The Christmas Stocking & Other Stories – Katie Fforde

The first thing to note is that this publication has two short stories which have previously been published around Christmas time. However they are short stories and so wonderfully written that it will do you no harm in reading them all over again – just like I have!

Candlelight at Christmas (previously published) – featuring characters from Recipe in Love (which I still have not read) shows how Christmas can be as much fun, even if you have the in-laws from hell, too many guests and suddenly no electricity to cook the turkey!

A Christmas in Disguise (previously published) – can Jo really pull of not just being someone else but also cooking a Christmas Dinner and pretending to be a girlfriend all in one day!

The Christmas Stocking – Romy is busy selling decorations and gifts on her stall at the market. The weather has taken a turn for the worse and the cold is really starting to bite Romy.

When a mysterious man brings her a hot drink to warm her up, so begins an unlikely friendship which is intensified by it being Christmas Eve the next day, the snow, the music studio all in the depth of the woods. Romy’s Christmas this years is going to be very different from what she planned.

A Dream Christmas – getting married on Christmas Eve is a dream for many (me included) and when Ginny and Ben finally make it out of their wedding reception and have some time for themselves.

When the taxi drops them at Withycome Lodge, the housekeeper’s cottage it seems to be in the middle of nowhere almost a dream…..log fires, warming baths, snow and an unseen member of staff mean this is going to be the honeymoon that everyone dreams of.

Or is it?

Dogs are for Christmas  – Stella  goes for a walk early Christmas morning to the Dog Walker’s Christmas Tree where people come to remember their treasured pets that are no longer around. She wants to put her dad’s dogs ashes there. Her dad’s beloved dog, died a few days after its owner.

Stella did not think she would suddenly have company so early and especially not from two exuberant misbehaving dogs, Tris and Izzy and an apologetic dog sitter, Fitz.

Perhaps Stella’s Christmas is going to be full of dogs after all.

The Christmas Fairy – everyone needs one surely? Ella is sent to help Brent look after his two nieces and nephew when their parents have to make a mad dash to France to look after sick relatives. Ella as the fairy is there to make sure everything is going okay and occupy them all in the depths of Scotland and so they don’t miss their parents too much.

Trouble is Ella seems to be sprinkling a bit of fairy dust very close to home. Perhaps she will get her Christmas wish too.

This is a collection of wonderful stories which can be read time and time again. Perfect for getting into the Christmas Spirit whatever the month or the weather! In fact I think they would make great Christmas Eve afternoon stories, curled up in the front of the log fire. A hot toddy, a mince-pie warm oozing with Brandy Butter, the tin of Roses open with wrappers left about in gay abandon like coloured snowflakes. Indulge it may be the only time you can in what can be a busy time!

This also includes a preview of Katie Fforde’s new novel, out in 2018. As with such things when they appear in books I do not read them, as the frustration of not being able to continue the story is incalculable!

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

The Christmas Stocking and other stories is out on 2 Nov

 

Secrets of the Shipyard Girls – Nancy Revell

I am back with the girls at the Sunderland Shipyard, welding their way through the Second World War. This is the third in the series of books and I recommend you read the previous two so you can understand the characters and background a lot more.

Rosie is still in charge of this eclectic mix of women, but she is having troubles of her own. She knows that some of her past is behind her but it is her present which is causing the problems. Especially when it means she can no longer see the man, Peter she was walking out with. Peter on the other hand is prepared to find out the truth.

Gloria, is back welding only a couple of weeks after giving birth to baby Hope. That takes some stamina and strength! But her life is not quite complete as her true love Jack is missing and Gloria may never know the real truth.

Dorothy and Angie are the life and soul of the group, always ready to party and with a quick wit about them especially when it comes to chatting up men. But secretly they want what some of the other girls have, a stable relationship, just like Bel. A man on their arm and someone to love.

Bel has finally decided to tie the knot with Joe. Although she feels the guilt of her dead husband, she knows that for herself and her little girl she must move forward and start living her life.

Of course there are lots of other secondary characters but just as rich which are interwoven into the story, we get to learn more about Kate and of course the arrival of Maisie with secrets of her own makes for a page turning story. Every character is important and plays some role within the pages and brings the story very much to life.

