The Accidental Inheritance – Blog Tour – Book Review

Title:- The Accidental Inheritance

Author:- Cate Woods

Date published:- 27th March 2023

No. of pages:- 305 pages

Publisher:- Bookouture

Genre:- Romance

Rating:-

Plot:- 5/5

Writing:- 5/5

A surprise inheritance. A hostile lord of the manor. A chance at a new beginning…?

When Cassidy Beeswhistle loses her job and her boyfriend within seconds of each other, it’s time for a change. Discovering her beloved late father’s connection to a tiny English village, it seems like the perfect place to start again. Especially because there’s a secret ‘lost deed’, which – if found – would return the village’s gorgeous manor house to its rightful heir: Cassidy…

On arrival in Dithercott, Cassidy is blown away by the rolling hills and glittering lake, and the local villagers welcome her with open arms – all of them but one, that is… The current lord of the manor, Ned Bamford-Bligh, is tall and fiendishly attractive with his olive skin and jet-black hair, but he is also gruff and standoffish – and he has no interest in entertaining the new girl in the village; especially one who is potentially after his home, with its ivy-covered turrets and sprawling gardens.

Despite Ned’s frosty welcome, Cassidy is drawn to his piercing, hazel-eyed glare and she’s determined she is to uncover the demons that keep him locked away behind the manor’s imposing stonework. Before she knows it, an undeniable spark builds between them…

Just as Cassidy is feeling at home in Dithercott – and in the arms of Ned – he shows up on her doorstep clutching an old roll of parchment. Is this the discovery she’s been waiting for? And if it is, will its contents bring Ned and Cassidy closer together, or push them apart…?

A heart-warming, laugh-out-loud story of home, friendship, family and finding love in the most unlikely of places. The perfect curl-up read for fans of Sarah Morgan, Milly Johnson and Jenny Colgan.

This is such a unique book that I found myself enjoying reading this book.

An ancestor gambled away his house and then fled to America…and then many years later, Cassidy Beewhistle returns to claim this house that once belonged to her ancestor. But when Cassidy and her daughter Nora comes to England, they realized that a lot of work needs to be done not to mention the fact that there are people in that small town, who are not so thrilled that a Beewhistle is back in the scene!

This is the third book I have read from Cate Woods and I have to say, this was entirely a unique setting which I found myself enjoying reading it. I do like how Cassidy is slowly getting used to living in the quiet countryside and the British way of life. I do also like the community and how the community is reaching out to Cassidy helping out each other. I also like how Ned, the lord of the enemy manor initially didn’t get along with Cassidy and soon blossomed into something else…overall, I really loved reading this book! The writing was great, and the reader felt like a part of the story while reading through this book. I like nearly all the characters in the book and the descriptions of the inn, the countryside made me feel like I was in that small town with Cassidy.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read and worth five stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. Thank you Bookouture for making me a part of this blog tour and inviting me to review the book. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Cate Woods made the most of her university degree in Anglo-Saxon Literature by embarking on a career making tea on programmes including The Big Breakfast, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and French & Saunders. After narrowly missing out on the chance to become a Channel 5 weather girl, she moved into the world of magazine journalism, then ghostwriting and now writes novels under her own name. She has written two best-selling romantic comedies – Just Haven’t Met You Yet and More Than a Feeling – and a festive novel, The Christmas Guest, under the name Daisy Bell. Cate lives in London with her husband and two children.

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Five Survive – Book Review

Title:- Five Survive

Author:- Holly Jackson

Date published:- November 29th 2022

No. of pages:- 391 pages

Genre:- Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 4/5

Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4/5

The brand new unmissable crime thriller from Holly Jackson, best-selling, award-winning author of the Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy.

Eight hours.
Six friends.
One sniper . . .

Eighteen year old Red and her friends are on a road trip in an RV, heading to the beach for Spring Break. It’s a long drive but spirits are high. Until the RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere. There’s no mobile phone reception and nobody around to help. And as the wheels are shot out, one by one, the friends realise that this is no accident. There’s a sniper out there in the dark watching them and he knows exactly who they are. One of the group has a secret that the sniper is willing to kill for.

A game of cat-and-mouse plays out as the group desperately tries to get help and to work out which member of the group is the target. Buried secrets are forced to light in the cramped, claustrophobic setting of the RV, and tensions within the group will reach deadly levels. Not everyone will survive the night.

