#Review of A Scottish Teashop in Napoli By Jane Lambert – A Hug in A Book #Review by Lou @JaneLambert22 #AScottishTeashopInNapoli

A Scottish Teashop in Napoli
By Jane Lambert

Review by Louise Cannon (Lou)

A heart-warming friendship story that’s a book with a hug. Thanks to Jane Lambert for sharing her book with me. Below is my review and then the blurb.

Review

Sitting with a cup of tea, whilst I write this review, there’s literal warmth from that and warmth from the book. Food and the power of friendship are the main themes in Jane Lambert’s latest book, all set with a gorgeous backdrop, that makes you wish you were there too. Lucy captures the heart instantly as she is a determined, and some might say, brave woman, and going on honeymoon, even though she was jilted by her sweetheart at the altar. She’s a woman after my own heart there. I am fairly certain I would do the same, just go anyway.

Elena is fighting to save her husband’s mozzarella business and a language school. It’s a current theme in that so many people in businesses people assume will be around forever are working harder than ever to survive.

There are chance meetings between our two main characters and what happens is just the warmest of friendships with chat and laughter through the pain. They are there for each other and listen well. What comes next is another chance to grasp at life and give it a good shake and create something amazing and new. A Scottish Teashop right in scenic Napoli. It doesn’t sound so outlandish the way its presented.

A Scottish Teashop in Napoli will certainly help shake off the winter blues in its wrap-around immersive writing quality that truly touches the heart.

Blurb

When Lucy’s childhood sweetheart leaves her at the altar, her world shatters. But instead of cancelling her honeymoon, she boards the plane alone―bound for a sun-soaked island that will change everything.

In Naples, recently widowed Elena is fighting to keep her husband’s family mozzarella factory and language school afloat while raising her young son. Desperate to save both businesses, she posts a job advert―and fate delivers Lucy to her doorstep.

Together, these two women―each nursing heartbreak and loss―discover that friendship, food, and a dash of courage can heal even the deepest wounds.

Filled with pasta, laughter, and second chances, this is a story of resilience, renewal, and the unexpected magic of connection.

‘Real heart, sunshine and a smattering of Italian, the story is a holiday in book form’ People’s Friend

‘Totally hooked. Loving it. Pictorial, warm and evocative. Really entrancing and beautifully written’. Rula Lenska

#Review of Austenella by Janey Jones @janeylit #Austenella #RomanticFiction #JaneAusten #ContemporaryFiction

Austenella
By Janey Jones

Review by Louise Cannon

At the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen, what better year to reacquaint yourselves with her books and get acquainted with those authors whom she has inspired. This latest creation, Austenella, is also inspired by her writing. Janey Jones, many of you may know as Janey Louise Jones from her days of writing Princess Poppy books. Having now hung up her tiara, she now writes books for adults like The Edinburgh Seven and books about her character, Lucy Lovecake.
Thanks to Janey Jones, I have a copy of Austenella for review, which you’ll see after the blurb. I will add here, that the sharp-intake of breath I often take when such books are put my way, was found to be not required as it was genuinely a very well-though out, concept and one that feels respectful to Jane Austen.
As you float down, you’ll find the cover, blurb and my full review.

Blurb

‘Made in Chelsea meets Pride & Prejudice’
Country house capers – an escapist modern fairy-tale with Jane Austen main character energy. Austenella hen weekends? Book now to avoid disappointment!
Daisy Delaney (pen-name Lucy Lovecake) buys a run-down stately home in Perthshire for Austen-themed hen weekends. She devises a reality TV show ‘AUSTENELLA’ to fund the elaborate conversion. Local characters are recruited for the show: the influencer, the actress, the Brigadier, the disinherited step-mother, the wallflower. Romantic chaos ensues. TikTok is crazy for the show!
And of course, there’s a local Mr Darcy. Jonny Abernethy. Who had to sell his big house. To a girl.
Will ‘Mr Darcy’ accept that ‘Lucy Lovecake’ now owns his stately home? The patriarchal property power just shifted! Jane would be proud.
A whirl of a book about what Lizzie Bennet describes as ‘the inconsistency of all human characters.’ And the ‘little dependence that can be placed on sense!’

Review

Austenella is a rather surprising and fun take, inspired by Jane Austen’s creations.

