The Night Before Christmas by Scarlett Bailey

We have had quite a few entries for our Best Christmas 2011 Book, many of the authors I have previously read before but we have got a new author who has entered and she has entered with a bang! I am sure you all see the package which arrived on my doorstep containing the book. It truely felt like Christmas opening the package to find the book which was placed in little snowballs and snowflake confetti with a miniature Baileys and a box of chocolates. Surely this is any woman’s perfect Christmas present sending you weak at the knee’s! One thing I know you will want to know though Is the book as good as the package?

Plot
All Lydia’s ever wanted is a perfect Christmas…
So when her oldest friends invite her to spend the holidays with them, it seems like the answer to her dreams. She’s been promised log fires, roasted chestnuts, her own weight in mince pies; all in a setting that looks like something out of a Christmas card.
However, her winter wonderland is about to be ruined by the ghosts of boyfriends past, present and potential future. She’s snowed in with her current boyfriend, her old flame and a hunky stranger. Well, three (wise) men is traditional at this time of year...

My Opinion
I snuggled up to read The Night Before Christmas by Scarlett Bailey, with my Baileys coffee and my box of chocolates and I got lost in the book!

Putting the package aside and focusing now on the book I have to say the cover does give a festive feel and the title of the book couldn’t have been more perfect. One thing I have noticed with many Christmas books is just because they have a festive cover doesn’t always mean the story has the same festive feel to it but I am happy to say that this was not the case with this book.

The story is set over the week of Christmas and Scarlett Bailey sets the scene for us with a group of friends celebrating Christmas together in a remote setting and being snowed in already giving us that cosy feeling. This is a traditional realistic Christmas feel to this book rather than the magical Christmas feeling.

There is a real mix of characters in The Night Before Christmas and I have to say it must be the first book I have read where I have liked each and every one of them. Sure they all have their bad moments where we can hear the pantomime boo in the background but because all of the characters are developed so well we just have the attitude that well everyone makes mistakes and HEY its Christmas so we can forgive and forget!
Lydia who is our main character is very down to earth giving that girl next door feel and although she seems to have men dropping at her feet we still feel sorry for her situation. The mix of male characters is very generous in this book so ladies there is a man for each of us hidden in this book. For me this has everything a book needs for a full 5 star rating.

The pace of this book flows nicely with the storyline getting off to a fast pace. For me The Night Before Christmas is a real contender in our Competition despite this being Scarlett Bailey’s debut book. For any men reading this review you are on to a winner if you wrap this up for your partner this Christmas!

The Night Before Christmas Publication date is 27th October so go ahead and pre-order your copy now!.
If you would like to have the chance to win the same package which arrived on my doorstep then head over to  Scarlett's facebook page

You can follow Scarlett Bailey on twitter @ScarlettBailey
or on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Scarlett-Bailey/114529108652745
Pre-order your copy here

Post Box

I have been sitting here writing my review for Scarlett Bailey's book The Night Before Christmas when I had the lovely sound of the postman knocking on ( or should I say knocking down!!) the door.
Look what we have !!!

We have two more entries to our Christmas 2011 book competition Miranda Dickinson It started with a Kiss, and The Jewels of Manhattan by Carmen Reid. Wow I am glad the competition is not based just on the cover as this would be a real hard decision to make as all the entries so far have such a beautiful festive feel to them. 


Now don't worry if all this festive talk is all coming a bit too quick for you as Shirley Benton has come to your rescue by letting us have a copy of her book Looking for Leon.
thank you to the authors and the publishers for sending us the advanced copies.


SO ladies what review are you most looking forward to......

Friday Night With The Girls by Shari Low

I have just finished reading Friday Night With The Girls by Shari Low which is due for release in paperback on the 13th October. I am sure some of you have heard of Shari Low and that is because she has two weekly columns at the Daily Record newspaper. Obviously a lady with a great way with words I was expecting a great read but I wasn’t quite prepared for what I got!


Plot
You should write it all down, Lou, so that your daughter can understand what happened. Everything, Right from the start.'
Lou Cairney's life has never been dull. But through twenty years of ups, downs and really bad hairstyles, Lou has had the best friends a woman could hope for in Lizzy and Ginger. Growing up together, they shared their dreams and their disasters, broken hearts and career crashes and they survived it all thanks to love, hope and a large dollop of humour. And cocktails. Lots of cocktails. Until now. Lou needs her friends more than ever because her past has just caught up with her in a shocking way. Everyone makes mistakes in life - but Lou has just discovered that she might have made the biggest one of all..