This saga keeps getting better and better, it deals with some important issues of the Second World War and how what was going on abroad affected those at home and how being at home also meant there were personal wars to be fought. I am looking forward to catching up with these women who feel like friends when the next book is released in 2018.

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

Secrets of the Shipyard Girls is out now. 

 

 

The Woolly Hat Knitting Club – Poppy Dolan

Dee Blackthorn is ruthless when it comes to the corporate business world and she strives for one hundred percent success. She works hard and that is all she does, there is no stop, there is no pause. Dee lives for her work.

That is until one day she finds herself without a job and back living with her brother, JP. Suddenly working all the time is not the priority.

Which is not necessarily a bad thing because JP has managed to break both his wrists. JP becomes Dee’s priority but also in some ways her project as she wants to help him get on better. JP is not any normal brother though.

JP runs the local haberdashery and has found peace and pleasure in his knitting. He is popular online and regularly helps anyone that he can. But how can he now when he can’t even hold a knitting needle. Dee has to help him but there is a problem…..Dee cannot knit….

When she bumps into an old school friend, Becky in the supermarket who has just given birth to beautiful boy prematurely, she persuades JP that knitting little hats for premature babies would be a great way of just not helping Becky but lots of people in the same situation.

When Ben turns up looking for Dee, he becomes involved in the whole knitting furor and becomes friendly with JP. Trouble is Dee remembers what Ben was like to work with and thinks that there must be some ulterior motive. Ben becomes a surprise natural with the knitting, much to Dee’s irritation but he does embrace the whole idea of expanding the premature baby hat campaign.

Dee’s skills from her work life are in their element and what she can do is organise and make something small and successful, huge and mega successful. Is that what everyone and JP wants especially when it begins to hurt the people Dee loves. Dee cannot always see the real meaning sometimes of something so small and the pleasure that can be gained from a small number of people working for a bigger cause.

I loved this book, certainly one of my favourite of the year. Without a doubt because of the story but also because as a fellow knitter I can relate to all the yarn stories and the varieties of yarn, the difficulty in learning a new technique and being able to find someone to help you when needed.

This is a book which refocuses on the small little things in life because they are the most important and that sometimes having a big impact does not leave a lasting one. It is a great read and if you are a knitter as well, then this book is certainly a great read. Perhaps it might inspire you to pick up a pair of needles and knitting for someone.

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

The Woolly Hat Knitting Club is out now. 

As you may (or may not) know I am a knitter as one of the many crafts I like to try my hand at. I already knit for the premature babies at my local maternity hospital. My mum always did long before she had me and continues to do so, I have just simply followed tradition. So here are a couple of hats and a selection of the cardigans as well. 

 

 

Christmas on the Little Cornish Isles: the Driftwood Inn – Phillipa Ashley

Phillipa Ashley is back with her new series of novels, and this time we have stepped a little bit away from Cornwall, to the Scilly Isles. Just across the water we discover new places, new problems and new characters. The islands in the novel are fictional but could quite easily exist as further islands away from the major five of the Scilly Isles.

Within a first few pages I am hooked as I find out about Maisie, returned to Gull Island to help her parents run the pub The Driftwood Inn. She has returned home to seek quiet sanctuary from what has happened to her in the previous few months.

But it is not going to be quiet on the island. Maisie is worried about her parents health and the fact that she is of an age where starting again might be difficult. After the temporary summer staff have all gone back to find jobs, Maisie still needs someone to help her. When Patrick walks in right at the moment she needs someone it seems that is her answer.

Trouble is her and Patrick shared a stolen kiss and she cannot get him out of her mind and now she has him in her place of work and a cottage out the back of the building. Tensions are bound to build in such close proximity.

Patrick was only meant to be on Gull Island to fulfill a dying wish to a friend now he has found some work his return to Australia is postponed but what was his real reason for being on Gull Island? As Christmas comes and the advent of a new year means new beginnings will Maisie finally be able to settle and will Patrick reveal the truth for his real reason for being interested in Gull Island.

