Friday 30 March 2012

Kindle Spy Friday!

Its that time again for all of you kindle lovers! I have been and done the hard work for you and have found some great reads at under £2.00 ENJOY!!

  99p                              99p                           99p


  99p                               99p                      £1.69


   99p                              Free



Hope you all find a diamond read out of these xXx

Thursday 29 March 2012

Give Away!!


Today is publication day for the lovely Jenny Colgan and her new book Welcome to Rosie Hopkins Sweet Shop of Dreams and what better way to celebrate than the chance to win a copy of this deliciously good book and some hand made chocolates!

Take a look at my review of this book to see what my thoughts were! http://www.reabookreview.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/welcome-to-rosie-hopkins-sweetshop-of.html

To Enter:-

All you need to do is fill out the form below, I was going to ask for your favourite childhood penny sweet but thought this would be bias on my part so I will be selecting a winner via random.org. The give away will run until 7pm Sunday evening and is a worldwide giveaway!

GIVE AWAY FORM CLICK HERE

Good Luck!

Sunday 25 March 2012

The Angel at No33 by Polly Williams


I had never read any books by Polly Williams until a lovely friend of my contacted me last week to say she had just finished a fantastic book and was going to send it to me, this book being The Angel at No33 by Polly Williams.

I have to be honest if I had looked at this book in the shop I would have picked it up as I love the cover the colours that are used are very easy on the eye, but I think if I had read the synopsis I don’t think I would have read this book as I have read a couple of books where the main character is dead and I just didn’t find them enjoyable. This was not the case with this book though.

We meet our main character Sophie just as she has been run over by a bus which sounds like a very morbid opening to a book but funny enough although Sophie has just died she manages to lighten the tone by making witty remarks so instantly I was gripped as I am one who enjoys a good bit of humour when it is least expected! Sophie cannot rest and watches over her loved ones and see them all cope in their own ways with losing a wife, mum and friend. We also get to see from the living side how each of the characters are dealing with their grief and we also start to get more of an insight to Sophie and Ollie’s relationship which it seems everyone was envious of.

I found that although there was very emotional situations in this book especially revolving around Sophie’s son who not only is deeply missing his mum but also is effected by his dad who is always so sad, there were also some great down to earth humour, especially involving the local mums who are going out of their way to help Ollie but who often ends up with a number of similar gifts!

Polly Williams has a beautiful writing style which manages to bring the emotions of each character out in the reader and it is a topic which is close to us all as we all would feel the same as Sophie wanting to know our loved ones were settled and safe before we can rest and I am sure most of us have all experienced a great loss and so can connect with Jenny, Ollie and Freddie.

This book is definitely worth picking up as it will bring out all kinds of emotions and it is a real page turner. Thank you to Kayla for sending me this book with you enthusiastic recommendation!

Paperback                  Kindle

Saturday 24 March 2012

Post Box

It's that time again to see what came in the post box this week. Some sent from publishers,some I brought and one a lovely friend sent me as she loved it so much and was sure I would too so a big thank you.




What books do you like the look of and will be making there way on your to be read list?

Thursday 22 March 2012

One Night Only by Sue Welfare



Last week on our Kindle spy I found One Night Only by Sue Welfare for only 99p. I have to say I loved the cover of the book and having now read the story I think the cover fits the storyline perfectly. This is the first book I have read by Sue Welfare and I have to say after reading this book I will be picking up her previous book The Surprise Party if this book is anything to go by.

The story centre’s around the life of celebrity Helen Redford who I surprisingly warmed to in the first few chapters, when I had read the synopsis of the book I was expecting some glitz and glam from the character which is what is usually brought to us with storylines revolving around celebrities but this couldn’t be further away from what to expect from Helen. At times during the book I forgot that Helen was a celebrity as she was such a warm and down to earth character.

Helen has reached a point in her career where the work seems to have reached a lull so when her agent Arthur approaches her with the offer to take part in the show “Roots” she reluctantly takes the opportunity which will delve into her past and follow her with cameras at each point capturing her re-living each moment of her past. It is time for Helen to go back to her home town after many years, back to a shed load of emotional memories.

