Review: On A Night Like This by Lindsey Kelk

Within days of wishing she could change her life, Fran Cooper is acting assistant to a celebrity, on a yacht in the Mediterranean, and en route to a tiny Italian island and the glittering Crystal Ball, along with the world’s rich and famous.

When she – quite literally – bumps into a handsome American called Evan, a man able to keep his cool in the face of chaos, the magic really begins.

Evan makes her a promise: no last names, no life stories, just one unforgettable night. Yet Evan belongs at the Crystal Ball and Fran is a gatecrasher. They may be soulmates, but their homes are an ocean apart, and their lives a world apart. They’ll never meet again – unless, on a night like this, everything can change forever…

Review: I know I've said this multiple times about other Lindsey Kelk novels but this would make such a great film! The whole thing played out in my head like a movie and all the glitz and glamour of the entire book would just look amazing on the big screen. 

There's something just so magnetic about Lindsey Kelk's writing that elevates it from great to amazing. I know once I pick up one of her books I'm not going to be able to put it down again. I read this book in 2 delicious chunks because I just had to find out what was going to happen next to Fran. I felt like I was living vicariously though her and I just wanted all the best things to happen to her because Fran, like a lot of Lindsey Kelk characters, is just like us. This authors writes people and situations that we can relate to and then lets amazing things happen to them whilst dropping in quick and clever jokes that make you laugh out loud throughout. 

Fran has it pretty tough at the start of this novel and I'm sure we can all relate given the world right now. She is a down to earth character with a lack of self confidence but big aspirations and an amazing best friend. I love the fact that we have this strong friendship bond in the book because that is something that this author writes so well in all of her novels. When Fran and Jess sat down for a cuppa, I felt like I was at the table with them joining in on their chat, I just found them so easy to relate to. 

Despite the fact that so much of this book takes place in locations I could never dream of visiting, the description of them and the humorous way they're compared to other locations make them really easy to picture as I was reading the book. I think that the glamour of the yacht and the ball must have been really fun to write and they definitely have a certain sense of Disney magic about them. I loved getting to set sail with Fran despite being slightly worried for her safety and then when she arrives at the ball it was just breathtaking. I was also really drawn to Evan as a character. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to trust him with our girl Fran but he was certainly magnetic on the page. 

There's a return of a character from another Lindsey Kelk novel in this book and it was so great to catch up with them again. In their own book they had another character cameo and so it feels like they were paying it forward appearing in this book. Another thing I always love about a Lindsey Kelk novel is the nods to popular culture. The brief mentions of celebrities and social media personalities; the way the darker side of fame and the internet is fully explored and of course whenever she gets to drop the names of other authors or her cats into the book. It always feels like part of her is just vibrating off the page. 

A Lindsey Kelk novel is always filled with heart and humour, relatable characters and cracking one liners and this one is no exception only this book has that extra dollop of glitz and glamour that just elevates it on another festive level. I just had the best time reading it and I am sure you will too!

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

Movie Review: Watching My Second Ever Bond Film-No Time To Die!

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Guest Review: A Darker Domain By Val McDermid

Twenty-five years ago, a woman and her baby son were kidnapped and held to ransom. Catriona Grant ended up dead and little Adam's fate has remained a mystery ever since.

When a new clue is discovered in a deserted Tuscan villa – along with grisly evidence of a recent murder – cold case expert DI Karen Pirie is assigned to follow the trail.

She's already working a case from the same year. During the Miners' Strike of 1984, pit worker Mick Prentice vanished. Where did he really go? And is there a link to the Grant mystery?

The truth is stranger – and far darker – than fiction.

Review: This is the second book in the Karen Pirie crime thriller series, but it can be read as a standalone. Detective Inspector Pirie is head of Fife Constabulary’s cold case revue team (the story is set prior to the merger of Scotland’s eight regional forces to form Police Scotland). Much of the book is set in Fife, Scotland, but some of the action occurs in Tuscany in Italy.