I cannot wait to return and find out more about these Little Cornish Isles and their residents and of course I want to see how Maisie is getting on.

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

Christmas at Hope Cottage – Lily Graham

Things could be going better for Emma Holloway, she is dumped by her boyfriend and then gets knocked over by a parcel delivery van. To add insult to injury, the delivery van was actually delivering a parcel for her.

Contained within the parcel was ‘The Book’ sent to Emma to help her make some decisions. The only decision now is getting well again and it is going to a long process as Emma finds herself back at Hope Cottage with her eccentric grandmother and two equally as eccentric aunts nearby.

Now ‘The Book’ is back at Hope Cottage we start to see the magic that it may have and that perhaps the way to health, happiness and the future is to bake it. Trouble is magic can be seen as witchcraft and it seems these women are known locally and feuds and disputes go back years, hundreds of years.

So it will not help Emma, when her first love arrives back on the scene and happens to be from a family who hold onto family folklore and certainly don’t believe in magic.

But perhaps when faith is tested, people will look to any means to aid them. Can hope be restored from the pages of the book, the walls of the cottage and Emma and her grandmother?

This is a wonderful tale of love and hope, of believing in something you perhaps cannot explain but know is right. Emma’s story starts quite abruptly and her injuries from the accident that find her back at Hope Cottage were frightening and life altering, but it made her think a lot more about her life up until that point. The author uses this in the form of flashbacks so we can see how Emma found herself to be away from her family home, how her mother made the same decisions that she had and how the presence of something unexplainable can actually cause deep resentment in a community.

The book has everything you want from a Christmas novel and more, strong female characters recognising the fact that it is okay to be different, a sprinkling of snow and romance and delicious baking to wake up the tastebuds.

Perfect reading in the run up to Christmas and you cannot go wrong with Lily Graham’s novels as I have read and enjoyed everyone. A wonderful storyteller.

Thank you to the publisher via netgalley for the opportunity to read this novel. 

Christmas at Hope Cottage is out today!

 

Christmas at Mistletoe Cove – Holly Martin

It’s Christmas on Hope Island. Having spent Spring and Summer with Bella, Freya, Isaac and Rome this is a continuation of course of their story but this book focuses very much on Eden and Dougie.

Eden has been in love with Dougie since forever. But he broke her heart when he moved to America,

Trouble is Dougie did not know this at the time but he did know the one person that he was best friends with was the reason he kept returning to Hope Island.

Eden is settled in her Pottery Cafe and whilst she has dreams of making it bigger and doing more of what she loves, she is very content with Hope Island. Until Dougie returns.

Dougie is not just returning for a visit, for Christmas he is planning on staying a lot longer. How will Eden manage this unrequited love when he is going to be living right next door?

It all moves very fast for Eden, even left me in its wake. Romance and wishes are the way to her heart and it seems that Dougie has all the right answers. But it can it be too good to be true?

No of course not, it is simply the magic of love and the magical time of year. Christmas is bringing everyone together but can it keep them that way?

I loved this book, there was something so romantic about Dougie that I admit to shedding a tear or two and was probably secretly in love with him a little bit. That is the elegance of Holly Martin’s writing taking you straight into the heart of the novel and she has you hooked with her writing and her setting.

She can do humour just as well and I have to confess Lucy and Finn, Eden’s parents were hilariously embarrassing with an innocence about them which made me forgive there not so subtle comments or indiscretions.

Combine this with a lovely setting, the coldness of winter, the brightness of the stars, the warmth of the fire as Eden and Dougie find some common ground.

If you want snowmen, hot chocolate, roaring fires, lots of layers of clothing, romance, Christmas, weddings and bucket loads of romance, this is the book for you. It works as a standalone novel, but if you have the time get the whole Hope Island experience.

Another excellent novel from Holly Martin.

Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read this via netgalley. 

Christmas at Mistletoe Cove is out now. 

I look forward to seeing what Holly Martin writes next. In the meantime I still have her White Cliff bay series to catch up on, so plenty to keep me going. 

