Secret Santa – Scarlett Bailey

Sue Montaigne lives in the ‘big’ house in the Cornish village of Poldore as has generations of her family before her. Somehow this makes her the self-confessed organiser of everything in the village, especially the Christmas Pageant.

She has been doing it for so long and everyone else has been partaking of it for so long, that it seems to become harder and harder every year to control everyone. Sue does not realise that actually everyone knows their role quite sufficiently.

Including the Santa who has decided after a number of years to call it a day only a few days before the Christmas Eve pageant.

Sue needs to audition Santa’s and fast. Helped by the local celebrity there is no end of possible Santa’s in but it seems that there is only who fits the bill but he seems too good to be true and only goes by the name of Nick.

Sue cannot get anything else out of him, but it seems Nick knows an awful lot about Sue and her wishes and desires.

Perhaps this year Sue will be the one with the most important present?

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read this lovely christmas story. 

I am somewhat late as this book was published in November 2014 but is still available as an e-book on Amazon for 99p. If you want to start your Christmas reading with something small then this would the perfect start. 

I sensed from this book that the place and a number of the characters feature in a full length novel, so it looks like I need to read Just for Christmas to get a real feel for the people and the place.

Scarlett Bailey is in fact Rowan Coleman and I have yet to pick up her books to read. More for the wish list. 

Now where was I……..

Remember this list

• have finished a piece of cross stitch, a book related one too, that has been on the go for a while.
• I have started and finished a knitted hedgehog.
• I have started another piece of cross stitch…..

Lizzie Kate Designs – using up all the threads I have acquired in the past years.

• I am busy trying to finish a pair of socks…..

This is sock 2. Sock 1 just needs to be re-grafted as I did it wrong. I am nearly at the end of this one so perhaps a finish soon…….

• I have completed a jigsaw which had been hanging around for over 2 years and is now complete, so I started another one…..
• I am now starting to think about Christmas Presents, and ones that I could possible make……

• I have been away to somewhere new and would love to tell you all about it….
• I have watched the latest adaptation of An Inspector Calls on the television and I want to share my thoughts about it and the play which I reread before it started…..
• Stanley is still delighting everyone and is now 17 26 weeks old, with teeth as sharp as razors and a personality to match!

This was the day he arrived:

This is him today:

 

• I want to share some of my baking virtually of course……

So whilst I have not crossed anything else off my list, I have at least shown you some works in progress.

Which means I need to rethink my list:

• Finish the socks
• Complete another part of the cross stitch – it will eventually look like this I hope

• Finish at least one Christmas Present and make it up from the pieces you can see from the photograph earlier on in this post
• I have watched the latest adaptation of An Inspector Calls on the television and I want to share my thoughts about it and the play which I reread before it started…..
• More of my jigsaw that I started needs to be done, this one cannot possibly take 3 years!
• Baking pictures. Although I am debating this at the moment, due to having got on the scales and seen that whilst I managed to lose an impressive 5 and 1/2 stone in 2012. I have seriously failed to maintain this weight loss. I readily admit to myself that this is probably one of the reasons for the lack of momentum with many things in life at the moment, this blog included.

Trouble with crafting is you start other projects and therefore I picked up a free pattern, the needles and bought some wool and then……..

Whoops! Another thing for the list then

• Finish the V neck cardigan.

Think that might be enough for the list for the time being.

You may or may not have noticed, but I have made no mention of books on this list. I probably should because whilst I am reading, I am not writing reviews. Not having enough time at the moment, work has turned busy as I have had to increase my workload and probably will be like this until I finish for Christmas on the 18th December. Also I refer back to my lack of momentum. But I am reading and enjoying it so please be patient. My only challenge will be to perhaps actually write a November Roundup post and see where that takes me.

Debbie Macomber – Dashing Through the Snow

It would not be Christmas without a Christmas themed novel from Debbie Macomber. This year I have been taken on a journey.

Ashley wants to get to Seattle to surprise her mother for Christmas.

Dashiell needs to get to Seattle for a job interview.

A last-minute flight is not an option it turns out and there is only one car left to rent to be able to take them to Seattle. Of course it makes sense for them to share.

But it seems they are both able to rub each other up the wrong way even though they have never met before. This is going to be one long drive from California and there is snow predicted.

Of course this journey is not going to go well. There is snow, an abandoned puppy and a mechanic in touch with his alien side. Even more worrying the FBI are following them unbeknown to them both.

So it might sound fantastical but at the story’s heart is warmth, humour and being with the one you love for Christmas, no matter how you get there or what you have to go through.

An enjoyable Christmas read.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book. 

Dashing Through the Snow is out on the 19th November in paperback and ebook. 

 

The Secrets We Share – Emma Hannigan

I have only just recently discovered Emma Hannigan and this is the second novel that I have read. It is full of the warmth and humour you would expect from a female Irish author but it also deals with some touching issues and shows how secrets have to be shared and that there are ways of dealing with everything that life seems  to throw at as.