Holly Jackson is…an incredible writer! So I was super excited to get my hands on her latest novel (I am yet to read the third and final book of Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series yet) and I finally did!

But…this wasn’t as great as Good Girl’s Guide to Murder but it was good.

Six friends–Red, Maddy, Simon, Arthur and Maddy’s brother Oliver and his girlfriend Reyna are going ton a road trip, driving all the way from Philadelphia to Gulf shores. The exciting night soon turned to be a nightmare, when they took a detour and ended up on a wrong road…and a sniper waiting to take one of them down–the one with the secret.

The first part of the book was slightly boring but then it started getting its momentum by the middle of the book. I do like that there are twists and turns in the book, makes you wonder, which of these characters do have a secret that the sniper is talking about. Who could be working with the sniper? I felt like I was watching some action thriller on the TV while reading this book–I was literally engrossed into the book. But as I said earlier, despite the fact that I think it was a good thriller, A Good Girl’s Guide to me would be her best.

I like the fact that the story is entirely told from Red who is dealing with her mother’s death POV. I didn’t like Oliver at all in the book–too egoistic and very unlikable character in my opinion. This will keep you on the edge and you feel like you are watching a cat and mouse chase game–worth four stars!

The Corset – Book Review

Title-; The Corset

Author:- Laura Purcell

Date published:- September 20th 2018

No. of pages:- 392 pages

Genre:- Historical Fiction/Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 5/5

Writing:- 5/5

Overall rating:- 5/5

The new Victorian chiller from the author of Radio 2 Book Club pick, The Silent Companions.

Is prisoner Ruth Butterham mad or a murderer? Victim or villain?

Dorothea and Ruth. Prison visitor and prisoner. Powerful and powerless. Dorothea Truelove is young, wealthy and beautiful. Ruth Butterham is young, poor and awaiting trial for murder.

When Dorothea’s charitable work leads her to Oakgate Prison, she is delighted with the chance to explore her fascination with phrenology and test her hypothesis that the shape of a person’s skull can cast a light on their darkest crimes. But when she meets teenage seamstress Ruth, she is faced with another theory: that it is possible to kill with a needle and thread. For Ruth attributes her crimes to a supernatural power inherent in her stitches.

The story Ruth has to tell of her deadly creations – of bitterness and betrayal, of death and dresses – will shake Dorothea’s belief in rationality and the power of redemption.

Can Ruth be trusted? Is she mad, or a murderer?

This is the first book I have read from this author. Recently, I came across this book on Instagram that the plot of the story intrigued me. So I got the book and…I wasn’t disappointed!

The story is set during the Victorian era in the 1800’s England and is based on two women–Dorothea and Ruth. Dorothea, daughter of a wealthy man works with the women who is imprisoned for crimes they have committed. Dorothea meets Ruth, a young girl accused of murder and possibly put to death by hanging if she found guilty. As Dorothea gets to know about Ruth, we get a glimpse of hardships that many people, like Ruth.

This was engaging thriller. You wouldn’t be bored and to me the most interesting reading was when I was reading Ruth’s part. Ruth’s part made me sad–the hardships she faced during her childhood, when she was sent to work at a Mrs. Metyard to pay off her mother’s debts, the brutal treatment that Ruth experienced while working under Mrs. Metyard were at times disturbing to read. The author did a good job of making the book as realistic as possible, taking the reader to the 1800’s England. The ending will make you literally cry. The writing was really engaging and by reading this book, you could see the huge gap between the rich and poor during that time–learned so much about what life was really like back then.

This also had an air of creepiness in it, kind of gothic too, so if you are looking for a thriller with that kind of setting, you should certainly most try out this book. Worth five stars!

Laura Purcell is a former bookseller and lives in Colchester with her husband and pet guinea pigs.

Her first novel for Raven Books THE SILENT COMPANIONS won the WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award 2018 and featured in both the Zoe Ball and Radio 2 Book Clubs. Other Gothic novels include THE CORSET (THE POISON THREAD in USA), BONE CHINA and THE SHAPE OF DARKNESS (2020)

Laura’s historical fiction about the Hanoverian monarchs, QUEEN OF BEDLAM and MISTRESS OF THE COURT, was published by Myrmidon.