My Opinion
When I read the synopsis to this book I knew it was going to be the kind of book I would enjoy and I also thought I knew a couple of scenarios as to what had happened in the past had come back to bite Lou on the bum... I was wrong. There is a twist in this book which I was not expecting and to say I was shocked was an understatement.

The structure of this book works well for this kind of storyline. When we first meet the girls they are meeting up for their Friday Girls Night at The St Kentigern Hotel, the story then jumps back in time to when the girls were growing up together and we get to follow along on the girls journey growing up together. Each chapter alternates between the present day in the hotel and then back to a pivotal point in their lives. Shari Low has been very clever in structuring this book in this way as by doing this we feel as if we really know each one of the girls, well I for one felt like I was one of the girls, and this is important for when we get to the twist in the book as we feel as if we are there with them and so feel the emotions that the girls would be feeling.

The storyline is very realistic and each of the girls although they all have very different characteristics they all felt like genuine people. The way that Shari Low brings across the friendship between these girls is beautiful and she manages to balance the three girls perfectly without one feeling pushed out. The book continues at a great pace and at no point during the book did I feel the book start to dull on me.

I felt every emotion possible whilst reading this book, there were times when I laughed out loud, but equally there were times where I had a lump in my throat, this book is truly a touching read.
This is definitely one for your to be read list and I will be looking forward to the next Shari Low book.

Pre-order your copy here for a great price

When Tomorrow Comes by Joanna Lambert

I have just finished reading the first book in the Behind Blue Eyes Trilogy by Joanna Lambert. After reading When Tomorrow Comes I have a sudden urge to watch Heartbeat!!


Plot
1967: When eighteen-year-old Ella Kendrick moves to the Somerset town of Abbotsbridge to live with her mother Melissa and stepfather Liam she is looking forward to getting to know someone who has been absent from her life for eleven years. Ella is intrigued by this glamorous, fashionable woman and hopes she holds the key to many unanswered questions about her childhood. However, living in the Carpenter household does not turn out to be the idyllic experience Mel has promised her daughter. Scheming and manipulative she has specific plans for Ella. Plans which do not include boyfriend Niall O’Farrell left behind in the village where she grew up with her grandparents, or the university place she hopes for.

After Ella loses Niall to her best friend and her career aspirations have been trimmed to a college course, ambitious Mel puts her main plan into action - finding her daughter a wealthy boyfriend. In doing this, she is looking for a marriage which will give her the right connections and help her own social advancement in the town.

But Mel’s plan stalls when on a cold January evening, local nightclub owner’s son Matt Benedict unexpectedly walks into Ella’s life.

Ella knows she will have to fight to stay with Matt, branded as most unsuitable by her mother; but it is not just Mel she is up against. Matt’s mother Faye has her own reasons for parting them, as does Andy Macayne, the rich, self-indulgent young man Mel hopes her daughter will eventually marry.

WHEN TOMORROW COMES is the first book in the Behind Blue Eyes Trilogy. Ella and Matt’s journey is about to begin………

My Opinion
The first book in this trilogy starts of back in the 60’s (the good ole days!) J.Lambert manages to bring this across to the reader in many minor points such as the change from the long skirts to the mini- skirts and also having to walk to a pay phone to phone boyfriends because of course in the 60’s teenagers didn’t have mobile phones glued to their ears!

I love the way J.Lambert uses her descriptive writing skills which brought the little village of Meridan Cross to life giving us the feel of being part of the close knit village. We are also given every type of love interest we need with the bad boy, the quiet boy and the ladies man but all the way through I never quiet knew who Ella was going to sway more towards in the end and even now I have finished the first book I am still wondering if there may be a change in direction when it comes to Ella’s love life.

There are a real mix of characters in this book each one completely different to the next . I do feel like I was a little over whelmed by the amount of characters in this book and I did get a few muddled up each time which would have me a little worried if this was a standalone book but my feeling is that as we progress to the second book we will be more familiar with the characters as we meet them again.

I did find that all of the main characters in this book were all well developed characters. I found that each of the characters where very realistic people in realistic situations which made the book a real page turner.
I will defiantly be reading the next book in the trilogy to see what path our lovely Ella’s life is going to take.

