Short Story Review: From Scotland With Love by Katie Fforde

When Daisy travels to Scotland to confront notorious author Rory McAllan, little does she know that within hours she'll be snowed in with him. But surely she's not going to have to spend her precious New Year's Eve with him too?

Put the champagne on ice, get the fireworks ready and step into the wonderfully warm, witty and romantic world of Katie Fforde.

Review: wow! I really didn't know what to expect from this short story, I haven't read many stories this short this year, a few novellas and serials but not a short story and I have to say, I loved this! I thought the story built up impressively well over such a short period of time, the reader is dropped right in the action straight away and yet the characters and settings are all developed swiftly and fully so you don't feel like you've missed out on anything! 

I wasn't sure I was going to like the character of Daisy from the start of this story, she seemed like a typical city girl who didn't know the first thing about Scotland and wouldn't be able to cope with being snowed in in a remote location with only a grumpy author and a dog for company. This Seems to be how she views herself to begin with as well but the transformation that takes place over the course of the story is pretty impressive and I really liked her at the end, I really really want to find out what has become of her now, I think she deserves her own novel! 

Rory is a typical recluse, a bit grumpy with a history he is trying to hide, but he also comes into his own as the story progresses, I think he too surprises himself with the ways I which he is prepared to change. The storyline as a whole was just totally heart warming. The dog has some puppies, bread is baked and there is Cashmere and knitted throws left right and centre. The setting is so well described and snidely described that I felt as if I was there and I wanted to stay there with Rory and the puppies looking out over the loch! 

Overall I was bowled over with how lovely this short story was. As I've said I wished it was full novel it was just so good. I love wintery books that feature eating and cooking and so this was ideal for me. It had a total Trisha Ashley feel to it, and I could totally identify with the setting as well as the characters. I would recommend this to anyone as a lovely read for this time of year, it is the perfect length for the busy holiday season and is a good introduction to this author for anyone who has not come across her before! 

Review! Just For Christmas by Scarlet Bailey

Her best friend's wedding...

When Alex Munro learns that the love of her life is getting married to another girl, all she wants is to be alone - and as far away from Edinburgh as possible.

Moving to a Cornish cottage, which comes complete with the world's scruffiest dog, Alex finds that her new neighbours are determined to involve her in their madcap Christmas festivities.

Then she meets her sexy neighbour Ruan - and somehow Alex doesn't want to be alone this Christmas after all. But having lost one fiancé, Ruan has no intention of letting anyone get close to him again...

Review: what a fabulous festive novel! I was so excited about this novel and finally getting chance to read it was amazing! It was such a treat, full of drama and a fantastic storyline as well as a heartwarming message overall, just lovely! I was actually surprised at just how many twists and turns there were in this storyline, not everyone is who they appear to be and those doors which our lovely main character Alex thought were closed may not be as secure as she thought! It's so hard to go into the storyline in too much detail without giving away any of the key plot points so I'll just say that I loved it! 

Alex is just my kind of character, a fabulously strong female! She takes on her new job, home, dog and location with strength and courage and tackles very hurdle that is out in front of her, head on, just what I like to see! She is not short of male attention either, there are some lovely male leads in this book, friend from home Marcus and sparring partner in the village nativity Ruan, both add an extra level to the novel and contribute buckets to the storyline. There are a host of other supporting characters too, I loved Alex's friend Lucy, her first female best friend and real pillar of strength for our heroine! Buoy is very much a character in his own right too. I loved his loyalty to Alex and he too had a certain strength which you will only understand when you read the novel! 

This is just the kind of book everyone should be reading at Christmas, it is so the kind of thing to snuggle up by the Christmas tree with. The beauty of this novel though, is that it could be enjoyed at anytime of year. It is a real page turner and there is definitely something for everyone, some drama, a love story, friendships and some beautifully described scenery. You will definitely find yourself wanting to be there with Alex and co in Poldore watching the boats coming into the harbour, or snuggling down in Ruan's lighthouse. It was everything I could've asked for in a novel and I can't wait to see what this fabulous author comes up with next. 

This novel also had the added bonus of containing a boy band named by me, and I appear in the acknowledgments at the back because of that. I have been excitedly showing everyone this and did do a little squeal when I saw the name of the boyband appear in the book! 

Guest post-Lynn Marie Hulsman

I'm very lucky to have a guest post on the blog today from the wonderful author of Christmas at Thornton Hall Lynn Marie Hulsman. She talks about some fab books in her post & if that's not enough to get you in the festive mood-her book is out today & it's EXTRA Christmasey! Without further ado, ill hand you over to her....

