Tag: new releases

Book News, books

Upcoming Excitement

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Now seemed like a really good chance to mention a few books that I’m really excited to read over the next few months.  And also if I tell you that I’m going to read them over the next few months, then I might actually manage to do it!

Firstly, out this week just finishing, Laurie Graham’s The Grand Duchess of Nowhere.  I love Laurie Graham’s books – as I may have mentioned before, Gone with The Windsors is one of my all time favourites, so I’m always excited to read something new from her.  Grand Duchess has just come out in hardback, so it may well go on my Christmas book list if I don’t manage to resist snapping it up before then!

Coming out in November is the latest book from Marian Keyes.   I’m expecting The Woman Who Stole My Life to be one of the big books this Christmas and I’m excited to see what Marian has come up with this time.  She’s one of my favourite authors on Twitter (so funny) and her books are always the right balance of funny, sad and thought provoking.

Also on my watchlist is Mhairi McFarlane’s It’s Not Me, It’s You – which is out the same day as the Marian Keyes.  The blurb for this is totally up my street – a quest for the heroine’s real self with dodgy jobs, weird bosses and handsome journalists. Sounds perfect and I’m really looking forward to it.

Now there are a whole bunch of other books that are coming out soon that I’m hoping to read too – but they’re all themed around a major festival that happens in December and I refuse to start talking about that this early.  Having worked in a shop through sixth form and university I have developed an aversion to the countdown to that particular event starting too early.  But rest assured, I will be posting about books suitable for reading at that time of year in enough time for you to get them on your gift lists or to stock up for reading in front of roaring fires whilst you eat seasonally appropriate food stuffs.  Just not in early October. I can’t do it.

 

American imports, romance

New Romance Review Round-up

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It’s Read a Romance Month, so I thought I ought to do my bit for the cause – and review some romance.  I’m pretty much exclusively a historical romance reader when I read straight up romance, so here are two of the new ones I’ve recently read – both by authors new to me as I continue my quest to find new (to me) historical romance authors, having read everything from the people I like!

First up, and out this week in the US  (and in September in the UK) is How the Scoundrel Seduces by Sabrina Jeffries.  This is the third book in the series – and as per usual I’m late to the party and haven’t read the other two.  This wasn’t a problem though as I still enjoyed the book.  Some elements of the plot felt a little bit far fetched to me, but Jeffries carries it off – just.  My problems with US-written-British-set historicals usually come with the language choices and there were a few moments in this, but probably not any that would annoy an American reader.  I have a personal problem with “princess” as a term of endearment – makes me think of Eastenders and gangsters, but that’s just me!  The denouement seemed to happen very quickly – there seemed to be a lot of build up for not a lot of resolution, and there were a few revelations at the end that felt like they were late attempts to make the baddie more three dimensional and add a bit of depth to a character that we hadn’t seen in the flesh for a long time (I’m trying not to give plot points away here!).  I have another, older Sabrina Jeffries on the pile and there was certainly nothing here to put me off reading it.  If I was giving star ratings, it’d be 3.5 out of 5.

Out next week in the US (and at the start of October in the UK) is Not Quite a Wife by Mary Jo Putney.  Another book that’s one of a series that I haven’t read (sensing a theme here!), this is the story of Laurel and James – who are married but have been separated for 10 years after she witnessed him carry out a “shocking act of violence” (I’m trying not to give away the plot again) and are drawn back together after a chance encounter “turns passionate with consequences that cannot be ignored”.  Now the accidentally pregnant trope is not my favourite of the romance plotlines, but I’m always willing to give them a go – especially this one – as it seemed to promise a strong minded heroine.  However, once I’d read a little and discovered a bit more, the plot device separating them felt a little contrived and flimsy – Laurel knows that James is a spymaster when she marries him, and there’s a certain risk of violence attached to that.  She also lives in a time that was much rougher and she hasn’t exactly led a life sheltered form that since they separated and so I found some of her issues hard to believe.  But, just because a book isn’t really for me, that doesn’t mean that other people aren’t going to like it.  This has a strong Christian theme to it – and the characters have strong moral standpoints rooted in their beliefs so I’m sure that it’ll appeal to those who don’t like their romances to be filled with immorality.  It does have some sex scenes in it though, so it’s not for the very conservative end of the Christian reading spectrum.

So, there you have it – two reviews, neither of them the raves that I was hoping to be able to post when I was lining up romances to read in August for RARM.  So to counter act that, I’d like to point you in the direction of Eloisa James’ latest, Three Weeks with Lady X for a really good historical romance, and some really good non-historical not just a romances – like Jenny Colgan’s Little Beach Street Bakery and the recently re-issued Tickled Pink from Christina Jones.  There’s still some more romance waiting to be read on the pile – I’m hoping for more success next time!