The book switches between Helen’s past and present life which gives us a real insight into Helen’s life as she grew up having a mum that had walked out on her and a dad who didn’t show her the love she craved. She was part of a double singing act with her friend Charlotte (or Kate who she likes to be known as!) but I instantly found I took a dislike to this character and I think that is because we feel how lonely Helen feels in the earlier part of her life so you just want her to have a friend there for her but the way Charlotte treats Helen makes us develop an instant dislike to the character. I have to say my favourite character alongside Helen was Harry a close friend from Helens past I was hoping that there would be a different ending for the two characters.

I loved the way that as we were uncovering various parts of Helens life at no point was there ever a time when I could predict what was going to happen next and this is what really kept me turning page after page.
There was something else which stuck out for me with One Night Only, now I read this in Kindle format so I am unsure if this is also in the paperback but at the end of the book Sue Welfare writes that she was unsure if to write more detail between Helen and a certain character (sorry but it will be a spoiler if I say who!) or to leave it as it was leaving the reader to use their own imagination, and so she gives us a deleted scene if you like to be able to read what the author had in mind for the conversation between the two characters.

I did find that the book got off to a very slow start and I was unsure if I was going to carry on but after a few chapters in the book started to grab my interest as we went back to Helen’s childhood so I am glad that I did persevere with the slow start. The book does continue at a very relaxed pace and really is a gentle and cosy read ideal for Sunday reading in the sun!

Kindle                           Paperback


You may also like

Monday 19 March 2012

Before I got to Sleep by S.J Watson


Plot

Memories define us.

So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep?
Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love - all forgotten overnight.

And the one person you trust may only be telling you half the story.

Welcome to Christine's life.

My Opinion
I decided I wanted to step away from my usual genre's and take a pot luck chance on a book to take away with me, which was slightly out of my normal comfort zone. After hearing from the author S.J Watson about his book on the new bookclub programme I decided to give Before I go to Sleep a try.

I read this book in only a couple of hours and wow was this a compelling read! From the first chapter it was mind boggling and I was gripped.
All the way through the book I found my opinion of each of the characters surrounding Christine changing. There is no way of predicting the outcome of this book, the suspense has you flicking through the pages in no time eager to find out what Christine is going to write in her diary next.

We really get to connect with Christine's character as we get to know Christine at the same time as Christine begins to find out about herself. It is hard to believe this is a debut novel as this book is just perfection on every page.

This is truly a thrilling read and a storyline that has you literally on the edge of your seat.


Paperback                    Kindle

Monday 12 March 2012

Welcome To Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop Of Dreams by Jenny Colgan


Plot
Were you a sherbet lemon or chocolate lime fan? Penny chews or hard boiled sweeties (you do get more for your money that way)? The jangle of your pocket money . . . the rustle of the pink and green striped paper bag . . . Rosie Hopkins thinks leaving her busy London life, and her boyfriend Gerard, to sort out her elderly Aunt Lilian's sweetshop in a small country village is going to be dull. Boy, is she wrong. Lilian Hopkins has spent her life running Lipton's sweetshop, through wartime and family feuds. As she struggles with the idea that it might finally be time to settle up, she also wrestles with the secret history hidden behind the jars of beautifully coloured sweets. Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop of Dreams - a novel - with recipes.

My Opinion

After reading Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe last year I have been eagerly awaiting a new book by Jenny Colgan to come out so you can imagine the expression on my face when I was contacted by Sphere Publishing and asked to review her new book I was over the moon and then when I read the press release and see the title of the book I knew this was going to be the book for me I LOVE SWEETS!!

Jenny Colgan brings us a unique storyline that must be everyone’s dream come true. I mean who has never once in their life wanted to work in a sweet shop! I really enjoyed watching Rosie working to get the sweet shop back to its traditional glory, and when she finds the different kinds of sweets in the shop it had my mouth watering and me shooting back to my childhood remembering all my favourite penny sweets!

The storyline flows at a gentle pace which helps, along with the beautiful descriptive writing, to set the scene in the idyllic little village. There were a real mix of characters some who you love and some who you just have to roll your eyes at! Our main character Rosie is full of warmth and is at a dead end in her life we instantly pick up that Rosie isn’t really happy with things in her life but we hope that by taking time out of her day to day routine that she will finally find some happiness by making some changes in her life. What I liked about this book was I was never quite sure how the story was going to end which made me keep turning the pages eager to see what was going to happen next.

There was plenty of humour in this book which only added to this perfect concoction to make a deliciously delightful read.

This tantalising book is due for release on the 29th March head over to the link below to pre-order your book now.

Head back to our page on publication day for a special suprise!!