 

 

The Little Bakery on Rosemary Lane – Ellen Berry

I am back visiting Rosemary Lane and it has been just over a year since I have been here. I was there when Della set up her bookshop specialising in one type of books – cookery ones. I wanted to go back and see how she was getting on and so I do with this new novel from Ellen Berry.

Back on Rosemary Lane, we do see something of Della, her bookshop is expanding, her happiness clearly there for everyone to see but she still worries about her sister, Roxanne.

Roxanne becomes the main protagonist for this story as she escaped Rosemary Lane as soon as she could for the bright lights of London. From nothing she has worked her way into the fashion industry and is a Fashion Editor on a glossy magazine, the sort you flick through in a waiting room but would not necessarily buy!

She has everything she wanted but it seems that something is perhaps missing – when fate means her job is suddenly changed to something else and her rather reluctant boyfriend refuses to commit to anything.  Roxanne leaves London and returns to her sister in Rosemary Lane. But what is she going to do?

Roxanne discovers that there is very little to do. Della does not really need her help in the shop and it seems the only thing left her to do is to walk the dog. Trouble is her fashion knowledge and walking a dog on a wet Yorkshire dale are at odds with each other.

Whilst Roxanne learns that comfortable practical clothes are the way forward, no one is judging her and they take her at face value with no ulterior motive. Here she meets Michael who is just starting to find his feet in the new bakery on Rosemary Lane and when his daughter becomes friendly with Roxanne it seems that perhaps the bright lights of London have finally dulled. Of course it will not be that easy.

I enjoyed the interesting world of fashion and fashion photography. I certainly don’t want to be part of that world and the author I would guess has had some experience within it, to get it across the way she did. The bakery is perhaps not a strong feature in the book and others have commented on this, but this was a very character driven novel but it has its place in setting the scene of the village and the lane of shops.

The story of Rosemary Lane has not finished, there has got to me much more to come?  I am sure the pub that is featured in this book has a tale to tell and of course the bakery surely needs to expand? I can but dream and that is the sort of book this is. A lovely read.

Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity via netgalley to read this novel. 

The Bakery on Rosemary Lane is out now

The first book in the series was reviewed by me here. 

The Word is Murder – Anthony Horowitz

A woman walks into a funeral directors to arrange her funeral.

Six hours later she is dead.

Coincidence?

Murder?

A private detective, Daniel Hawthorne has been called in by the police to help with this case. A consulting detective like Holmes or Poirot but with a character and manner all of his own. So gruff and strange I could not be anything but fascinated by him. Hawthorne is private in many ways, we know little about him and whilst he was once a police inspector, it takes us a while to find out what happened.

The narrator of this story, is drawn into Hawthorne’s world.

The narrator is in fact an author, who has used Hawthorne before to help in his research in previous novels and television adaptations. Here you can quite easily think Watson to Holmes, Hastings to Poirot. Except this author, this narrator, we all know.

It is in fact Anthony Horowitz.

All of a sudden, The Word is Murder becomes part autobiography, part fiction and part fact and it was actually fascinating to learn all about Horowitz’s world as an author and script writer, to  the idiosyncrasies of the publishing and television world. A parody but actually not  – more a reality, a truth.

But just like us as readers, Horowitz is drawn to Hawthorne and the murder of the woman hours after arranging her funeral. He is reluctant to become involved but something draws him back to Hawthorne, because it is not just the murder to unpick Horowitz needs to understand the detective as well. Without that surely he will never have a book.

This is an interesting book, where you have to remind yourself when you are reading, what bit could be true and what part was the fiction of the story being weaved by Horowitz as he helped Hawthorne (not a real person) complete his investigation.

I chose not to go into much detail about the murder in this review, mainly because I am always too frightened of giving some obvious clue and rendering anyone else reading the book as a pointless exercise.

A cleverly crafted novel which will appeal to fans of murder mysteries. I would not put it down as a thriller but it is certainly a page turner. Very different to Magpie Murders published last year but both of these books have the potential to be developed further.

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

The Word is Murder is out now. 

 

 

How to be Champion – Sarah Millican

No doubt many people are going to call this book Champion and it will become a well-worn plaudits – but that is quite simply because this book does exactly what it says on the cover.

I have never been a fan of self-help books, but if they were all like this then I would be reading far more!