The Cuban Daughter – Blog Tour – ARC book Review

Title:- The Cuban Daughter

Author:- Soraya Lane

Date published:- 24th March 2023

Publisher:- Bookouture

No. of pages:- 290 pages

Genre:- Historical Fiction/Romance

Rating:-

Plot:- 5/5

Writing:- 5/5

Overall rating:- 5/5

As Esmeralda moved past Christopher, her breath stifled as he caught her finger in his. It was only a split-second, their fingers intertwined in a hold so brief that no one could have possibly noticed, but it told her everything she needed to know. He didn’t just come to see Cuba. He travelled all this way to see me.

Havana, 1950. As the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Cuba and regarded as the most beautiful girl in Havana, Esmeralda knows the importance of marrying well for her family. But when her father takes her on a business trip to London, she falls in love with a young merchant named Christopher.

When Christopher is invited to visit her father’s sugar farm, Esmeralda knows that they must keep their love affair hidden at all costs. But when the country falls into revolution, Esmeralda is faced with an impossible choice – flee to America with her family or follow her heart and travel to London to be with Christopher. But Esmeralda has been keeping a secret from her family for months, and her decision will have devastating consequences.

London, present day. Claudia is rebuilding her life and following her passion of restoring unloved houses back to their former glory. But when her mother asks for her help in tracking down her grandmother’s history, her curiosity is piqued. Her only clue is a family crest, which she learns is for the Diaz family, once one of the wealthiest dynasties in Cuba. Impulsively Claudia books a ticket to Havana, feeling sure in her heart that she will be able to uncover her family’s true story.

Arriving in the bustling and vibrant city she meets a young man named Mateo, a chef who loves nothing more than to cook his family’s recipes. As they get to know each other over dinner, Mateo says that his grandfather used to work for the Diaz family and he too wants to uncover what happened.

But when they arrive at the Diaz family home, they find it completely abandoned as if preserved in time from the 1950s. It’s not long before they uncover a heartbreaking story about her family, who were forced to leave everything they had ever known. As she becomes closer to Mateo, will her family’s story of sacrifice convince Claudia to leave behind her own home and follow her heart to Cuba?

This is the second book of the Daughter series. Although I haven’t read the first book, the Italian Daughter, this book, the Cuban Daughter, can be read as a standalone.

The story starts with Claudia in UK during the present day when her mother asks her to track down her grandmother’s ancestry. When Claudia finds out a arm of crest, she realizes that it belonged to a wealthy family named Diaz in Cuba who was beyond family in the 1950’s before Castro came to power. To find answers to the questions, Claudia travels to Cuba and meets interesting people including Mateo where she learns about Esmeralda, the beautiful daughter of Diaz.

In 1950, Esmeralda Diaz while on a business trip with her father to London meets Christopher Dutton. The two embarks on a romantic relationship although Esmeralda’s father will never approve of their relationship.

I was truly mesmerized with the whole story that I simply couldn’t put the book down. I felt like I was transported to Cuba, learning about the Cuban culture and cuisine and I do like how the time line shift between Claudia and Esmeralda. I also like blossoming romance between Claudia and Mateo as well and also Esmeralda and Christopher. I do like the ending as well.

So overall, this is an emotional and heartbreaking novel that will keep you hooked till the end and strongly recommend to try this novel out! Worth five stars!

Thank you Bookouture for making a part of the blog tour and many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Buy link: https://geni.us/B0BGQGC7YBsocial

About the author

Soraya Lane graduated with a law degree before realising that law wasn’t the career for her and that her future was in writing. She is the author of historical and contemporary women’s fiction, including the #1 Kindle bestselling novels The Last Correspondent and The Secrets We Left Behind. 

Soraya lives on a small farm in her native New Zealand with her husband, their two young sons and a collection of four legged friends. When she’s not writing, she loves to be outside playing make-believe with her children or snuggled up inside reading.

 

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Her – ARC Book Review

Title:- Her

Author:- Mira V Shah

Date published:- will be published on 23rd March 2023

Publisher:- Hodder

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 4/5

Writing:- 3/5

Overall rating:- 3.5/5

YOU WATCH HER. YOU WANT TO BE JUST LIKE HER. BUT DO YOU REALLY KNOW HER?

Rani’s life is far from idyllic – with two small children and a partner in a tiny rented flat that has never felt like home, she has always wished for a different life.

Then, Natalie moves into the large house across the road – and Rani can’t help but be drawn to her. To her life of luxury, to her perfect husband, her perfect house.

