Category: books

Book of the Week, books, new releases

Book of the Week: Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other

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Say hello to a BotW that’s actually featuring on its publication day! Make a note, it doesn’t happen very often!

Brynn is just finishing her first week in a prime new breakfast TV job when a hot mic moment threatens to derail everything she has worked for. The small town girl persona that she and the network have crafted for her is derailed when she disparages her home town to her cohost – not knowing that the ad break is over. Her only route to redemption is to head back to that small town and try and make amends. Her host in Adelaide Springs is newcomer (well it’s all relative) Sebastian, a former superstar reporter who disappeared from the journalistic world in mysterious circumstances. Not that Brynn knows that. It’s hate at first sight. Or is it?

The fact that the cover says “A Love Story” on it should give you the clue that it’s not, and it’s a full on grumpy-sunshine enemies to lovers sort of thing. I read it in about 36 hours and although the journalist in me had a few issues with it, they mostly didn’t bother me at the time! I also love a small town romance – especially when they feature someone returning after a long period away so if any of that floats your boat usually then this might be a good one to try. I haven’t read any of Bethany Turner’s previous novels but based on this I would happily read more if they came my way.

My copy of Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other came via NetGalley, but it’s out now in all the usual formats – Kindle, Kobo and hard copy. As it’s only out today, I have no idea how easy it will be to find in stores, but you know me well enough to know that I’ll report back if I spot it!

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: August 28 – September 3

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I’m actually quite pleased with this for a week of reading. I was super busy but I enjoyed what I read. There’s a few things that have inspired some thoughts about things to write about too, which I really felt like I was needing. Now it’s September and the schools are going back so of course this week is predicted to be very hot, so we’ll see what that does to everything!

Read:

JFK is Missing by Liz Evans

Harum Scarum Married by Esmé Stuart

Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other by Bethany Turner*

Mrs Pargeter’s Point of Honour by Simon Brett

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Mrs Pargeter’s Principle by Simon Brett

The Betel Nut Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu

Started:

Mrs Pargeter’s Public Relations by Simon Brett

The Secret Bridesmaid by Katy Birchall*

From Dust to Stardust by Kathleen Rooney*

Still reading:

The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes by Kate Strasdin*

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

The Other Side of Mrs Wood by Lucy Barker*

I don’t think I bought anything. What restraint!

Bonus photo: it was the open day at the vocational training centre at the weekend – and this is from inside their tropical plant tunnel. It made me feel like I could actually fit some more plants in the house after all…

*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.

books, stats

August Stats

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Books read this month: 31*

New books: 24

Re-reads: 7 (all audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 6

NetGalley books read: 6

Kindle Unlimited read: 5

Ebooks: 7

Audiobooks: 7

Non-fiction books: 0

Favourite book this month: Codename Charming

Most read author: Georgette Heyer if you’re counting the Audiobook re-listens, Simon Brett if you’re not – with two Mrs Pargeters.

Books bought: Astonishingly only one ebook, although a pre-order of Codename Charming arrived, and five books – four of which came on one afternoon, mostly in The Works! I’ve added a couple of pre-orders to the list – all stuff that’s coming much closer to Christmas.

Books read in 2023: 252

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 704

I still need to work harder on the non fiction, and some of those long runners of mine are non fiction so it shouldn’t be as hard as I’m finding it. But basically it wasn’t a bad month in reading all in all. Lots of mysteries, a few good romances and reminders of more than one series I had forgotten about!

Bonus picture: I will never be over the Freddie Mercury auction show, so of course it’s another picture from that. This is the last weekend before it all goes under the hammer and I wish I could go back again for another look.

*includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – including 3 this month

books, series, Series I love

Series I Love: Stockwell Park Orchestra

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It’s nearly the end of my 2023 Proms odyssey, and I’m still looking for romances with musicians or orchestras, and I’ve already recommended you some books featuring bands. So now I’m going to take the opportunity to write about a great series that features an orchestra in it – Isabel Rogers’s Stockwell Park Orchestra series.

This is a light comedy series about the members of an amateur orchestra, who meet weekly to rehearse and regularly perform concerts to a pretty high standard. The only trouble is there always seems to be some kind of drama going on in the background. There is a core group of main characters – most of whom are in the orchestra, although one notable exception isn’t – and there are also some regular side character for extra comic relief. So far the adventures have included a dead conductor, a continental tour and a certain level of fame.

There are four books in the series – two of which were Books of the Week. And as I said in both of reviews – I’m a band person, a lapsed clarinettist with a dislike of public performance and love of being part of music happening, but these guys are much better than I ever was. And because of that I find it quite hard to judge how these will land with people who aren’t musicians – or who don’t have experience with bands. But if you are someone who has experience with large groups of artistic types, I’m fairly sure you’ll recognises some of the personality types here. No news yet on whether there will be a fifth, but I’m really hoping it’s going to happen.

