother always wanted for her?

When Coco discovers a mysterious, decades-old letter hidden in the bag's lining, she sets off on a quest to piece together the story behind it, stumbling across secrets that span three generations as she goes.

Could the beautiful Chanel bag be about to teach Coco more than she wants to learn? Or will it show her just where her heart can take her if she lets it lead the way?

Coco's Secret is a gripping and thoroughly satisfying story about a young women finally finding courage to become the kind of woman she always had it in her to be. It will go straight to readers' hearts just like her previous bestselling novels, including the bestselling and award-nominated Secret Diary of a Demented Housewife. Her other novels are Confessions of a Demented Housewife, Lessons from a Love Rat, Rules for a Perfect Life and A Message to Your Heart.

Review: a wonderful summer read! This was a truly gripping story and yet a totally easy read, perfect to add to your summer collections! The story begins with the eponymous Coco at home and her mother in France, tragically being killed. It then jumps ahead 20 years to Coco as an adult and we pick up the story with her discovery of a Chanel bag, featured on the gorgeous cover and her hunt to reunite the bag (and it's contents) with its opener. The wonderful thing about this book is that, whilst Coco is searching for the bags owner, and anyone connected with the bag, she actually discovers herself!

Not only was the plot compelling, a bit of mystery alongside the usual chick lit formula, but I really thought Coco was an interesting character as well. She doesn't have the usual ambition that I normally like in my female leads, she works in the family antiques business with her grandmother and that suits her just fine, she doesn't want to move, she is happy to get on without twitter and Facebook, and yet she really throws her whole self into the hunt for anything connected to this bag and I found that admirable in a modern woman in today's society!

Her grandmother plays and wonderful supporting characters, encouraging Coco in her search and making readers laugh along the way. Cocos best friend Cat is also a wonderful secondary character and has her own supporting storyline which I really enjoyed too. Of course there is a bit of male action thrown in her, not quite as much as I would have liked, and just a little too far towards the end, as if out in as an after thought, but he appears all the same, and is truly lovely, a new book boyfriend for me I think!

This book was enjoyable from the beginning right the way through to the end. I only wish the end could have been drawn out, only another 30 pages or so, but I would have liked to have gone into more depth about how the characters all resolved their problems and how it all panned out.  This would make a fabulous summer read and fans of this lovely author will definitely not be disappointed by her latest offering!

To get your copy's just click the gorgeous cover picture!

Extract from The Girl Under the Olive Tree by Leah Flemming

I am very excited to be bringing you an extract from the fabulous new novel by Leah Flemming, The Girl Under the Olive Tree.

Penny George and Rainer Brecht, unknown to each other are re visiting the island of Crete in 2001 for the first time since the war. Both of them , once on opposite sides, are viewing a popular tourist spot through eyes honed to their past experience.

Galatas Beach, 2001

               It was a glorious sunset on Galatas beach, the sun sliding down

               into the sea like a ball of fl ame. We parked on the busy main

               road from Chania, walking down steps past a littletaverna and

               onto the sand. I’d forgotten where the turning was into the old

               hospital barracks, but there was now a campsite in the trees, and

               far in the distance a small white chapel. Perhaps it had always

               been there and I had forgotten. The caves were exactly as I

               recalled them and just as uninviting.

                  Lois wanted Alex to take photos, but I was reluctant to be a

               tourist here. How could I explain that you don’t takesnap-

               shots in a cemetery. I wanted to remember it as it once was.

               Now it was just a sandy beach like many other suntraps. The

               view to Theodori island was unchanged and there were no

               reminders left now of how this place had once been, only the

               landscape.

                  I’d been dreading this return and wanted to get it over with

               so   we   could   enjoy   the   rest   of   the   holiday   without   sombre

               reminders. It was throwing up images and flashbacks of scenes

               I’d tried to keep buried all of my life.

                  It was a vision of hell in those fi nal days. That terrible unex-

               pected encounter in the street . . . I could feel my pulse racing.