But not all is as it seems behind closed doors, and as Rani gets closer to Natalie, she discovers everyone has secrets – and some will stay with you for a lifetime . . .

A darkly compelling, emotive debut about two women who find themselves sucked into each other’s worlds – with devastating consequences. Perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty and Sally Hepworth.

Rani seem to be leading a lonely life with a husband and two children until Natalie moves next door to her house. The two women form an unlikely friendship and secrets are shared between them. To me initially, it started out a little boring but I felt in the middle of the book it got interesting. This was a slow paced thriller with some twists, the story mainly told from Rani’s and Natalie’s point of view. The ending in my opinion was good which raised my rating to 3.5 stars. Overall this was a good thriller–worth 3.5 stars. Many thanks to Netgalley and Hodder for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

The School Trip – ARC Book Review

Title:- The School Trip

Author:- Miranda Smith

Date published:- will be published on 13th April 2023

Publisher:- Bookouture

No. of pages:- 280 pages

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 5/5

Writing:- 5/5

Overall rating:- 5/5

I race across the fields in the gathering dusk. “Claire!” I cry, hearing my voice echo. “Claire!”

Every October, the school where I work takes a trip to a local farm, to pet the animals and search for the perfect Halloween pumpkin. This year is even more special, as my daughter Claire is coming. She’s so excited, and we really need some fun time together after what we’ve been through.

But the day turns dark when one of the children goes missing. I leave Claire safe with another teacher to join the search, desperately scouring the fields and playgrounds. When at last we find little Katy, lost in the corn maze, I am light-headed with relief.

I return to the rest of the group to hug my daughter tight. But Claire is nowhere to be seen.

Whoever took her waited till I was distracted. Whoever took her must be someone I know.

But who could want to punish me this badly? Is it linked to the night I refuse to think about, the night my husband died?

I’ll do anything to get my daughter back. But if the truth comes out, I might already have lost her…

The story start with a field trip to a pumpkin patch–Emma who is a kindergarten teacher along with her daughter Claire goes to the school trip. As the trip is nearing to an end, a girl goes missing first and Emma being a responsible teacher starts looking for the girl, leaving her daughter behind with other teachers. As the girl was found and the crowd start leaving the premises, Emma realizes someone else also goes missing–her daughter had gone missing.

This was actually a really good thriller! Though it started out a little slow, it started gaining momentum towards the middle of the book when Claire was kidnapped. I was then hooked into the story. There are some twists, the story itself was fast paced and engaging. Did one of the teachers kidnap Claire? Secrets are revealed showing true color of the characters making nearly everyone in the story a suspect. The ending of the story was unexpected. This was the third book I have read from this author and I have to say, I really start enjoying reading her thrillers.

If you are looking for a thriller with child abduction as a theme, a thriller that is a page turner and unputdownable, then this book is one for you–worth five stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Most Anticipated Books for Spring

New exciting books seem to be releasing in the months of Spring…so what are the books that you are highly anticipating for the release?

Here’s my list

  1. The Wind Know My Name – Isabel Allende

This powerful and moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea weaves together past and present, tracing the ripple effects of war and immigration on one child in Europe in 1938 and another in the United States in 2019.

Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler was six years old when his father disappeared during Kristallnacht—the night their family lost everything. Samuel’s mother secured a spot for him on the last Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to the United Kingdom, which he boarded alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin.

Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Diaz, a blind seven-year-old girl, and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. However, their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination she created with her sister back home.

Anita’s case is assigned to Selena Duran, a young social worker who enlists the help of a promising lawyer from one of San Francisco’s top law firms. Together they discover that Anita has another family member in the United States: Leticia Cordero, who is employed at the home of now eighty-six-year-old Samuel Adler, linking these two lives.

Spanning time and place, The Wind Knows My Name is both a testament to the sacrifices that parents make and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomable dangers—and never stop dreaming.

2. The Covenant of Water – Abraham Verghese

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. The family is part of a Christian community that traces itself to the time of the apostles, but times are shifting, and the matriarch of this family, known as Big Ammachi—literally “Big Mother”—will witness unthinkable changes at home and at large over the span of her extraordinary life. All of Verghese’s great gifts are on display in this new work: there are astonishing scenes of medical ingenuity, fantastic moments of humor, a surprising and deeply moving story, and characters imbued with the essence of life.

A shimmering evocation of a lost India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. It is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.