Daisy Delaney, who some of you may have read about before in other Lucy Lovecake books, is back and this time she’s devising a tv show and a Perthshire stately home. The Regency/Georgian period hen weekends are entertaining, and are very much Jane Austen themed.

The characters are interesting as there is a Mr Darcy, but the positive is, it isn’t a re-writing of her novels set in modern day, it very much feels original, with the universal themes Austen also used when she wrote, but with a modern twist. Respectfully, there appears to be plenty of nods to Jane Austen and her desires for women. It feels like a novel she may have liked and to have seen how far things have moved on.

Like Jane Austen’s writing, Austenella, is very well-observed of human life and it’s all there to see, including its quirks.

For an entertaining modern read about strong women and fun, Austenella is one I recommend to continue your celebrations of Jane Austen’s anniversary, perhaps even alongside or sandwiched with some of Jane Austen’s books.

#Review By Lou of The Last Train Home by Sherry Hostler A Psychological Thriller of a Train Ride You Would Want To Book. @SherryHostler @adropofshery @RandomTTours #Christmas #Trains #PsychologicalThriller #TheLastTrainHome

The Last Train Home
By Sherry Hostler

review by Louise Cannon

Trains are great to travel on, but what happens on this last train home is not anywhere near what you’d expect or normally experience in this high octane, breath-taking psychological Christmas thriller. It’s a train you wouldn’t want to miss, but goes to places you wouldn’t expect. This is no ordinary train…
Check out my full review for the Random T. Tours blog tour below, after the blurb.

Blurb

Where am I?

How did I get here?

These are the questions that Molly asks when she wakes up in unfamiliar clothes on a dark, empty train docked in the middle of nowhere. She has no memory of how she got there, no means of escape, and worst of all, she isn’t sure if she’s alone.

Molly must confront the ghosts of her past, and find her voice, to make sure she has a future.

Christmas. A time for peace and goodwill. Well, that depends if you’ve been naughty or nice.

Review

The Last Train that should get you home is a clever premise. This isn’t like Murder on The Orient Express or any other train based stories I’ve come across. The protagonist, Molly doesn’t know how she got onto the train when she wakes up, so the panic and tension gives an immediate hit to the psyche. Instantly, there are more questions than answers, until you delve deeper in and fully join the ride.
The train also comes to life, or rather someone does as a message comes across the tannoy…
The train isn’t just the physical vehicle, but also cleverly represents the train of life. There is the present predicament she is in. playing with her mind a bit, but also her past that, a bit like Scrooge, she has to confront, although they are rather different from that Dickens’ character.
There are some rather deep, dark themes within the book that are thought-provoking as well as making this a terrific psychological thriller that twists and turns, with some side stories interweaving throughout. It’s very much about joining the dots, uncovering clues and piecing together the carriages of her life train to find out more about her present and if she has a future. The characters met along the way are fascinating. Some are good, others are definitely not. All are written in a way that you want to know every one of them and how they link to Molly.
The ending is breathtakingly unpredictable!

For not your average last train home after a Christmas party, this psychological thriller is for you.

#Review by Lou of The Christmas Retreat by Trisha Ashley @trishaashley @RandomTTours #Christmas #TheChristmasRetreat

The Christmas Retreat
By Trisha Ashley

Christmas is coming and the books are hotting up! The Christmas Countdown is On! It’s time to retreat from the cold weather and dark nights and get cosy with Trisha Ashley’s new Christmas book.
Check out my review and the blurb below, thanks to Random T. Tours and Bantam for the book in-exchange of an honest review.

Blurb

Ginny Spain usually loves Christmas: wrapping up warm by a cosy fire, putting twinkling lights on the tree… But after breaking up with her ex, her festive spirit has deserted her. This year, she plans to hide away and spend the holiday alone.

Her formidable mother, Evie, has other ideas. Dragging Ginny out of isolation, Evie takes her to an artist and writers retreat at Triskelion, a remote old house in the tiny coastal village of Little Star, determined to uncover the secrets of an ancestor who once lived there.

Triskelion is now home to rugged Rhys Tarn and his ten-year-old daughter – and Ginny is in for a shock when she discovers Rhys and her share an unexpected connection.