Knowing Me Knowing You by Mandy Baggot

Knowing Me Knowing you is the second book I have read by Mandy Baggot. The previous book Breaking the Ice was an enjoyable read but in my opinion after reading Knowing Me Knowing you this book is on a totally different level.

Plot
KNOWING ME KNOWING YOU - BRING ON THE LOVE! Recently single mother Kate is struggling. Clinging on to a career and bringing up her 2 year old daughter leads to nights alone drowning her sorrows in the cheapest white wine she can find. Forced to employ Joel, a male escort, to accompany her to a professionals' dinner, Kate somehow ends up in the middle of a relationship contest, competing for a £100,000 prize alongside someone she barely knows. With her boss, the Lady Dragon Miranda, desperate for Kate to flounder, her tarot card reading child-minder trying to match-make and her ex-husband making her life a misery, can Kate keep her life on an even keel? And more importantly can she put her trust in a serial dater who used to be an underwear model?


My Opinion
Our leading lady in this book is Kate who is an easy character to warm. After just a couple of chapters we realise how hard Kate is finding juggling her work with looking after her daughter and getting over her ex-husband so from the start of this book you cannot help but sympathise with her character. Baggot gives us enough information to set the scene for this characters background with out over doing it and making it a chore to read. Kate story starts to unwind as we read on through the book until it is time to see if she can turn her life around and start enjoying and living life again.

Having just read what I have written so far about my opinion for this book it sounds as though this is a really deep and meaningful book which is true but it doesn’t feel like that when you are reading this book as there is a large amount of humour in this book to which manages to keep the book on a light hearted track. I mean who has ever known an author start a book with the first line "bird poo and porridge were basically one and the same thing"!.

How can I review this book without mentioning the best part and that is Joel (Rea goes all dreamy!) When we are first introduced to Joel via the escort agency I was sure he was going to be a sleaze ball but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I think Joel is every woman’s ideal man and his character had to be my favourite!

It was a pleasure to read this book and see how Mandy Baggot is growing as an author, there is clearly a different style of writing in this book compared to Breaking the Ice, and she manages to keep you interested all the way through the book. The only downside to this book is the cover, this is defiantly one of these books where the saying "Don't judge a book by its cover " comes to mind.

I would defiantly recommend this book and I cannot wait to read Mandy Baggot’s up and coming release Strings Attached which is released in November with the Launch starting on the 1st November check out Mandy’s blog for more information http://mandybaggot.webs.com/newbookstringsattached.htm

Vampire in Denial by Dale Mayer

Well you all know I love my chick lit books but I am a secret Young Adult fiction fan. After reading so many Chick Lit books recently I needed a little change so I decided to try Vampire in Denial by Dale Mayer. This is the first book in the Blood Ties series. When I read up on the author I was surprised at the range of books that she has wrote from Young adult to romance and even Non-fiction.


Plot
Blood doesn't just make her who she is...it also makes her what she is.


Like being a sixteen-year-old vampire isn't hard enough, Tessa's throwback human genes make her an outcast among her relatives. But try as she might, she can't get a handle on the vampire lifestyle and all the...blood.


Turning her back on the vamp world, she embraces the human teenage lifestyle—high school, peer pressure and finding a boyfriend. Jared manages to stir something in her blood. He's smart and fun and oh, so cute. But Tessa's dream of a having the perfect boyfriend turns into a nightmare when vampires attack the movie theatre and kidnap her date.


Once again, Tessa finds herself torn between the human world and the vampire one. Will blood own out? Can she make peace with who she is as well as what?

My Opinion
The main character in this book was Tessa and for a half vampire she is very down to earth and normal. She is still in her teens and she is experiencing what most teenagers experience and that is the feeling of not fitting in but for poor Tessa there is nothing she can do about it as it is part of who she is, she belongs to two different worlds.
I love that the storyline is dark and thrilling but yet Mayer still manages to bring in that little bit of romance to keep us women interested!

The story was easy to follow and made for a quick read ( I have finished this in an afternoon).
The book chops and changes between Tessa, Cody and Jared’s point of views which helps us to get an all around view on what is going on and makes it easier for us to understand what is going on.

I loved this book and found it very hard to put down... oh wait I didn’t put it down! But one thing DALE MAYER!! What are you doing to me!! I was so engrossed in the story, I was all tense and then it ended! I could almost hear the To Be Continued in my mind! I am so glad there is a follow on to this book but I am just not sure how long I can wait to find out what happens next now that the ending has left us with a twist rather than a happy ever after!