                  ‘I need a stiff drink,’ I announced, but Lois ignored my plea,

               taking my hand.

                  ‘Just come over here and see the carpet of flowers clinging to the   rocks,   all   the colours          of   the   rainbow.   You’ll   know   their

              names; I’m hopeless.’

                 There      were   flowers     and    poppies     of every    hue,    white

              mallows,   silver   stachys,   yellow   euphorbias,   purple   sea   holly

              and tiny rock roses. How strange that so many of my own

              herbaceous perennials from the garden at Stokencourt were

              growing   wild,   unfettered,   on   this   very   spot,   and   I’d   never

              known they were here. Who had time to notice such things in

              an air raid?

                 The sea was the colour of expensive jade, the mountains still

              snow-capped, even at the end of May.

                 ‘Just give me a minute, ’ I said, walking away from them for

              privacy.

                 Alex was bored. There was nothing for him on this deserted

              beach. He couldn’t see what I was seeing: those German troops

              laying posts and fixing wire, turning my hospital into one vast

              cage for the captured soldiers brought in after the surrender in

              Chania. There were guard towers just like the ones you see in

              war films. It was a camp with few facilities left standing, a few

              tattered   tents   and   marquees,   poor   latrines   and   slit   trenches,

              battered chairs and utensils scattered on the sand. How many

              wounded soldiers lost the will to live corralled into this bug-

              ridden space already full of dirt and disease?

                 Deserting my patients was one of the bleakest moments of

              my life. Other, far worse, things happened later but never did

              I feel so alone. Now I was reliving the anguish of having to

              relinquish my post, leaving the weakened men to the tender

              mercies of an indifferent army bent on revenge for their own

              losses. I had my own problems. There were decisions to make

              about     my    own    future    and   pressure    was    coming     from    an

              unlikely source.

                I thought again of the officer, my German patient, my rescuer

              – how that time haunts my mind like old wartime music. It was

              here I thought to give him the slip, but he had other ideas.

The Limani Ouzeria was a good spot for watching the world go

               by. It was early Friday night and families were out, enjoying a

               stroll round the harbour. One by one the lights flickered on in

               the   cafés   and   restaurants,   and   the   touts   were   out   with   their

               menus, trying to attract tourists inside with their smooth patter.

                  This   place   suited   Rainer   well,   overlooking   the   old   Firkas

               Turkish fortress, now the Naval Museum. A place he had no

               desire to revisit.

                  Most of the old harbour houses had been rebuilt over the

               years. There were bars and gift shops. One or two were still

               crumbling ruins in need of repair, like bad teeth in need of filling, but that somehow added to the charm and character. He’d

              just browsed in the harbour bookshop, which had a good selec-

               tion of novels and maps in English, German and French, and

               bought a detailed map of northwest Crete to refresh his memory

               and plan his next trip out into the mountains. His memory for

               place names often failed him these days, but there were one or

               two here that were etched into his brain: Kondomari,Kandanos,

               Alikianos. Who could ever forget what had gone on there?

                  He sipped his ouzo, watching the water clouding into the

               spirit, tasting a plate of meze: squid, tiropita, sausage, cheese balls.

                  Chania was now a bustling tourist destination, a vibrant city

               full of life. The local families walking past him were well dressed,

               pushing      prams,    old   yiayias   clustered     round     tables   in   their

widow’s weeds, hair dyed all hues, laughing and shouting as

              only the Greeks can.

                 He had chosen this place for old times’ sake, and as he turned

              to look into the dark recesses of the tavern, ancient men were

              busy playing backgammon, smoking, arguing, entirely unaware

              of him. How many of these old men had fought and suffered in

              the old days? How many would shake his hand now if they

              knew?

                 The swift-filled sky was noisy with their screeching as dark-

              ness descended and the young of all nations came out in their

              finery: African students, lean-limbed, selling fake CDs; Asian

              girls with trays of trinkets; Roma children pushing roses onto

              the unwary; American military from the NATO base, out on

              the town in baggy shorts and baseball caps. There were Scandi-

              navian girls of such beauty, white-haired and leggy in sundresses,

              and his fellow countrymen with cameras and portly wives. How

              different it all was from the last time he was here, this pulsating

              mass of humanity smelling of aftersun, all mixed together.