Max lives in America. He is a successful surgeon with a wife, Amber who supports all the charity fundraising for his hospital. Their only daughter Nathalie is about to embrace adulthood and go through one of the  most important events of her life, the school prom.

Disaster strikes and suddenly Nathalie’s world is turned upside down and nothing seems to make any sense any more.

When a letter arrives from Ireland it is then Max and Amber’s turn for their world to be turned upside down.

The letter comes from Clara, Max’s mother. The mother that Max told Amber was dead.

The letter is addressed to Nathalie, the granddaughter she only found out she had by some detective work.

It is decided that Nathalie should go to Ireland and as secrets start to come out, a whole pas that not even Max knew about comes out.

Throughout this time, Nathalie is given strength to deal with everything that has happened to her by reading letters that her grandmother has kept relating to the Second World War and another place away from both America and Ireland. Through this the family story is told and eventually all those scattered around the world are reunited in some way as well as those who live close by.

Everyone has secrets and there are many ways in which to deal with it, here Emma Hannigan has put emphasis on not just cooking to teach about the past and bring families together but the idea of a quilt which seems to stitch everything back together. This was something that I could so relate to.

Plenty about this novel appeals and you may think that perhaps it is going to be a bit too light and fluffy, but I can assure you it is not. It deals with some real issues with such skill and care that you will not want to put the book down. I didn’t.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. 

The Secrets We Share is out now in all formats.

 

 

 

A Christmas Cracker – Trisha Ashley

You cannot beat a cracking good read and you cannot beat Trisha Ashley to deliver such a read. This latest Christmas novel has everything in it to while away a Christmas Afternoon on the sofa with copious amounts of tea and christmas cake snuggled right under a blanket as you absorb yourself in the story.

When I read this novel again, that is what I want to be doing!

But what of the story I hear you ask…..

Tabby is convicted of a crime she did not commit and spends a Christmas in prison. It seems to be the ultimate betrayal for Tabby. She has no one, her boyfriend has dumped her, her mother is dead and her only friend is stuck in a controlling marriage which means she cannot visit as much as she wishes. Even her cat has been put in a shelter.

One prison visitor puts Tabby in touch with Mercy. And Mercy shows none, she is a Quaker with a passion for sewing machines, picking up waifs and strays and now trying to bring the families cracker making business back from the brink.

There is plenty for Tabby to become involved in when Mercy provides her with a roof over her head to make a new start and to find out who the real Tabby is and develop the creative side which has been suppressed by others.

Trouble is whilst Mercy has a tendency to see the good in everyone, no matter what they have done, her nephew, Randall can only see that Tabby must be out for everything she can get and at the cost possibly of his own plans and future.

It is not going to be simple to try and bring a failing cracker factory back to the snap it once had, but Trisha Ashley’s storytelling means we are swept away amongst the history of the place, the family that Tabby has suddenly become part of and the Quaker faith which binds a number of them together. Just as Quakers meet and there is a sense of stillness, there is a stillness quality about the book.

I loved the story, I was fascinated by what I learnt about the Quakers, I laughed not just at the Christmas Cracker jokes which headed a number of chapters but also what happens to some of the many characters within the book. Justice might not always happen in the way we envisage but when it does it brings a wry smile to the face.

One of Trisha Ashley’s best – a cracking good read!

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this book. 

A Christmas Cracker is out now in all formats. 

I know it is November and probably too early to be reading about Christmas stories but I needed something to lose myself in, and I did. Thank you to Trisha your storytelling is sublime. 

 

The Library

I seem to be on a bit of a roll at the moment in finishing things off and crossing items off lists. I do like the satisfaction that crossing something off your list can bring.

• I have finished a piece of cross stitch, a book related one too, that has been on the go for a while.
• I have started and finished a knitted hedgehog.
• I have started another piece of cross stitch…..
• I am busy trying to finish a pair of socks…..
• I have completed a jigsaw which had been hanging around for over 2 years and is now complete, so I started another one…..
• I am now starting to think about Christmas Presents, and ones that I could possible make……
• I have been away to somewhere new and would love to tell you all about it….
• I have watched the latest adaptation of An Inspector Calls on the television and I want to share my thoughts about it and the play which I reread before it started…..
• Stanley is still delighting everyone and is now 17 weeks old, with teeth as sharp as razors and a personality to match!
• I want to share some of my baking virtually of course……

This time I am sharing some stitching. I dread to think how long I have had Little House Needleworks ‘The Library’ on the go.

Looking back I posted this picture in July 2011 – yes 2011!

And there was an update in December of the same year, yes still 2011.

And then it went a bit quiet clearly for around 4 years. Anyone who does any sort of craft will probably know this, plenty is started and plenty hangs around. Which is why periodically I go through a finishing off phase. I also think because Cross Stitch is not as popular as it was, it takes a back seat. Just like phases, it will become popular again I am sure.