For me, cozying up with a Christmas-themed romancebook in order to usher in the excitement of the season is a must. The minute the Halloween decorations go down, and the chill hits the air, you’ll find me surfing Pandora’s “Let it Snow” channel, watching seasonal black-and-white classic films like The Bishop’s Wife and Miracle on 34thStreet, and choosing my December reads.

And even though they say you can’t judge a book by its cover, I’ll admit that I do if you promise to keep it our little secret. And I get so excited by the promise of the festive jackets, knowing that the stories inside will likely feature descriptions of festive holiday sweets and feasts, tales of shopping for perfect presents, characters longing for Christmas miracles that usually come to fruition, and — if we’re lucky — at least one kiss in the snow.

I thought the designs of holiday-themed romance books were of a particularaly high caliber this year. I’d hate to be the judge of an industry-wide Christmas Cover Contest, as there are so many well done and innovative ones, I’m sure I’d feel a cad for not choosing them all. And given that space here is limited, I’m only going to be able to mention a handful of my top picks, and it pains me to leave any out.

But here goes: Some standouts in this year’s crop of covers that look so good you could almost eat them are these:

1.

Wish Upon a Star by Trisha Ashley

As delicious as this book looks here, it’s not a patch on what it looks like in real life. Each little ornament ball is rendered in shiny foil, and the snow is textural andappears to be frosted with ice. Even without those touches, the feeling evoked by the snowy outdoors, juxtaposed with the warm and cozy scene by the fire in the heart of the house conjures up the perfect Christmas feeling.

2.

Christmas at Carrington’s by Alexandra Brown

I love this cover for its cleanness of design. I love the three panels: The title panel, that looks like a wrapped gift (every romance novel is a gift, to me!), the blurb panel that looks like a room where a party is being held, and the illustrated picture panel featuring a door that I’m dying to open that leads to a shop full of luxurious goodies. The cover promises magic. That’s a promise that calls loud and clear to romance readers like me.

3.

Santa Wore Leathers by Vonnie Davis

It’s pretty clear what the promise of this cover is and I know armies of romance readers who look for the sizzle of the season. What I love about this cover, apart from the, um, obvious, is the way the red pops against the wonderful black and white photo. Very Robert Mapplethorpe! We romance readers like a bit of art with our steam, sometimes, don’t we. And who wouldn’t like to see that Santa hat, cleverly suggesting the season, on top of that man’s head?

4.

A Stocking Full of Romance by Brigid Coady

After seeing this cover, I vowed to buy myself a red coat with a baby blue hat, mitten, and scarf set. I really cannot get enough of this color combination. And something about the design feels Victorian and modern at the same time. Despite the simplicity of the illustration, it’s full of movement and energy. And, it feels as much like a Valentine as a Christmas card. My brain likes that. Red and hearts, along with stockings and ornaments works for me. It promises red-hot love and romance with a wintry backdrop.

5.

I Heart Christmas by Lindsey Kelk

I’ll admit to being biased, but I am a New Yorker. In my opinion, there’s nothing as spectacular as Christmas set against the New York City skyline. And I don’t know a young girl who’s ever seen photos of the skating rink at Rockefeller Center without a dream of skating there, holding hands with her true love. I love the shadows of the skaters and skyline that suggest to me the passing of time. It feels cinematic. And I really love the font with its swirly script that ends in a heart. Love and romance? Promise made!

I can’t wrap up without mentioning some other very tasty, very celebratory covers, and even still, I’m leaving out as many as I’ve talked about.

More faves:

Calling Mrs. Christmas by Carole Matthews

Christmas at the Cupcake Café by Jenny Colgan

Christmas Bliss by Mary Kay Andrews

The Kiss Before Christmas by Sophie Pembroke

A Cinderella Christmas by Holly Kingston

HarperImpulse novelist Lynn Marie Hulsman's varied employment background includes stints as a copywriter for a direct marketing agency specializing in casino advertising (Free buffets! Loose slots!), ushering at Manhattan Theatre Club where she ran smack into Steve Martins' chest, irritated Jeremy Irons's agent, and saw John Slattery naked over 50 times, editing materials for major pharmaceutical companies (Ask her anything about the prostate: She knows.), creatively ideating to re-brand major household products for huge corporations, and passing out cheese cube samples (a decided low point). As a performer she's been seen onstage at Caroline's, Stand Up New York, and headlining with her sketch group Hits Like a Girl at The Big Stinkin' Comedy Festival in Austin,TX. She can't tell you what she's ghost written (obv!) but she's co-written two books on cookery, and is sole author of the forthcoming cookbook The Kentucky Bourbon Dessert Cookbook. She does not believe in white chocolate.

