New Beginnings at the Cosy Cat Cafe by Julie Haworth

 

New Beginnings at The Cosy Cat Café tells the story of Tori who, after being dumped and left stranded by her long-term boyfriend Ryan on a trip of a lifetime to Asia, returns home to the sleepy Sussex village of Blossom Heath with her tail between her legs and her dreams shattered. Donning her frilly apron to help her Mum, Joyce, behind the counter at The Cosy Cup Café, Tori starts to believe – with the help of a hunky fireman and a clowder of rescue cats - that perhaps the secret to her future happiness might lie closer to home than she ever thought possible.

It has been a long time since I have read a book with an uplifting cosy feel good vibe but that is exactly what I found in New Beginnings at the Cosy Cat Café by Julie Haworth. Now I admit I absolutely adore books that have start up businesses in them especially bakery and café ones so I kind of had an idea this book was going to be a winner for me before I even started the book.

Tori has been having an adventurous time travelling around Asia with partner Ryan when out of the blue he ends things between them. Tori heads home and with all her future plans now shattered she is at a loss until her mum offers her the opportunity to take over the Café and put her own stamp on the place. Touched by her time in Asia and the cat cafés she visited she has an idea that may also help other in the community of Blossom Heath.

I love that this book was set in Rye too as it is somewhere local so it makes this book feel so real and I found myself getting pulled into the excitement of Tori’s plans for the Cosy Cat Café. We get to see the hoops she has to go through to try and get her idea off the ground, with the support of those around her but also the reservations of others to deal with too.

Community spirit is certainly at the heart of this book and friendships old and new as well as a fizzing romance all help to make this book an absolute joy to read. It highlights that if we all work together a lot more than our actions and ideas can often help other people too.

This was certainly the perfect book at the purrrfect time for me.

Available to buy Here!

Joe Nuthin's Guide to Life by Helen Fisher

Today I am so excited to be able to share my review with you for this book as part of the blog tour because it is a book that really deserves to be shouted about.

Joe loves predictability. But his life is about to become a surprising adventure.

Joe-Nathan likes the two parts of his name separate, just like his dinner and dessert. Mean Charlie at work sometimes calls him Joe-Nuthin. But Joe is far from nothing. Joe is a good friend, he’s good at his job, good at making things and good at following the rules, and he’s learning how to do lots of things by himself.

Joe’s mother knows there are a million things in life he isn’t prepared for. While she helps guide him every day, she’s also writing notebooks full of advice about the things she hasn’t told Joe yet, things he might forget and answers to questions he hasn’t yet asked.

Following her wisdom – applying it in his own unique way – this next part of Joe’s life is more of a surprise than he expects. Because he’s about to learn that remarkable things can happen when you leave your comfort zone, and that you can do even the hardest things with a little help from your friends.

I have always stayed clear of the term “ a real page turner “ but this is exactly what this book is, I really feel like I have found a little gem with this book because baring in mind when I picked this up I had been in a reading slump and had DNF 8 books before reading it, the moment I picked this book up I literally did not stop turning the pages until I had reached the end.

I fail to see how the adorable Joe-Nathan will not touch everyone’s heart because he sure did capture mine. It felt like a privilege to be let into his world and see the world differently through his eyes and his mums words couldn’t have been more spot on “ Joe-Nuthin doesn’t have  a bad bone in his body”

Now I have read numerous books over the past two years where the main character has been neurodivergent but for me this book is on another level because this one really explores how Joe-Nathan’s brain is wired differently but shows how he navigates his day to day life with a big help from his mum in creating routines and boundaries as well as help from his Big blue book. His mum’s fear is Joe being left alone to cope when she is not around so she is keen to try and build new connections for him so he will never have to face this cruel and complex world alone.

There were times in this book where I had a lump in my throat and my heart broke especially at one point quite early on when I kind of expected what happened to happen but not quite so early on but there was also times when I was having a proper belly laugh too especially on the blow-job topic! There really is a real mix of emotions that we feel whilst reading this book.

I absolutely loved watching Joe-Nathan navigate making friendships some easy like with his fiercely loyal friend Chloe and others like mean Charlie who at the beginning you want nothing more than to ring the boys neck.

The storyline does show the rawness of some of the nasty ways people are treated but it also shows that sometimes although it is not acceptable at all there may actually be more than meets the eye.  

I can easily say this is one of my top reads of the year so far, one of the easiest 5 stars I have given and I also know that Joe-Nathan is going to stay in my heart forever. What an exceptional read.

 Available to buy here

Probably Nothing by Lauren Bravo

 

Today it is my stop on the blogtour for Probably Nothing by Lauren Bravo.

Bryony doesn't actually mind being single. So she doesn't understand why she keeps seeing (ok, sleeping with) Ed, who is perfectly fine, but also only okay. After developing the ick on their fifth date, she resolves to end things – only to receive a call the next day telling her Ed has died. 

Worse yet, he seems to have represented her to his family and friends as his great love. Obviously, it would be cruel to correct them. Then she's invited to the funeral. It would be equally rude to refuse... right? 
 