                 None   of   these   revellers   would   be   reminiscing   about   such

              dark days of the past. He was sober and silent, solitary and in

              need of company, but there was no one of his age or nationality

              sitting close by. The memories kept flooding into his mind of

              the first time he had sat in almost this very spot, and all he could

              feel was the pain of being young and overwhelmed by respon-

              sibility. Why must duty always clash with personal desire in a

              war?

About Leah Fleming

After careers in teaching, catering, running a market stall, stress management

courses in the NHS as well as being a mother of four, Leah Fleming found

her true calling as a storyteller. She lives in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales but

spends part of the year marinating her next tale from an olive grove on her

favourite island of Crete.

She was short listed for the Romantic Novel of the

Year in 1998 and for The People's Choice Pure Passion Award 2010 for

Remembrance Day. She won

Her epic tales cover centuries and many generations with a strong sense of place and time.

include The Captain's Daughter, a Titanic drama and Orphans of War, and her work has been translated

into five languages. She has also had many stories published in national newspapers and magazines. The

Girl Under the Olive Tree is her eighth novel. For more information please go to www.leahfleming.co.uk. 

I'll be bringing you a review of the novel very soon, but until then, you can get your own copy by clicking here.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favourite books with New York Setting

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!

I love a Top Ten Tuesday and when I get to talk about books set in my favourite setting for 10 wonderful books its even better. Anyone who follows the blog knows that New York is my absolute favourite setting for a book and so when a book is set there, I get very very excited. This one was definitely very easy for me!

1. I heart New York by Lindsey Kelk

2. fairytale of New York by Miranda Dickinson

3. Very Valentine and Encore Valentine by Andriana Trigiani.

4. Shopaholic Abroad by Sophie Kinsella 

5. Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes

6. Devil Wears Prada and Revenge Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

7. Holly Would Dream by Karen Quinn

8. The Nanny Diaries and Nanny Returns by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

9. Jewels of Manhattan by Carmen Reid

10. Married by Christmas by Scarlet Bailey  

I could go on and on, anything by Candice Bushnell, books where they travel to New York for a while, I love books that feature this city in any way, I love to visit this city.

Let me know what you had on your list, I'd love you to leave me a comment!

Cover Reveal! Geek Girl: Model Misfit by Holly Smale

Very very excited about this sequel. YES! Geek Girl 2 has a gorgeous cover, it's so bright and mischievous meaning that this sequel is set to be just as awesome as the original Geek Girl!

If you love this cover and are as excited about the sequel as I am then keep your eyes glued to the blog because I was lucky enough to interview Holly Smale and will be posting that interview very very shortly...

This book is released 26th September so get pre-ordering now... 

Lying to Meet You by Anna Garner Cover Reveal!

I'm am very excited to be bringing you a fantastic cover revel today on the blog. I will soon be bringing you a review for the fabulous Lying to Meet You by Anna Garner, set for release in September. Keep an eye out for the review soon! Without further ado here is the cover and info on this great new chick-lit novel!

Does being in a relationship make you a hot commodity in the eyes of would-be suitors?
Chloe Lane is about to find out. When her childhood pal, Ethan Webster, asks her to play the part of his girlfriend in order to test this theory, she reluctantly agrees. As a work-crazed fashion designer, boutique owner and soon-to-be reality show judge, Chloe has no time for a real boyfriend, but being part of a faux pair will do just fine. Not that she has any intention of trying to attract someone else.
However…
Opportunity unexpectedly knocks when Chloe meets fellow reality judge, William Shannon. Super successful and super sexy, this high-powered entrepreneur inspires Chloe to test Ethan’s theory herself. Now, on top of keeping her fashion business productive, carving out a new role as a television personality, maintaining a fake relationship and attempting to lay the groundwork for a future relationship, she’s lying to William, lying to her friends, lying to her family and quite possibly lying to herself. Will Chloe be able to keep it all together, or are things about to explode?