The story begins in 2007, when a woman walks into Karen Pirie’s office to report that her father, a coal miner, went missing twenty-two and a half years earlier in 1984. This was during the year-long national miners’ strike of 1984-1985, and it was believed he had joined a small group of miners who had gone south to work as “scabs” in the Nottinghamshire coalfield. She is keen to contact her father since she now has a child of her own who needs a bone marrow transplant and has exhausted all other close family members as potential donors. Given the elapse of such a long period of time, Karen decides to take on this case unofficially. Shortly afterwards, her superior allocates her another case. At around the same time that the miner went missing, Catriona Grant, the daughter of a rich businessman, and her baby son were kidnapped. A ransom was arranged, but the handover was botched and in the ensuing confusion, Catriona was fatally shot. The baby was never found but, years later, an investigative journalist stumbled across a possible clue to the kidnapping in a deserted villa in Tuscany. She brought this to Catriona’s father’s attention, who then contacted the police with a request that they try to track down the missing boy.

The story follows Karen and her team as they investigate these two cases. The narrative jumps between different locations, between the two time periods and between the two different strands. At first, it took me a while to get used to this, but once I had settled into the story, I found that this style helped things move along at a fast pace, and it helped that when a character was explaining something in 2007, the narrative jumped back to the 1980s to describe the events as they happened. Val McDermid is very good at describing locations such that I was able to picture myself in some of the Fife towns and villages in which the book is set. She is also not shy about giving voice to her political views, and it was interesting to hear about the Scottish perspective of the miners’ strike and the resulting conflicts and hardship within the mining communities. I also enjoyed the forensic aspects of the book, which are key to the plot and which I thought were well researched. I listened to the audiobook version and found one or two strange pronunciations of place and people’s names. If you have a keen ear for accents, you may wish that the narrator, a Scottish actress, had more of a Fife accent to give greater authenticity to the story.

Overall, I found this to be a thrilling and exciting book, with many twists and turns to keep the listener, or reader, guessing. I managed to spot some, but not all of the clues that were drip fed as the story developed and I found DI Pirie to be a very interesting character.

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

Review: The Woman in the Middle by Milly Johnson

Shay Bastable is the woman in the middle. She is part of the sandwich generation – caring for her parents and her children, supporting her husband Bruce, holding them all together and caring for them as best she can.

Then the arrival of a large orange skip on her mother’s estate sets in motion a cataclysmic series of events which leads to the collapse of Shay’s world. She is forced to put herself first for a change.

 

But in order to move forward with her present, Shay needs to make sense of her past. And so she returns to the little village she grew up in, to uncover the truth about what happened to her when she was younger. And in doing so, she discovers that sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to find the only way is up.

Review: This was quite different from what I was expecting. When you read the premise of this book you get the main idea of what is going to happen to our 'Woman in the Middle' but you have no idea how we're going to get from the beginning to the end and what depths we're going to go to in between. This book is a wild ride. I was left quite exhausted from everything poor Shay had to go through. It was a journey and it is testament to Milly Johnson's writing that she got me through in one piece!

Yes Shay is the woman in the middle but she is so much more than that. As well as being someone who cares for her parents, her children and her husband she is also lacking in anyone who actually hears her or supports her. She has skeletons in her closet that burden her on a daily basis and I'm surprised she had not already snapped and thrown in the towel. At points the book was pretty stressful because of all that Shay and her family go through and it was sometimes a tough read. 

The structure of this book is very interesting. Whilst it does take place in chronological order, as I have already mentioned, it's so much more than just Shay and her sandwich of parents and children. So many of the things that affect her are explored fully in this book. Each tangent we go down gets it own time and attention and I did sometimes wonder if we would ever get back to Shay's previous issues but everything just weaves round and round and back together and so you have to ensure you're concentrating. It must have been a nightmare to keep track of whilst plotting and writing. 

I did enjoy the fact that we have a previous character from a Milly Johnson novel pop up in this book and we return to a setting we had been to before so as you're reading make sure that you keep an eye out for those easter eggs! I listened to this book on audio and whilst the narration was good, I like that the narrator of a Milly Johnson novel always has a norther accent, there were some issues with chapters being cut off part way through. Thankfully I had my beautiful hardback to fall back on and I have heard that the problem has been fixed so if you were thinking of downloading the audio you should be fine now!