Before she knows it, Bryony has been drawn in by the charisma and chaos of Ed's eccentric family and tangled in a web of her own lies. She's been guilted into signing up to his sister's pyramid scheme, she's in far too deep with several of his nearest and dearest – and to make matters worse she's experiencing a lot of physical symptoms that are becoming harder and harder to ignore…

The start of Probably Nothing is actually quite funny as we are introduced to our main character Bryony who seems quite happily single, she has been loosely dating Ed for the past three months but after their last night together Bryony decides that she is going to call it a day.

When she receives an unexpected call from his family to tell her Ed has died and that they want to embrace her, the love of their beloved Ed's life she feels awkward and goes along with the assumption that she has lost her loving boyfriend!

I was cracking up at this point because I am a typical people pleaser so I can often find myself in awkward situations but wow Bryony really takes the biscuit and gets swept along with this one and before she knew it she was in so deep that there never seemed a safe place to extract herself from the situation.

As the book moved along the witty element fizzled out and it came a little more real in the issues the storyline explored, as expect grief features in this storyline but also many health issues too from fertility, anxiety and hypochondria to name a few.

We briefly get to know the supporting characters who are Ed's family and the book is actually split between Bryony and Ed sister in-law Kelly's POV so we get to know Kelly really well too and where Bryony is really soft and people pleasing, Kelly is more matter of fact.

I was so surprised to see my home town of Orpington crop up a couple of times in this book too it is weird how a small reference like that always makes me feel like I have more of a connection to the book!

This was a good read that wasn’t what I was expecting at all and just goes to show how awkward people pleasing can become!

Love Story by Lindsey Kelk

 

She’s a small-town schoolteacher, he’s a hotshot creative director. Together, it’s hate at first sight.

Sophie Taylor has a secret and Joe Walsh is the last person she'd tell. He’s devilishly handsome, incredibly hot – and far too sure of himself.

But Sophie desperately needs his help.

Because she's not just hiding something small. She is Este Cox, the mysterious romance author the entire world is desperate to unmask.

When a trip to the countryside means sharing a cottage with only one bed, it’s a short step to sharing a whole lot more besides… Can Sophie trust Joe with the truth – and be herself?

I am a huge Lindsey Kelk fan so I never hesitate in picking up her new release and I always go in blind not knowing what is awaiting me in the cover of her books other than an expected book of witty humour and a troubled romance. Her new release is Love Story is the perfect Summer read that had me chuckling away in the sunshine as I flew through this story in no time.

I loved the fact the storyline was wrapped around everything bookish, from book publishing characters, an author desperate to conceal her identity and a new bookshop launch so I was being absorbed into a world that intrigues me.

Our FMC is the lovely Sophie who was easy to warm to from early in the book and I could understand her reasons for wanting to keep her identity secret even if I knew the inevitable was going to happen at some point. Her love interest is the gorgeous Joe and he brings a splash of spice to the storyline and together they provide a few spicy scenes, sexual tension and some witty situations too my favourite being when Joe found himself in an unfortunate scenario with Sophie’s steamy auntie!

I absolutely loathed her brattish sister Charlotte and I was surprised to find myself coming around to her character a little at the end. I have to day I was a little jealous of her bookshop too! It looks at the incredible pressure people put on themselves when it comes to parents approval no matter what age we are we still hide things we know they may not approve of even into adulthood!

This books oozes Lindsey Kelks modern wit and romance, it is fast paced and engaging definitely one you will fly through this Summer.

Available to buy here.

The Love of my Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood

 

If she wasn’t dead already, Delphie would be dying of embarrassment. She’s entered the afterlife wearing the sort of pyjamas you don’t want anyone to see and finds herself face-to-face with the most handsome man she’s ever encountered. And he’s smiling at her.

As they start to chat, everything else becomes background noise – until someone comes running out of a door, yelling something about a huge mistake, and sends the dreamy stranger back down to earth.

In a twist of fate, Delphie is offered a deal in which she can return to her previous life and reconnect with the mysterious man she’s sure is her soulmate.

The challenge? She only has ten days to find him.

Ten days to make him fall for her.

Oh, and he has no recollection of them ever having met…
_______________

I loved Yours Truly by Kirsty Greenwood so I was excited to read another of her books and her new release The Love of My Afterlife sounded like a fresh take on a rom-com that was just what I needed.

We meet our FMC Delphi as she has just died after choking on a burger!

Yes, an unusual start to a novel and one I am sure none of us have come across before. As she is welcomed by her afterlife therapist she then meets Jonah and experiences a romantic connection she has never had in her life, could this be her soul mate?

Her meeting with him is short- lived though as Jonah is there in error and gets sent back to real life and Delphi makes a deal with her therapist to return to the living and find Jonah who will have no recollection of her and make him full for her and kiss her!

Yes this was a completely far-fetched storyline but that didn’t matter one iota, I loved every second of it. Delphi has never really lived life, she keeps herself to herself has no friends or boyfriends which was so sad considering what a lovely woman she is but this challenge made her push herself out of her comfort zone as she needed all the help she could get to complete her task but never did she anticipate that she may actually make some friends and maybe more along the way.