First of all, I read this because I am a fan of Sarah Millican. I have seen her live and watched many of her DVDs and wandered around YouTube listening to bits and pieces. There is something about what she talks about in her stand up and general day life that makes me smile, laugh out loud and totally relate to.

This is obviously an autobiography taking us through her days at school, right up to the present day via various jobs, various friends, men, stand up tours and hotels.

Of course there is some crossover in her stand up routines and this book. Clearly a lot of material came from real experiences. But if you laughed once, trust me you will laugh again and again. I did a lot of laughing out loud and it was a good job I was on my own in bed!

But you do find out more about this lovely smasher of a woman! I certainly could relate to her chapters about children and about clothes that fit or don’t fit. I was horrified about the world we live in when she recounts a review she read when she appeared in the programme Who Do You Think You Are? What she says makes perfect sense and it is amazing the world we women still live in. I have experienced many a similar thing at work and it is still shocking that such a thing exists in the twenty-first century.

A book and an author who is not afraid to tackle sex, mental health, heavy periods, depression, divorce, confidence, cats, clothes and cake with equal aplomb. The subjects are wide and varied and the laughs are there but underneath it all there is plenty to make you think.

If you are not a fan of Sarah Millican then this probably isn’t your cup of tea. But if you are then, grab a large slab of cake, a mug of tea and find out how to be champion or in my case more champion than I already am!

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

The formatting when I received it from netgalley was a bit out, and I had to make some sense of the jumbled up bits, however it was easy enough to read. But I will be going out and buying this book so I can read it how it is meant to be and of course look at the photos!

In all the excitement of reading this, I tweeted the lovely Sarah Millican about reading her book and got a like back – I know it’s not like meeting her in person, but hey I was thrilled

How to be Champion is out now.

 

The Snow Globe – Judith Kinghorn

It is the mid 1920s, The Great War a memory but still being very much felt by the people who live at Eden Hall but for Daisy Forbes on the cusp of something her belief in the life she has had so far is about to be shattered.

It is Christmas, a time for family for being together and for sharing in traditions, such as the snow globe that comes out every year and is one of Daisy most precious items. However everything she knows is shaken up and settles very much in a different way, just like her snow globe. Can it all return to the way it was or a brighter future?

Upon overhearing from servants that her father has a mistress and then seeing her mother invite said mistress as a guest for the Christmas season, Daisy’s world and perception changes. She struggles to deal with such information and cannot understand how her mother puts up with such things and how even her older sisters seems fully aware of what is happening. Daisy is struggling to understand love and this is not helping her.

She turns to her friend, Stephen who she has known since childhood, but he has plans of his own and they may not include still being friends with Daisy as their positions in life suddenly become very different and their social gap could widen.

All the time she is being encouraged to settle down, to marry, not necessarily for love but perhaps for necessity. Dealing with kisses, proclamations of love and marriage proposals she does not know where to turn to seek the right advice. Her mother has gone travelling, her father she feels she cannot approach, her sisters either free spirits or already tied down with domesticity. What is the right way and if the globe is shaken once more the snow will settle exactly in the right place and then the answer will become clear. The questions she has been asking are making Daisy even more puzzled.

This is a book which encompasses the lives of those upstairs and downstairs in a big house, where people gather and it is described in such a cinematic way that you can see it easily being transferred to a screen. Of course it is very much Daisy’s story but I enjoyed her mother Mabel as she sets out to challenge convention and prove that love is worth fighting for.

There is something about historical fiction that I am drawn to, the chosen era reflecting the storyline as this book does. The characters having the same anxieties as those today, with twists and turns as life takes us all on different paths. You learn so much about another time, another place but you also learn that love is sometimes all that is needed. This book encompasses all of that.

A sheer joy to read.

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

The Snow Globe is out now. 

For some reason, not everyone has read or even knows about Judith Kinghorn, her books do not seem to widely available in the UK. Let us change that I recommend her first three highly. I look forward to reading her fourth on my kindle ready to go. But to be honest, these are the sorts of book that need to be read gripped between your hands as you immerse yourself in the stories within the pages.