I would definitely recommend this to any Young Adult fans and I for one will be reading the sequel to this book.

Until The End Of Forever by Shannon Hart

When Shannon Hart’s Until The End Of Forever arrived in my post box I instantly fell in love with the cover of the book. It creates a very romantic setting giving us a little treat for what the book has in store for us. The cover couldn’t be more appropriate for this book. This is my second book I am reading as part of the Chick lit Plus book tour.

Plot
When Sarah Matthews keeps having recurring nightmares she begins to psycho-analyse herself in an attempt to find the reason behind them. After all, she has a perfect marriage; two beautiful children; a part-share in a little business; and everything in the world she could possibly wish for. She is totally content...or is she? Could her life be just a little too perfect?
Over a friendly luncheon, Sarah suddenly has stirrings of envy for the total freedom she can no longer enjoy; and when the opportunity is offered her to go to Paris for a month to work with a photographer on the production of a series of Coffee Table books, she decides to go off and find herself. However, in the wake of tragedy she is called back home again, only to find upon her return that the relationship between her and her husband rapidly begins to deteriorate.


Very much aimed at the feminine reader, this is a lovely story, and one to which very few will be unable to relate.

My Opinion
I love the way the author changes each chapter between Sarah and Robs perspectives as this gave us a true insight into both of the characters true feelings. The first part of the novel is told by many flashbacks to earlier points in their relationship which gives the reader a feel for how close they are as a couple and how perfect their relationship has always been, but it soon becomes clear that a perfect relationship doesn’t last forever you need to expect a few bumpy rides!

I did think it was a little extreme when Sarah decided she needed time to find herself she had to go all the way to Paris to do it leaving her children behind, but then I have to remember this is fiction. The book was a very pleasant, quick and romantic read at only 209 pages long which allowed me to finish it in an evening.

I would recommend this to any fans of chick lit who are looking for something romantic but not too challenging. This is a sweet and romantic read which you will enjoy although I don’t think it is one that you will keep on your book shelf to read again.

The lovely Shannon Hart now joins us and is willing to answer some questions for us.
1. Your book had a very romantic feel to it. Do you consider yourself a true romantic and were your characters based on people you know?
I do consider myself a romantic actually. I'm pretty much the surprise-giving, candle-light-dining, getaway-for-two kind of woman. Unfortunately though, the life has been laid out for me lately with 2 kids, a full time job and a busy husband, it hasn't left me much time to plan exciting things. But every now and then, my husband and I make sure we do date night and get alone time. The characters were based on bits and pieces of people I know for sure. Like Lucy was partially based on my sister-in-law who really is a graphic designer (an awesome one in fact), and Mark partially mimics my own brother. He's a musician too but just hasn't gone into it as a career. So, bits and pieces I would say.

2. Are you currently working on a new book or do you have any plans for a new book you can share with us?
I have finished the writing and editing process of my second book actually and I am so excited about it. It has a different feel from Until the End of Forever and I really hope people love it. It's set in a small town that I'd actually love to live in. I'll be able to share more about it in the coming months.

3. What authors inspire you?
Three authors I've loved for a very long time are Meg Cabot, Cecelia Aherns and Dorothy Koomson. But the first few authors to inspire me were Francine Pascal and Beverly Cleary.

4. What was the last book you finished reading and what are your thoughts on it?
The last book I read was actually Tina Fey's Bossypants. I'm not big on reading biographies but hey, this was Tina Fey. I thought her book was hilarious but touching at the same time. It's so different from the other (few) biographies I've read. I think Tina Fey is awesome.

5. If you were stuck on a desert Island what would be your 3 must have items?
Wow, are you sure I only get to bring 3 items? I'm not really famous for packing light... My husband can verify that... :) But probably my iPad, my curling iron and my favorite pair of denim cut off shorts.


Thankyou so much to Shannon Hart for taking your time to chat to us over at Rea Book Reviews and for the chance to read your book.
If this sounds like your kind of book then head over and get your copy below ...


Shannon Hart Until The End Of Forever on Kindle
Shannon Hart Until The End Of Forever Paperback

Even better if you buy yourself a copy head over to Shannon Hart Amazon $10 gift card with your receipt to be in with a chance of winning a $10 amazon voucher.