There were some funny bits here and there too which had me chuckling away and the old romantic in me really wanted Delphi to experience the perfect love story she deserved.

I loved that this storyline was so refreshing being unlike any I had read before as I have been moving more into Fantasy and Thriller recently with romance books all seeming to blend into one or being so full of smut that there is no storyline alongside it but this book has got me back to the romance that I always loved. This was light hearted, fast paced, witty and romantic all in one.

I could kind of see where the storyline was going to go but I still didn’t quite work out how the author was going to end the storyline and when the revelation was made I did have a little pull on the heart string, but it is certainly not a tear jerker so don’t be put off for those who do not like sad books ( as I know a few of you have asked this whilst I was reading)

This is a brilliant read by Kirsty Greenwood, she has brought my love of romance back.

The Chamber by Will Dean

 

Today it is my stop on  the blog tour for 

THE CHAMBER by WILL DEAN!

HIGH PRESSURE OUTSIDE
On a boat heading out into the North Sea, Ellen Brooke steels herself to spend almost a month locked inside a hyperbaric chamber with five other divers. They are all being paid handsomely for this work - to be lowered each day inside a diving bell to the sea bed, taking it in turns to dive down and repair oil pipes that lie in the dark waters. It is a close knit team and it has to be: any error or loss of trust could be catastrophic.

EXTREME PRESSURE INSIDE
All is going to plan until one of the divers is found unresponsive in his bunk. He hadn't left the chamber. It will take four more days of decompression, locked away together, before the hatch can be opened. Four more days of bare steel, intrusive thoughts, and the constant struggle not to give way to panic. Mind games, exhaustion, suspicion, and, most of all, pressure. And if someone does unlock the door, everyone dies...

After discovering Will Dean last year when I read The Last Passenger I was so intrigued by his new release The Chamber which follows 6 divers as they set off for a month undersea for work and I was taken in by the chilling by line on the front which said 

Six Divers,

Deep Underwater,

Who Will Come out Alive?

Now you tell me that line alone doesn't have you intrigued!

This was a whole new world to me as I know nothing at all about sat diving and it is evidently clear that this author has undertook an extreme amount of research in this topic but I am thankful for him for putting a helpful glossary at the start listing all the different terminology that is used otherwise I think this book would have gone a little over my head!

The one word that I am sure is going to come up time and time again in the review for this book is claustrophobic and that is because it best represents the feeling of this storyline, from the minute the first diver was found unresponsive my mind straight away shouts get me out! That was where we learn there is no quick get out because if they don't go through decompression then they will die anyway! They are trapped in hell.

The storyline was a little slow burn in places with the divers back stories being used for conversation but not really feeling like it had any impact to the story however it takes some skill to write a whole book set in one confined area with only so much you can make happen and still hold the readers attention right to the end.

The storyline is told by Ellen's POV who is one of the divers, the only female amongst the team of divers. We only see events through her eyes and I can honestly say I had no suspicions about any of the divers because I couldn't see any clues to put anyone in the firing line. There was one unexpected revelation that came to light that took me by surprise at the midpoint of this book which came at the right time to pull my attention back in.

This was a well researched plot that kept me in the dark the whole way through, it didn't knock The Last Passenger off of the top spot but it was still a intriguing read.

Bring Me Sunshine By Alex Brown

 

Gina Bennett has had enough after her husband of twenty-seven years lets her down one time too many. Deciding to choose herself, she embarks on a transformative solo journey to break free from the monotony of her life.

She escapes to the gorgeous Greek island of Kalosiros, where she holidayed in her youth, and where she had her first romance with the handsome Nico. Encountering two kindred spirits in Rosie and Deedee, the women bond over art classes and cocktails, renewing their lust for life and a shared quest to find Gina's lost love.

Together, they navigate the challenges of middle-age, self-discovery, and the liberating power of skinny-dipping. Will Gina find love again with her teenage sweetheart Nico, her husband, or with someone new?

Bring Me Sunshine is the latest book by Alex Brown and she takes us back to her feel good rom com that first introduced us to this author. 

With cracks in their marriage Gina and husband Colin are due to go on a long awaited holiday to Greece but at the last minute Colin declares he is unable to go due to work commitments little did he expect that Gina would decide to still go on the holiday without him!

Gina finds herself wrapped up in happy cherished memories of her youth and with the help of her two new friend Deedee and Rosie she is on a mission to reconnect with her first love.

This is perfect easy holiday reading which I have devoured in a matter of hours as I lay around the pool. With a Shirley Valentine vibe to the storyline this book is full of friendship, rediscovering youth and a touch of romance too wrapped up in a number of witty moments thanks to Gina and her friends.

This certainly had an appealing setting for a holiday read with the glorious sunkissed Greek setting and mouth-watering delights on offer. 

Although a light and uplifting read this book also does explore toxic relationships too and shows the power of a strong supportive friendship in these situations. It shows us that as we grow older and we begin to doubt ourselves and put ourselves down there is always time to find that fire in your belly and know that your still that same girl inside it's time to let her out to play!

I have enjoyed all of Alex Brown’s previous books but I definitely prefer her lighter romance coms as they are pure escapism with lashing of hope and humour which is what I loved in this book.