Why not read Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe while you wait?

Sunday 11 March 2012

Kindle Spy!

I have taken a little time to look for some great Kindle books under £2.00 for you all this is what I have found...

Free                             99p                         99p


  £1.99


Hope these put a smile on your face :-)

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Recipe for Love by Katie Fforde




Plot
Take one aspiring cook, one judge, and a spoonful of romance...
When Zoe Harper wins a coveted place in a televised cookery competition she's thrilled. It's a chance to cook her way to fame and fortune and the little delicatessen she's set her heart on.


The first task has hardly begun when she finds herself with rather too much on her plate. Not only has she got to contend with the fiercely competitive and downright devious Cher, but she's fast developing an inconvenient crush on one of the judges - the truly delicious Gideon Irving.
All too soon there's more than canapés, cupcakes and cordon bleu at stake. 


Will Zoe win the competition or is Gideon one temptation too far? And is Zoe really prepared to risk it all for love?

My Opinion
I have recently finished Summer of Love by Katie Fforde which I loved and so when I got the chance to read her latest book Recipe for Love I jumped at the chance. Katie is back again with her beautiful cosy writing style which instantly draws you into the story. I am sure most of you are familiar with Katie Fforde’s work but for any of you who have yet to read one of her books let me explain that Katie’s writing style is like a massage in writing form!

What I found different with this book compared to her previous books is that it had more of a modern feel to it and with this it brought different characters. For the first time in Katie’s books there was a character I did not like from the word go and that was Cher. This wasn’t a problem as her character is not meant to be liked after the situations she put Zoe in but she really did grate on me and I just wanted to shake Zoe and get her to stand up for herself more as I am sure most people would in her situation.

Zoe was a very warm and caring character and would do anything to help other people even if it meant putting herself in risky situations. I also loved the character of Gideon the judge although I did find him very similar to some of Katie Fforde’s previous male characters but it’s that age old saying if it’s not broke don’t fix it!

The storyline was something completely different to the authors previous books with the whole cooking competition which is what gives it a more modern feel but not to worry if any of you are like me and love the cosy country setting that Katie usually creates as there is still a good helping of this throughout the book.

So yet again our Queen of cosy chick-lit provides us with another must read. Thank you Katie Fforde let’s hope it’s not too long for the next book!
You can follow Katie Fforde on twitter  




Hardback                    Kindle

Sunday 4 March 2012

Mad About the Boy by Suzan Battah

I have just finished my first book for this year’s Chick-lit plus blog tour and the first book is Mad About the Boy by Suzan Battah.

Plot
Julia Mendoza is driven by the success of her business. Since her husband Carlos passed away at such a young age, her business By Design is her number one priority. In her late twenties she works too hard and doesn’t take time out for fun. Annoyance with a pesky ex-friend has her begging one of the local surfer’s with a cheeky smile in the grocery store to pretend he’s her boyfriend. Suddenly, life takes a sudden detour from her business plan; much to the delight of her boisterous Latin American family. Christophe Augustine is groomed to take over his father’s successful chain of luxurious hotels. With a wealthy French-American background, Chris has been given privileges that not many have. He works hard, plays harder but seeks approval and recognition above all else. Family is a top priority for him as he fights for custody of his young brother. His parent’s divorce has not diminished his faith in romance. When a gorgeous Latino woman changes one boring morning into an interesting game of role play, though reluctant to help at first, he soon realises she’s not like the string of other women he’s known. A romantic first date ending dramatically doesn’t stop Chris from wanting to know Julia more. And for Julia, she’s all for a bit of fun but when things get too serious she’s running the other way. Too alike, in some ways and complete opposites, in other ways, Julia and Chris fumble through fun moments, annoying confrontations, passionate times and heartbreaking revelations. Love has no boundaries when soul-mates meet but when one is ready to love and the other one isn’t….

My Opinion.
I was a little worried when I first started reading this book as I felt the storyline started off weak and was very farfetched with Julia and Chris randomly meeting for the first time in a supermarket and falling for each other so quickly it would have been nice to see a gradual build up to the relationship but it felt like it was rushed and jumping in head first.

When the characters start to develop a little more we become aware of a secret that each of the characters are hiding and particularly on Julia’s part this is causing problems with the progression of their relationship and it is when we learn this fact that the story starts to come into its own. We now have an element of suspense, a will they won’t they scenario. It was at this point I started to enjoy the book and it became a real page turner.
The storyline has a rollercoaster of up and down emotional situations which our characters find their selves in each which feel very realistic situations which gives us more of a connection with the characters as we can feel their emotions as they are living through these situations.