3. Yellowface – R.F. Kuang

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena’s a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn’t even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song–complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface takes on questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation not only in the publishing industry but the persistent erasure of Asian-American voices and history by Western white society. R. F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.

4. Lady Tan’s Circle of Women – Lisa See

The latest historical novel from New York Times bestselling author Lisa See, inspired by the true story of a woman physician from 15th-century China—perfect for fans of See’s classic Snowflower and the Secret Fan and The Island of Sea Women.

According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.

From a young age, Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom.

But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife—embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.

How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions, go on to treat women and girls from every level of society, and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is a captivating story of women helping other women. It is also a triumphant reimagining of the life of a woman who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.

5. The Collected Regrets of Clover – Mikki Brammer

What’s the point of giving someone a beautiful death if you can’t give yourself a beautiful life?

From the day she watched her kindergarten teacher drop dead during a dramatic telling of Peter Rabbit, Clover Brooks has felt a stronger connection with the dying than she has with the living. After the beloved grandfather who raised her dies alone while she is traveling, Clover becomes a death doula in New York City, dedicating her life to ushering people peacefully through their end-of-life process.

Clover spends so much time with the dying that she has no life of her own, until the final wishes of a feisty old woman send Clover on a trip across the country to uncover a forgotten love story––and perhaps, her own happy ending. As she finds herself struggling to navigate the uncharted roads of romance and friendship, Clover is forced to examine what she really wants, and whether she’ll have the courage to go after it.

Probing, clever, and hopeful, The Collected Regrets of Clover turns the normally taboo subject of death into a reason to celebrate life.

No More Secrets – ARC Book Review

Title:- No More Secrets

Author:- Kerry Lonsdale

Date published:- will be published on 14th March 2023

Publisher:- Lake Union

No. of pages:- 287 pages

Genre:- Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 4/5

Writing:- 5/5

Overall rating:- 4.5/5

A young man seeks redemption from his past in the third novel from the No More trilogy by Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Kerry Lonsdale.

After serving six months in a juvenile detention center, Lucas Carson returns home irrevocably changed by what happened there. Traumatized, Lucas shuts himself out from everyone he loves, even his younger sister, Lily, who ran away from home when she was pregnant at sixteen. When Lily resurfaces years later, Lucas can’t cope with his guilt about not being there for her. He takes off, only to cross paths with Shiloh Bloom—fifteen, homeless, and, like Lucas, escaping the past.

All Lucas sees in her is the little sister he neglected. Believing this is his chance to absolve past mistakes, he takes Shiloh in. He gives her food and shelter. She gives him a purpose. Together they invent a background for her and form a bond. But the risk of discovery grows. Lucas’s sisters aren’t the only ones looking for him. So are Shiloh’s mother and the police. If Lucas wants to heal and have a future, he must stop running and face everything he’s left behind.

This is the book three and the final book of the Carson sibling story, this time told in Lucas’s story.

Lucas is trying to get his life back to together after a stint in juvenile center for a crme that he did not commit. He meets a fifteen year old homeless girl named Shiloh and soon ends up helping Shiloh even though the girl was initially reluctant to get Lucas’ help. Meanwhile. Shiloh is running away from an abusive home and is on her way to Hollywood with the hopes of becoming a movie star.

This was a bit emotional and the author did a good job portraying Lucas character more sympathetic which as a reader would feel sorry towards Lucas. I do like how Shiloh and Lucas seemed to be having an understanding with each other. The story itself was realistic and I really like how the author wrote the story, making it more realistic. I enjoyed reading the first two books and I was glad that I manage to get hold of the third book. Overall, this book worth five stars in my opinion.

Many thanks to Natgalley and Lake Union for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

The Little Board Game Cafe- ARC Book Review

Title:- The Little Board Game Cafe

Author:- Jennifer Page

Date published:- will be published on April 13th 2023

Publiser:- Aria and Aries

No. of pages:- 352 pages

Genre:- Romance

Rating:-

Plot:- 4/5

Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4/5

An irresistible story of love, friendship and the power of Games Night, perfect for fans of Holly Martin and Christie Barlow.

When Emily loses her job, house and boyfriend all within a matter of days, she’s determined to turn a negative into a positive and follow her dream of running a small cafe in the gorgeous Yorkshire village of Rosegarth.