Whilst I didn't laugh as much with this book as with previous novels from this author, she really does tackle some real world issues within the pages of the novel and it gave me pause for thought. She has still included her usual strong women, people getting their comeuppance and of course a good dollop of Yorkshire spirit. Despite the audiobook issues I do recommend the audio but the hardback is also really stunning!

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

October 2021 Reading Wrap Up: Audiobook Recommendations

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Blog Tour: Review of Underneath The Christmas Tree by Heidi Swain

 

Today is my stop on the blog tour for Underneath the Christmas Tree by Heidi Swain. This gorgeous festive read is out now and I have a review to share with you today. If you like the sound of that you can click here to order your copy now. 

Don't forget to check out the other stops on the tour for more exclusive content and reviews!

Here's what it's all about:

Wynter’s Trees is the home of Christmas. For the people of Wynmouth it’s where they get their family Christmas tree, and where Christmas truly comes to life.

But for Liza Wynter, it’s a millstone around her neck. It was her father’s pride and joy but now he’s gone, she can’t have anything to do with it. Until her father’s business partner decides to retire and she must go back to handle the transition to his son Ned.

When Liza arrives, she discovers a much-loved business that’s flourishing under Ned’s stewardship. And she’s happy to stay and help for the Christmas season, but then she has other plans. But will the place where she grew up make her change her mind? And can it weave its Christmas cheer around her heart…?

Review: Can we just take a moment to appreciate the cover of this novel? I love the candy pink shades and I also love the fact that the tree is front and centre on the cover. If you get the paperback copy of this one its also got gorgeous foil that shimmers in the light-just perfection!

I love the fact that a Heidi Swain Christmas novel focuses on someone who really isn't in the festive spirit. They begin the book wanting to ignore the whole thing but something in the Heidi Swain magic of everything seems sure to persuade them otherwise! This book is no exception and I took a lot of comfort in that. This is the first visit to the seaside town on Wynmouth in the winter time and it was lovely to be in a slightly different setting but still have some familiarity in terms of the people and the magic of the seaside. I also adored getting to know Liza, our aforementioned Christmas objector. She has had a whole heap of heart break in her life and so her avoidance of the season is totally understandable but she also goes on a massive journey throughout the pages of the book!

Wynter's trees is the perfect setting for this novel-what could be more festive than essential a Christmas tree farm? But it's what this place means to Liza and new resident Ned that really makes it special. I love the memories that have been made in the fields and in the lodge and the new traditions that are being made all the time-I really want to go and visit but I feel sure I would encounter some romance there and so probably best to avoid! The other thing about the setting is that it provides comfort for the whole community not just Ned and Liza. 

Another thing that Heidi Swain also does really well is to champion the younger and more troubled members of the communities that she creates and I love that about her books. I adored meeting Liam and watching him grow throughout his journey, good and bad. I really hope we get to go back and meet him again in a future novel because I think he is such a deep character I know there is more to be heard from him in the future-here's hoping!

If you're worried that this novel could be too much Christmas for you then have no fear. A Heidi Swain novel is basically as festive as you make it. There's always a mention of the solstice and life outside of the festive season. But if you want warm drinks and snow and Christmas tress then there are plenty of thee within the pages of the book. I love the hope in a Heidi Swain novel but I particularly love it at Christmas time. I actually listened to the audiobook of this and the narrator (one of my favorites) did a great job too-highly recommend!

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

October 2021 Reading Wrap Up

Usually I break my wrap ups down into eBooks, physical books and audiobooks and usually the audiobooks category is the biggest but this month it is the ONLY category. 

It was still a really good reading month for me and having a commute again meant that I got loads of amazing books listened to that I wouldn't have been able to read otherwise!

Ebooks

Nothing this month!

Physical Books

Nothing here either!

Audiobooks

My Review

This Month's Videos