They’re available from all the usual ebook retailers, but if you get them direct from the publishers, Farrago Books, you can buy them as a set with a handy discount *and* get a free short story featuring the gang. Here’s the link. Enjoy!

books

Recommendsday: Romances with weddings

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On Sunday I wrote about The Wedding Singer on one of the biggest wedding weekends of the year, so for Recommendsday today, I thought I would recommend some romance novels set in or around weddings, because there are a lot of them – including a few that have come out recently.

I’m going to start with a new release – Jackie Lau’s Four Weddings to Fall in Love, which came out at the end of July and I read in early August. Max and Kim have a one night stand at a wedding – it doesn’t go brilliantly, but both of them think they’ll never have to see the other again. The universe is against them though and they then proceed to run into each other at more weddings. But it gives Ma a chance to redeem himself and over the course of the book it turns out that they may be a better fit for each other than that first encounter suggested. This is the steamiest Jackie Lau yet, but it still feels like her if that makes sense. I didn’t love the lack of resolution of Kim’s problems with her mum, but this is the first in a series, so I’m hoping that maybe her mum’s comeuppance is going to come later. I mentioned A Piece of Cake in the June quick reviews, but Mary Hollis Huddleston and Asher Fogle Paul’s previous book Without a Hitch is also set in the wedding industry – so if you liked the new one, go back and read the previous one to see why I struggled with the redemption of Claire so much!

A few years old now is Mia Sosa’s The Worst Best Man, where a wedding planner who was left at the altar has to work with her ex-fiancé’s brother for Romance Novel Reasons. I think you can see where that is going. This was on a bunch of the best romances of the year lists when it came out in 2020, and although I didn’t find it as funny as some of the write ups suggested I did like it, and made a note to read Sosa’s next book when it came my way (which it hasn’t yet). I really liked the Washington DC setting though – as I recognised a lot of the places that were mentioned from my time there!

Christina Lauren’s Unhoneymooners was a BotW back in 2019, so it’s out of the statute of limitations – although Christina Lauren as an author isn’t – you can read a full review if you click the link, but it’s a forced proximity, enemies to lovers romance, where the hero and heroine are the only two people from a bridal party not to go down with food poisoning after the reception and go on the honeymoon instead of the bride and groom.

Older Again is Jasmine Guillory’s The Wedding Date. This was her debut romance back in 2018 and features a meet cute when a lift breaks down and a fake date to a wedding type scenario. I enjoyed it back when I read it – although her subsequent books haven’t always worked for me – but it should also be fairly easy to get hold of, I think I’ve even seen it in paperback relatively recently!

And that’s your lot! I’ve found a bunch more wedding-y books on my tbr while writing this, so you never know – there may yet be a follow up…

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: August 21 – August 27

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Well. I feel like August has been so busy that I don’t know where I am any more, except for the fact that it’s nearly over, so the school holidays are coming to an end and we’ve had more rain and miserable weather than I would hope for in a summer – even a British one. Still a pretty good week in reading all in, despite not finishing any of the long runners. I spotted the Shades of Magic graphic novel was in Kindle Unlimited and read that to remind myself of the world ahead of potentially reading the new book when that comes out. And I re-entered the world of Mrs Pargeter, which was a lot of fun.

Read:

Arabella by Georgette Heyer

Death at Crookham Hall by Michelle Salter

Suddenly at His Residence by Christianna Brand

Mrs Pargeter’s Patio by Simon Brett*

Mrs Pargeter’s Plot by Simon Brett

The Wedding Piper by Isabel Rogers

Shades of Magic Vol 1: The Steel Prince by V E Schwab et al

Chef’s Kiss by Jarrett Melendez et al

The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters

Started:

JFK is Missing by Liz Evans

Still reading:

The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes by Kate Strasdin*

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

The Other Side of Mrs Wood by Lucy Barker*

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

One book acquired on an evening walk to Waterstones Gower Street. I just can’t keep away…

Bonus photo: Friday night at the polo club (!) pop up restaurant. Possibly even more Happy Valley-esque than it felt last year!

*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.

books, bookshelfies

Bookshelfie: My next project

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This is exactly what the title says it is – this is where I want my next bookshelf. This is the gap at the top of the stairs into the spare room. As you can see, at the moment, it’s currently the home to the Trisha Ashley books, which are in heaps because I couldn’t be bothered to put them all back shelf-style after I did the measuring up. I was hoping it was going to be a little antique bookshelf that I find somewhere in a shop or one of those vintage markets but I’ve been looking for a while and haven’t found anything yet, so maybe I’m going to have to find a carpenter to make some for me. In which case I’ll have to decide if I want it to go the whole way up (probably) which would mean relocating the Matilda poster (still can’t believe that original run at the RSC is so long ago) and probably rehanging all the theatre posters on that stairway – of which there are a few (half a dozen) and would mean doing some tidying up to hide the marks and would probably lead to redecorating the lot. So maybe I need to ask you to cross your fingers that I find a delightful little bookshelf in a shop soon that I can just slot in there. I already had a set of shelves here in mind – with some of the cozy crime series that are outgrowing their space on the downstairs shelves and because they’re mass market maybe not the best use of space on the bookcase they are in – but when my sister suggested that a bookshelf with a tempting selection for guests would be a good idea and that seemed like a good plan too. So who knows what will actually end up on there. And yes as you know, the spare room does have a bookshelf but as it’s slightly chaotic overspill and where books live is partly determined by how often I might want to use them, the travel books definitely live the furthest away from me and so any potential new bookshelf should be for books I might want more often than that. Which brings me back to cozies and romances. And I promise that the logic of all this makes sense to me, even if it might seem crazy to you!