But she quickly finds she’s bitten off more than she can chew when the ‘popular’ cafe she takes over turns out to secretly be a failing business. Emily desperately needs a way to turn things around, and help comes from the unlikeliest of places when she meets local board game-obsessed GP Ludek. But when a major chain coffee shop opens on the high street, Emily is forced to question if she’ll ever be able to compete.

Has she risked everything on something destined to fail? Or can a playful twist, a homely welcome, and a sprinkle of love make Emily’s cafe the destination she’s always dreamed of?

This is a cute romance novel, with friendship, love as the main themes of the book.

Meet Emily, who has been recently laid off from work by her fiance James. She then returns to her hometown, where she comes across an abandoned cafe. Emily had been having dreams of owning a cafe of her own that she soon decided to open up a cafe. Emily then meets Ludek, her friend Kate and the community of people in the small town who help Emily to succeed in running the cafe.

This was actually in my opinion a good romance book. The characters are all likable and friendly and above all, the difficulties that Emily was facing in opening up the cafe was realistic. There were some boring parts but then it was in my opinion an engaging story. I do like the community setting in the book and the fact that the story takes place in a small town makes it interesting to read. Also, the book cover is really pretty!

So if you like reading Holly Martin books or Jenny Colgan’s, maybe you should try out this book,because this book has a similar vibe to it–worth four stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Aria for the ARC. The review is based on my opinion only.

Jennifer Page lives near Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire with her husband Hermi and his very – no, make that extremely – large collection of board games. Her debut novel, The Little Board Game Cafe will be published on 13th April 2022. Jennifer writes light-hearted, cosy romantic fiction which was initially inspired by her own dating adventures. Before she met Hermi, she was single for 13 years and had pretty much given up on meeting The One.

When she isn’t writing, Jennifer can usually be found playing board games; since she met Hermi, she’s become even more obsessed with them than he is! She also loves cooking (though she’d never claim to be any good at it!), caravan holidays and walking in the beautiful Yorkshire countryside.

The Hike – ARC Book Review

Title:- The Hike

Author:- Lucy Clarke

Date published:- will be published on 27th April 2023

Publisher:- HarperCollins UK

Genre:- Thriller

No. of pages:- 384 pages

Rating:-

Plot:- 4/5

Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4/5

Escape with the gripping, twisty new thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of One of the Girls

Wish you were here? Think again . . .

Maggie, Liz, Helena & Joni. Old friends bound by history, adventures, old secrets.And now, bound by murder.They lace up their hiking boots for the adventure of a lifetime in the Norwegian wilderness: a place of towering mountains, glass-like lakes, log cabins and forests stolen from a fairytale.It’s the perfect place to lose yourself – until a broken body is found at the bottom of a ravine.Somewhere out there, someone knows exactly why a woman has died. And in this deep, dark wilderness, there’s a killer on the trail . . .

This is the third book I have read written by Lucy Clarke and I actually liked this book. Each of her books are based in somewhere and this rime the Hike is based in Norway. Four friends Liz, Maggie, Helena and Joni go on a hiking trail in Norway. The four friends learn that on the similar trail another girl named Karin disappeared and Karin looks like Maggie. The four friends suddenly becomes stranded in the trail.

I like the setting of the book. The descriptions of mountains and other sceneries made as a reader feel like you are in Norway with the characters, there’s a hint of suspense and the author manage to create an eerie suspense in the book. There wasn’t much twists or turns, the ending seemed to be harried but nonetheless I enjoyed reading this thriller much. Looking forward to read more books by Lucy Clarke

Worth four stars

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for ARC. This review is based on my honest opinion only.

Sunday Times bestseller, Lucy Clarke, writes from a beach hut, using the inspiration from the wild south coast to craft her stories. Her debut novel, THE SEA SISTERS, was a Richard & Judy Book Club pick, and she has since published A SINGLE BREATH, THE BLUE/NO ESCAPE, LAST SEEN, YOU LET ME IN, and THE CASTAWAYS, which was a Waterstones Thriller of the Month. Lucy’s seventh novel, ONE OF THE GIRLS, is ‘an electric, sun-soaked thriller’, released in May 2022.

Lucy’s books are published in twenty territories. THE BLUE, is currently being filmed for a major international TV series for Paramount+ and will be on screens in 2023.

Lucy is a passionate traveller and fresh air enthusiast. She’s married to a professional windsurfer and, together with their two children, they spend their winters travelling and their summers at home by the sea.

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