 At 28, Juliet Hill is finally ready to be a grown-up. Her New Year's plan of leaving behind a career as chef to the rich and famous in order and go back for her Ph. D in psychology is sure to satisfy both her ultra-logical psychiatrist mom and her buttoned-up lawyer boyfriend. She'll be on the right road to stability right after one last Christmas stint in private service at Thornton Hall, arguably one of the grandest estates in the swanky Cotswalds region of England (think The Hamptons, but with thatched roofs).

Unfortunately, true to her nature, she can't convince her brain to override her heart when sticky situations arise involving lies, paternity, a one-night stand and poison mushrooms! Is a sane and predictable life in the cards for our passionate pastry prepper? Can this creative girl toe the line, leaving her secret spice blends and unpredictable men behind? On the road to womanhood, sometimes decisions are made for us, and other times we have to cook up our own destiny. Join Juliet's journey as she straddles the line between romance and reason. 

Thanks so much for this festive post, you can look out for a review of Christmas at Thornton Hall very soon! 

Review: 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

Would you follow the directions?

Would you travel around the world?

Would you open the envelopes one by one?

Inside little blue envelope 1 are $1,000 and instructions to buy a plane ticket.

In envelope 2 are directions to a specific London flat.

The note in envelope 3 tells Ginny: Find a starving artist.

Because of envelope 4, Ginny and a playwright/thief/bloke–about–town called Keith go to Scotland together, with somewhat disastrous–-though utterly romantic–-results.

Everything about Ginny will change this summer, and it's all because of the 13 little blue envelopes.

Review:  

I'd heard a lot of good things about this book and hadn't actually read anything by this author so i thought that this would be a good place to start. I though the story was nice and quick to get going and felt drawn into what was going on straight away. I thought the concept of a set of envelopes and instructions coming from a deceased relative was a really good idea and found myself wanting to read on to find out more. I really liked the travel aspect of this novel although the transitions between the various places could have been a little smoother, i switched of for a few seconds and suddenly our main character was in Rome, a little more preparation would have been nice!

I really liked the main character, Ginny, even though she did display a lot of the teenage character traits that i find myself usually disliking in a novel. She was a little hesitant to begin with, but overall, she was a pretty strong lead and i thought it took a lot of confidence to travel across the country like she did. The other characters in the book are a lot of fun too and she meets the kind of people you would expect as she is travelling across the world. Unfortunately i had downloaded this book on audio book rather than reading a physical copy and the narrator wasn't the best at accents. All the British accents she attempted to do sounded rather like comedy British accents we would put on, and as for attempting a German or Sottish accent, both sounded Asian unfortunately! I wouldn't recommend listening to this one on audio book!

The only other thing that concerned me slightly about the storyline of this book was the fact that Ginny was so accepting of the adults that she met along the way, she had no qualms with staying with men she had never met before, or getting into cars with strangers she had just seen at the theatre. I thought this was very unrealistic and whilst i knew it was a generally positive novel, and something fairly light-hearted, i was just waiting for her to be abducted or stabbed at any second. Overall though this was definitely a fun, light read that i got through pretty quickly whilst reading other things and if you're looking for something light-hearted to see you through Christmas. I would definitely recommend this one. If you're looking for something a little more realistic with a denser plot line, give this one a miss!

12 Days Of Christmas Tour With Jane Lark

Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas Tour with Jane Lark.

After signing with publisher Harper Impulse, Jane, author of the smash-hit Marlow Intrigues series, has decided to end 2013 with a bang! She’s gathered together some of the industry’s best authors to create one enormous Christmas giveaway.

The huge prize is made up of more than 30 books, a combination of signed paperbacks and eBooks, and two gorgeous book bags. It’s the perfect early Christmas present for any bookworm and all you’ve got to do to win is feast your eyes on the details below and enter via the Rafflecopter . . .

To kick off the prizes, Jane is giving away copies of her much loved The Illicit Love of a Courtesan and its highly anticipated follow-up The Passionate Love of a Rake

 

Jane's books have been a huge hit with fans, leading to an ever-increasing fan base and comments such as:

"Jane Lark has an amazing talent to draw the reader in from the first page onwards."

-CosmoChickLitan

And to celebrate her upcoming December release of NA novel I Found You, you could also win a unique rucksack.

The book is already causing excitement among readers and looks set to be the must-read NA of 2014.

 

 

But that's not all folks! As if Jane's books weren't enough, check out the other amazing books included in the prize pot, you're sure to find one or two of your fav authors getting involved . . .