So if you have waiting to see the finished picture for the last 4 years I can only apologise but here it is

Please excuse the photography it is not one of my many hobbies!

And a bit more of a close up. This was literally hot off the needle.

It will now transfer to the tin where I keep all my finished but unframed items… who knows what for but one day it may have a frame and reside happily upon my wall.

The trouble is when you get to the end of something, you are inspired to start something else, especially something which has been hanging around in your baskets,boxes,drawers etc for a while. I am drawn to particular designers and ideas and very much like pieces that contain words.

But for what I have started next….. that will come in another post.

 

 

A Place Called Winter – Patrick Gale

A Place Called Winter is a departure from the normal contemporary novel that you can expect from Patrick Gale. I was unsure of how he was going to tackle a historical novel, especially when he was going to take it the plains of Canada

The book opens with a rather harrowing scene of treatment in an asylum to cure an infliction. . Harry Cane is being treated but for what we do not know. As the book progresses, we are taken back to the asylum and associated places at times throughout the novel as we being to piece together a picture of Harry Cane and how he started the book as he did.

Harry and his younger brother Jack, live a privileged life at the turn of the twentieth century in London. Money means that they have little to worry about and also little to do. Whilst Jack is the more outwardly personable of the two brothers it is Harry who finds himself married. Marriage seems pleasant enough and a child completes the ideal picture. Life is good but a turn of events means that Harry has to leave everything he knows and those he cares about with haste.

It is this which leads him to Canada.

The privileged lifestyle is a thing of the past and Harry now needs to work. To work hard to forge a new life and one that will still test him every day.

What Patrick Gale has done is create a book full of love in its many different forms and that how you have to endure heartache and hardship to be with the one you truly love.

I learnt so much through this book as Gale seems to create the landscape of 100 years ago and brings it vividly to life, that you can feel the heat and the cold that Harry endures. As each season moves on to the next and everything begins to grow, friendship, love and the future. Of course as you grow as a person or whether you try and grow a crop, you will encounter much against you, Harry Cane is no exception and as I continue to read I was very much on Harry’s side even if I did question perhaps his actions and the ramifications it could have for those he loved, left behind and the society he lived in.

I discovered much about Harry Cane as Harry did about himself and when the ending came it was the right one. The future was no longer going to be one cold winter.

Read this novel, it has a lot to say and a lot to teach you. One of the most moving books I have read this year.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this novel. 

A Place Called Winter is out now in all formats. 

 

October Roundup

That is it then, we are past the date of autumn, the clocks have gone back and Halloween has been and gone which must mean October has also be and gone.

And I think this is the first month I have read more books on kindle than actual physical ones. Ironically I do miss holding books, there is something about the power of the story when it is in your hands and you can turn the pages, a kindle does not cut it on that front. To be fair a kindle does allow me to read some really good books just as they hit the shelves or before.

Which is why October has becoming more kindle dominated and by default netgalley dominated. I wanted to crack on and clear some of the backlog that I have acquired on netgalley and therefore I set forth with Patrick Gale – A Place Called Winter*. Gale’s latest novel is a departure from the norm with all the familiarity you would expect from him. A first foray into more historical fiction and one that fascinated me.

More history came in the form of Lucy Ribchester – The Hourglass Factory and the world of suffragettes, corsets and trapeze artists a funny mix but it works in a way.

What also mixes is the wonderful delights that make up something found in a French patisserie window. Laura Madeleine – The Confectioner’s Tale set at the turn of the twentieth century in Paris and made my mouth water.

Of course history can come in many forms and we should always look back to our own personal and family history. The idea of knowing of your existence from the moment of conception seems perverse but it works with Kate Atkinson – Behind the Scenes at the Museum*. This a great example of her work.

Families always have secrets and some are never told but others have a way of escaping and the truth sometimes can be a fascinating story of heroism. Emma Hannigan – The Secrets We Share* is a book which somehow encompasses all of these things and makes for a very good read.

We all know Christmas starts earlier and earlier each year, and I have to confess my Christmas reading has started as well. Trouble is I have got into a bit of a habit of always reading Debbie Macomber’s Christmas story and this year I got a sneak preview. Dashing Through the Snow* is a lovely coming home for Christmas read and can easily be devoured in an afternoon.

Also this year we (the royal we of course) are lucky enough to have a new novel from one of my favourite authors – Trisha Ashley – A Christmas Cracker*. It is exactly that a cracker of a read. Somehow she manages to create a story where I want to jump in and live with the characters.

I ended the month with some more Christmas reading, this was to complete the set really. Cressida McLaughlin – Tinsel and Terriers* is the final part of her Primrose Terrace story and again I was taken to a place where I wanted to be able to fit in and visit these people in their homes.

So what of November’s reading? I am not sure if I want to peak too soon with all this Christmas as we do have a few weeks to go yet, but I have plenty of wonderful books to get reading so I must get off and do that!