About the Author

Born and raised in the Midwest, Anna Garner's adventurous spirit kicked in after graduating from high school, and she's since lived in Boston, NYC and London. For several years, Anna worked in fashion--first as a journalist and then as a shopkeeper, and for a while she dabbled in design. Although chick lit was her first love, Anna started writing quirky romances, and her first one, Fashioning a Romance, was published in May 2012 under the name of Libby Mercer. This was followed by two more quirky romances: Unmasking Maya and The Karmic Connection. Since Lying to Meet You is written in old school chick lit style and isn't a clear cut love story, Anna decided to publish it under her real name. She currently lives in San Francisco and spends most of her time cranking out more stories.

Author social media link:

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAnnaGarner

Look out for the review coming up very soon...

Review! It's Raining Men by Milly Johnson

Best friends May, Lara and Clare are desperate for a holiday. They have been dreaming of a little cottage away from it all, long walks in the country and just a bit of time away from it all. But when they arrive in Ren Dullem, a small Yorkshire seaside town, it seems it is not the place they thought it was...

May has never quite found her niche in life, or her Mr Right. Then in Dullem she falls hook line and sinker at first glance for one of the inhabitants - but he's already taken...

Lara is living with James and his awful step-children who taunt her with tales of his younger, prettier ex whom they adored. The woman who Lara walks in to find James in bed with despite all his protestations that he wouldn't touch her again with a barge pole. Reeling from the hurt, she needs the sea air of Dullem to heal her. What she doesn't need is to be constantly in battle with the owner of the holiday cottage - a man who is every bit as bitter and resentful and untrusting of the other sex as she is. 

Clare's fiance Lud wants her to go and live abroad with him for two years, but she's just been offered the promotion of a life-time. She needs some headspace to think about what she needs to do, but then she meets a very bad boy who is everything Hugh isn't - impulsive, wild and dangerous. Will this holiday be the break they all need? Or will it bring them all to breaking point...?

Review: something completely different again for Milly Johnson. She seems to have the ultimate gift for discovering something that hasn't been covered in Women's fiction and writing about it. This books deals with the weird and wonderful, but at the centre of it still has that lovely heartwarming tale of three women just trying to get the best out of their lives that Milly Johnson does so well!

I was completely drawn into this book from the word go, it literally travelled everywhere with me! It starts out telling you all about the dramas that are going on in the lives of May, Lara and Clare. As always these things are completely realistic and something which a lot of busy working women will be able to relate to. Not having time to have coffee with my friends is something I suffer from too. They are all unlucky enough and then find themselves unlucky in holidays too, when they wind up at the worn holiday destination, something which I'm sure one or two of us have inadvertently done too! The tale which follows is somewhat unusual but entirely captivating and definitely a page-turner! 

These characters are Johnson's usual strong women with loud voices and big ambitions in life. I found Clare's struggle with what was obviously depression hard to read at some points, but I found I could relate to all three of the women and I am sure that there will be something for everyone amongst these three women somewhere. The male characters in the book were certainly that-real individual characters. Each of them added humour to the story and were very easy to picture from the descriptions the Johnson gave of these intriguing men!

Something else which was well described was the setting. It is set in a seaside town which meant lost of wonderful descriptions of the ocean, the bay and of the course the smell of the sea air. The cottage which the women stay in is also well described and I would have loved to have curled up in one of the comfy beds in the cosy cottage where they spend their week.

Without giving too much away in old say this is a wonderful summer read for anyone looking for something light and fun with a strong wholesome message thrown in for good measure. Whether you are a fan of this amazing author or not, I am sure that you will enjoy all this book has to offer. Although it is a long one, it is definitely worth popping in your handbag or your suitcase this August. You will find wonderful characters, and intriguing storyline and plentiful smilies to keep you smiling from start to finish. Another hit for this fabulous author!