 

   

Entry to Jane Lark's 12 Days of Christmas giveaway extravaganza is easy, just follow the authors on Facebook or Twitter, plus maybe give the comp a shout-out tweet (or two) all via theRafflecopter below and you're golden. But don't forget to keep your fingers crossed too!

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Please take a moment to read through the giveaway terms and conditions:

This is an international giveaway.

Signed paperbacks are to be sent from the authors themselves. Jane Lark,BestChickLit and/or any authors involved accept no responsibility for delivery failures. The winner must be open to accepting eBooks in any format i.e. Kindle copies and via iTunes voucher, from different sources. In the event of .mobi copies, the winner must have an Amazon Kindle account and be prepared to add selected addresses as approved emails on their Personal Document settings.

Some of the books involved in the giveaway contain adult and sexual content and this should be taken into consideration before reading. Jane Lark, BestChickLit, Harper Impulse and any of the participating authors are free to amend any of the giveaway details at any time.

Good luck!

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books on my Winter TBR

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!

Well I'm glad you asked. I've got about 20 or so books that I want to read by Christmas so this is going to be either easy or hard depending on how you look at it. Easy because there are tons of books I'm dying to read, but hard because I have to narrow it down to 10! I'm going to give it my best shot...

1. Just for Christmas by Scarlet Bailey, this is next on my list so hopefully by the time this post goes live i may already have read it! 

2. Wish upon A Star by Trisha Ashley. this author writes such fabulous festive reads, I've read the sample chapters of this one so I can't wait to get stuck into the whole thing! 

3. A Vintage Christmas by Ali Harris, this has been sitting on my kindle for far to long, I love Ali's books so I can't wait to read this tasty mortal from her. 

4. Christmas Yves by Nicola May. Another author I'm a massive fan of, so to have a Christmas novella from her, you know this is high up on my list! 

5. Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop by Jenny Colgan. I have had this on my wish list for forever, and now it's been sitting on my kindle since the pre-order downloaded. Hopefully I'll get time to read this before Christmas arrives! 

6. Finding Colin Firth by Mia March. This one has been on my wish list for over six months now so this is definitely high on the TBR this winter! 

7. Step Back in Time by Ali McNamara, I've been looking forward to this one for a while now having loved this authors previous writing and so this is definitely high on my TBR pile! 

8. Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Jonhson and Lauren Myracle. This one has been recommended to me and so because its short stories, I'll probably read it over Xmas! 

9. Gifted and Talented by Wendy Holden. I've had this from the library for a while now and so I need to get round to reading it soon, hopefully before I have to take it back! 

10. Sugar Spun Sister by Anna Garner. I loved this authors previous novel and so I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into this over the holidays! 

Like I say, this isn't a definitive list but just some of the highlights of things sitting on my shelves and kindle! Let me know if there's anything that's missing or anything you think I need to bump higher up the list! 

Review: The Arcade Episode 12 by Kitty Charles

'Twas the night before Christmas...

December in Angell's Arcade and the tenants are coming to terms with what happened the month before. Danny is an emotional wreck, Faith is taking things one step at a time and Jason is facing an uncomfortable truth - now that he's a local hero, is there anything left for him at The Arcade?

Tongues start wagging when Joan parades a mystery man around. Philip is dressing up again. And for Marilyn it's time to reveal the secret she's been hiding from all year - who is the father of her baby?

Review: Another fabulous instalment of this monthly serial. The most fabulous news is that there are definitely going to be more episodes next year, there was a sneak peak at the end of this episode and The Arcade is back in full swing! This episode was particularly loved up and revisited those couples that have formed over the course of the year, catching up with what has gone on between them and where they are now. This means that all the characters are revisited, and during the Christmas party at the end we get to hear of the fate of those who aren't even there-superb! 

The most dramatic part of this months episode is that we get to find out just who the father of Marilyn's baby is, something that we've been wanting to find out all year. I'm not going to give anything away, but my suspicions were totally correct and I'm so happy that not only was I right, but that it turned out to be the person that it it, again. Not giving anything away! We get to learn more about this character who, up until now, has simply been the salons proprietor and someone we know has been around the block a few times when it comes to the men of the arcade, but this time we see into here character a little more deeply and it's fabulous to get to know her better! 

There is even an epilogue to this months episode, telling what the arcades former owner makes of it all. This is very like the end of A Christmas Carol and very apt for this months episode. There's also a bonus story at the end that gives you a bit more insight into Joan Collins the Arcades current manager. This was somewhat unexpected and not entirely my favourite genre, but I really enjoyed finding out that there is so much more to Joan than meets the eye! This is a must for all fans of the arcade, and if you're not yet, there's nothing stopping you from downloading them all now and having your own arcade marathon/omnibus!