Review

For those who have broken up with someone not before Christmas and for good reason, this one may be relatable. Ginny Spain just isn’t feeling the sparkle of Christmas like she normally does and has a desire to hide away. Instantly there’s a desire to feel compassion for her.
Evie, her determined mother who you wouldn’t say no to, is in a sense her saviour and gets her to go to a writers and artists retreat. It’s still isolated, but Ginny isn’t in complete isolation as she imagined her holiday to be. She’s plunged into a community of people who just may become new friends.

There’s much to uncover, including some histories and secrets which makes the book compelling in a beautiful setting.

Triskelion is a heart-warming place with various traditions to get involved with that are beautifully written that brings the spark of Christmas energy.

The Christmas Retreat is a lovely book that makes being invested in the characters effortless and brings a bit of Christmas sparkle alongside their complex lives.

#Review by Lou of The Token by Sharon Bolton @AuthorSJBolton #CompulsiveReaders #BlogTour #PsychologicalThriller

The Token
By Sharon Bolton

Review by Louise Cannon

Today I am on the blog tour for Compulsive Readers about the newest book by Sharon Bolton called The Token. Here is the blurb and then go onto my review.

Seven beneficiaries. Seven people who stood to gain a huge amount of money, for a reason none of them yet understood.

Seven strangers receive a mysterious note informing them of their impending inheritance of billionaire Logan Quick’s fortune. They each receive a token and soon embark on a doomed cruise where they will have to conquer their own demons, and each other, for a chance at the money.

But someone on this boat has something to hide.

Can the survivors work out the truth… or are they destined to drown?

Review

The prologue instantly has a dramatic pull and sets the scene. The Token starts off with a yacht, a storm and a beautiful backdrop of the Scilly Isles. It’s a fascinating look into human nature as readers learn more about the people and their attitudes to money and what their occupations are and their different backgrounds.

There are 7 letters with a token that get sent to people and a murder, which brings a page-turning psychological thriller as dangers and what people do collide.

It’s a fast-paced thriller that is fascinatingly observed how people relate to each other, what their motives are and how they cope or otherwise when up against it in the circumstances they find themselves in.

#Review of Fatal Shot by Brian Price @HobeckBooks #DCMelCottonSeries #CrimeFiction #Thriller

Fatal Shot
By Brian Price

Review written by Louise Cannon

Fatal Shot is book 6 of the DC Mel Cotton Series. If you haven’t yet delved into this Mexton crime series I highly recommend that you do with its interesting threads and thought-provoking, sometimes chilling concepts and main characters you can follow the lives of.
Today, I am on the Hobeck Books blog tour to review.
Please note I am not affiliated to any publisher nor bookshop and all opinions are my own.

Blurb

Pleasure or murder?

Was journalist Jenny Pike seeking extreme pleasure or was she murdered? Mexton police and her partner are suspicious. Things just don’t add up. Who would want Jenny killed and why? If she was murdered, then why was there no trace of the killer?

Deadly weapons

A mystery gunman is injured as his weapon blows up in his face. Someone is making blank weapons lethal. Mexton police are baffled. Meanwhile, a ruthless gangster is after a stolen laptop, and he will stop at nothing to get it back. What is on that laptop?

A dangerous turf war

Soon Mexton is in turmoil with illegal firearms, a vengeful crime boss and an impossible crime to solve. A turf war between drug dealers looms and the police seem powerless to stop it. Can DC Mel Cotton and her colleagues solve the riddles facing them without getting killed? Can a lethal conflict be prevented, before someone gets seriously hurt?

Review

There’s a turf drugs war going on with two rival gangs and with other crimes going on too, the dead bodies soon mount up in their numbers. There’s plenty of crime solving to do as threads cleverly interweave each other creating a rich crime story.

Guns that are supposed to be for blanks have become increasingly lethal, through the use of modern technology and there’s someone who is clever and evil enough to be able to use and manipulate it, in this case, 3D Printers, not for good though, but for nefarious deeds. It serves as a bit of a warning when technology comes onto the mass market, seemingly innocently, there are always people who will use it for deadly intent. The awareness and usage of how people can twist modern technology, including 3D Printers, in a fictional tale is intelligently done and brings it back to what can happen in the real world in the realistic writing.

As the action increases, it comes to a solid, satisfying end with a compelling middle to get you there.