My copies came from Netgalley – in return for an honest review – I’m assuming they’ll be available in all the usual places where you can find romances – but here are links to both on Amazon.com – How the Scoundrel Seduces and Not Quite A Wife

books, new releases, reviews

Review: What Would Mary Berry Do?

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Out today (that’s Thursday 31st July) is this great chick-lit novel by Claire Sandy.  If you’re a Great British Bake-Off fan, this may be the book for you if you’re getting panicky before the start of the new series next week.  And if you’re not a baker or a cook, What Would Mary Berry Do? may still be the beach book for you this summer.

WWMBD and other books
What Would Mary Berry Do? and some of my Bernadette Strachan collection…

So, first, the setup: After a disastrous school bake sale, Marie Dunwoody decides that by this time next year it will be different.  With a Mary Berry Baking Bible in hand, she sets out to conquer cakes – and change her outlook on life thinking “What Would Mary Berry Do?”  At the same time, husband Robert is struggling with office politics – where a muffin is worth more than sales figures and son Angus is struggling with problems at school – something his nine-year old twin sisters are determined to get to the bottom off…

I loved the cast of characters in this book – the Dunwoody family are a hoot and there’s a set of fully rounded supporting characters too, I particularly loved Marie’s employees at her dental surgery.  The different strands of the plot work very well – and whilst I was frequently laughing, I also had a tear in my eye at one point too.  You don’t have to be into making your own baked goods to enjoy either – the plot and characters are engaging enough to interest people who don’t know their Croquembouche from their Crème Anglaise.

The blurb says it’s ideal for fans of Jenny Colgan and I’d agree with that – but I’d also add that fans of Trisha Ashley and Alexandra Brown would probably enjoy this one too – and anyone who likes their chick lit with a dose of humour.  And as Claire Sandy is a pen name for the fabulous Bernadette Strachan, if you haven’t read any of her work, can I point you in the direction of my favourite of hers – The Reluctant Landlady – where you’ll find loveable characters (Bing! Bernard!), a great plot, lots of humour but a bit less baking.

I’m hoping you’ll be able to get hold of a copy of What Would Mary Berry Do at all good bookshops, but in case you can’t get to an actual shop, here it is on Foyles website and Kindle.  I’m hoping it will do really well – it’s my favourite book I’ve read this month.

books, fiction, new releases, reviews

Review: A Place for Us by Harriet Evans (part one)

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I am not a good candidate for serialisations.  I am your classic binge reader – find me something I like and I’ll gorge on it until there is nothing left.  I don’t like having to wait. Anticipation is not my friend.  I count myself as anticipated out after waiting to find out what happened next in Harry Potter for years at a time from the end of Chamber of Secrets onwards.

I’m writing this on my phone, on a train in the early hours of the morning because I’ve just finished the first part of Harriet Evans new book which I was pre-approved for on Netgalley and I need to know what happens next.  Now.  Preferably about 10 minutes ago.

Part one of this serialisation has set up a cast of characters designed to captivate, has dangled enough clues about secrets to tantilise and then FOUR sentences from the end dropped a great big enormous bombshell and then left me hanging. To quote one of my favourite TV shows (involving a Miss B Summers of Sunnydale, California) Inquiring minds need to know. And this one needs to know now.

A Place for Us (so far) is the story of three generations of the Winter family who have been summoned to the family home for Martha the matriarch’s 80th birthday party.  Previously very close, the family has fractured apart and during part one we get to know them – find out who they are and some of what they’re hiding, and guess at other secrets as yet unrevealed.  Then, at the end of Part 1, we find out the bombshell that is about to be dropped at the party (or at least I think we do, unless it’s a masterpiece of misdirection) and your brain starts frantically trying to work out what happens next – and whether this will bring them closer together or send them spiralling further apart – because although this secret is huge, there are lots of other things lurking beneath the surface too.

I’ve read a couple of Harriet Evans’ books before and enjoyed them. She mentions Georgette Heyer (always a good way to my heart) and I like her heroines.  This book has so many characters I don’t know who is my favourite yet, but I want to read more so I can decide!  (I hope my message is getting through, though I fear it may sound like the deranged rantings of a sleep-deprived woman, it’s not. Honest. I just Need To Know).  If the rest of the book lives up to this first part (of FOUR – how am I going to cope with this?!) I believe then it is going to be a great read (and possibly somewhat epically long) and deserves to be gobbled up by fans of Harriet Evans and new readers alike.

It’s Thursday morning and I’ve re-read my rantings from last night before publishing. I don’t think I sound too crazy. I’m hoping I sound enthusiastic and excited about the book rather than plain loopy, although I fear it’s a fine line.  But I didn’t want to alter too much of my post – because this was my genuine response to finishing Part One of the book. And it was 1am, on a train, at the end of a 10 hour shift and that sort of sleep-deprived creativity cannot be faked!