Happy Saturday everyone!

books, series

Mystery series: Mitchell and Markby

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So as I discovered earlier this month that there is a new book in the series after a nearly 20 year gap, so this week’s I’ve taken the opportunity to write about Ann Granger’s 1990s cozy detective series.

The Mitchell and Markby of the title are Meredith Mitchell and Alan Markby. She is a civil servant for the Foreign Office who has spent several years working abroad and he is a Detective Chief Inspector. When they meet in the first book, Meredith is visiting Alan’s Cotswold patch to attend a wedding, but they become friends (ahem) and she starts visiting him and eventually she settles in the area as a base from her foreign postings. They’re both slightly older than a lot of cozy crime duos and if I remember correctly quite cautious about the possibility of a romantic relationship. The mysteries are good – police procedurals of the old school sort (ie not thrillers or psychological) and obviously contemporary to the time that they were written.

I read the first 15 books seven years ago, having borrowed the paperbacks from a friend and gave them back to her afterwards – I was delighted to spot a couple of them in Waterstone’s Gower Street this week but it’s the first time I’ve seen any in yonks. But the good news is that they’re all available in nice shiny Kindle editions – some of them at a really reasonable price. The cheapest is the latest one – 99p! – but I really do suggest you start with some of the earlier ones to get the best sense of the series. If you like American cozy series – or like watching TV series like Midsummer Murders, these would be a good options for you. Granger has a couple of other series too – I’ve read about half of her Campbell and Carter series which she wrote after the Mitchell and Markbys, and I’ve read one of her Lizzie Carter series, which are set in the Victorian period. Gower Street actually had quite a good selection the other day – so you never know, I may go back and fill in some gaps!

Happy reading!

books

Recommendsday: Gentle Fiction

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Inspired by yesterday’s post about Small Miracles, I thought I’d write today’s recommendsday is a batch of books that are similarly gentle but uplifting, but it was harder than I expected.

So Small Miracles is blurbed by A J Pearce as in the Emmy Lake series – which have more sadness to them than these (or at least more on page sadness) but the first one Dear Mrs Bird is in Kindle Unlimited at the moment, so that’s fairly risk free if you’re a KU member.

It’s actually really hard to come up with something that feels really similar – but I think maybe The Diary of a Provincial Lady would work – it’s funnier and also nearly 100 now, but it has a similar gentle, low stakes feel to it. Which also made me think of Miss Buncle – another woman trying to get some money, although in this case because her dividends have failed and Ladies don’t have jobs.

There were a few things in the people also read/bought columns that looked promising Julietta Henderson’s The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman – still haven’t read but kept coming up as a suggestion when I was writing this – so maybe I should get around it to! Also popping up is Claire Pooley’s The People on Platform Five – which I don’t have, but is 99p at the moment, so it’s entirely within the realms of possibility that I’ll end up buying it after writing this post! Again, I haven’t read them, but I know my sister and my mum really like Rachel Joyce’s novels and I think they’re doing something similar too.

Oh, and I’ve pre-ordered the Small Miracle’s sequel…

Book of the Week, books

Book of the Week: Small Miracles

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I could write about Codename Charming again today, but you’ve already heard enough about Lucy Parker from me in the last week or so, so instead I’m going with Anne Booth’s Small Miracles which I finally got around to reading after I spotted it when I was putting together the Kindle offers post this month.

It’s the mid 1990s and Sister Margaret, Sister Bridget and Sister Cecilia are the last three members of their order and struggling to figure out how their convent can survive in the face of the loss of some of their number and a house in need of more repairs than they can pay for. But after 90-year-old Sister Cecilia decides to play the new National Lottery things start to change for them and their community.

This is a warm and uplifting novel which moves around between the nuns and some of the people whose lives they touch. It is about a religious community but it doesn’t feel preachy or overly religious – despite the fact that poor Sister Margaret has a lot to pray about at various points. One small miracle has a ripple effect – sometimes in ways that the people involved can see, others in ways that are only known to you as the reader. Basically it is just a lovely tale of how little things can start bigger things moving and can cause good things to happen.

So if you need a nice gentle read to make you feel warm inside, this would be a great pick. And as I mentioned in that offer post, there is a sequel coming – and it’s Christmas themed!

My copy of Small Miracles was an advance proof that I’m not quite sure how I got, and which I lent to mum before I remembered I needed a photograph. But it is 99p on Kindle and Kobo at the moment so run don’t walk if this sounds like your cup of tea.

Happy Reading!