This book is full of pure emotion and red hot romance. The second half of this book was beautifully written with a serious undertone which was broken up by the light hearted humour from Julia’s gay friends.

I would recommend this book if you can get past the weak start, once you get half way through and the story picks up you will soon forget the beginning of the book. I look forward to more work from this author to see how her next novel compares.



Never Coming Home by Evonne Wareham

Plot

All she has left is hope. When Kaz Elmore is told her five-year-old daughter Jamie has died in a car crash, she struggles to accept that she'll never see her little girl again. Then a stranger comes into her life offering the most dangerous substance in the world: hope. Devlin, a security consultant and witness to the terrible accident scene, inadvertently reveals that Kaz's daughter might not have been the girl in the car after all. What if Jamie is still alive? With no evidence, the police aren't interested, so Devlin and Kaz have little choice but to investigate themselves. Devlin never gets involved with a client. Never. But the more time he spends with Kaz, the more he desires her - and the more his carefully constructed ice-man persona starts to unravel. The desperate search for Jamie leads down dangerous paths - to a murderous acquaintance from Devlin's dark past, and all across Europe, to Italy, where deadly secrets await. But as long as Kaz has hope, she can't stop looking…


My Opinion.

I have always enjoyed all of the books which the publisher Choc lit have sent me. When Never Coming Home arrived in my post box I knew I was in for something very different to the previous books they had sent me just from the title. This wasn’t going to be a light hearted read and so I was a little worried if I was going to make it to the end of this book.

I loved the suspense that Evonne Wareham creates in this book, I was unsure all the way through who was the bad guy behind the scenes right up until the last few chapters. This really kept me gripped and turning those pages to finally uncover the truth.

Don’t worry for any of you reading this who is like me and loves a good bit of romance because although the storyline is not based around happy terms and is definitely a deeper and darker read we still have a romance story forming between our two main characters as much as they try and keep their relationship strictly professional their feelings for each other soon start to take over.

I have to say I favoured Devlin’s character over Kaz and I think that is because of the element of mystery that surrounds him as we start to unravel his past. I found Kaz was pretty much an open book and although the storyline is based around her daughter I didn’t feel like her character had much depth to her but Devlin more than made up for this.

I would recommend this book if you are looking for a great action and suspense read with a splash of romance.


Paperback               Kindle

Thursday 1 March 2012

Summer of Love by Katie Fforde


Plot
Sian had been raising her son Rory who is nearly 5 years old on her own after a one night stand, in the hustle and bustle of London. When her close friend Richard offers her a chance to pack up and move to a slower and quieter pace of life in the country where she will be able to carry on her restoration/decoration business and Rory can start a fresh at a new school. Sian quickly settles in and finds a great friend in her neighbour Fiona. It is whilst Sian is attending Fiona’s dinner party to meet some new faces that she sets eyes on someone she never expected to see again. Is this chance meeting about to change Sian’s life for better or worse...

My Opinion
I absolutely love Katie Fforde’s style of writing, I have never found anyone who writes in a similar style. This book, just like the rest of Katie Ffordes books has you instantly absorbed into the storyline. Her books are such a cosy read that just have a way of making you want to curl up in the garden on a hot summers day and this book follows in the same style.

Sian is the main character in this book and she is a very ordinary, down to earth character facing normal day to day situations. In the opening of the book Sian makes friends with her older neighbour Fiona and they for a strong friendship and Fiona takes both Sian and little Rory under her wing. The friendship between the two women felt very natural.

The storyline focuses on Sian who comes back into contact with Rory’s father but she is waiting for the right moment to tell him. As well as this storyline there is a small sideline which follows Fiona and her looking for male company through internet dating which is a very modern topic and shows the dangers which can occur so there is a great lesson coming across in this story.

There was only one thing that bugged me a little with this book and that was Sian’s friend Richard who has strong feelings for Sian, he was the one to persuade her to move to the country yet he knew the man from her past was bound to show up at some point with his mum living close by!

This book was a lovely read and I would say it is one of my favourite books by Katie Fforde. I would highly recommend this book for a nice Sunday afternoon treat!


Paperback                  Kindle
SITE DESIGNED BY PRETTYWILDTHINGS