#Review By Lou of An Ideal Husband By Erica James @TheEricaJames @HQstories #AnIdealHusband #ContemporaryFiction #FamilyDrama #SummerRead #Summer

An Ideal Husband
By Erica James

It is exciting when I get accepted to review a book by Erica James, but every book is different, so there’s no preconceptions as to whether it’ll be a good one or not, so find out in the blurb what it’s about and my opinions in my review below…
Thanks to Ms Pickard at HQ for sending me a copy of the book to review.

Blurb

After a long and seemingly happy marriage, and a wonderful family Christmas, Louisa is stunned when husband Kip asks for a divorce on Boxing Day. He’d never seemed unhappy – and they’ve raised three children together.

For months, Kip has been secretly seeing a younger woman – and if that wasn’t bad enough – it’s the woman who broke their youngest son’s heart.

Now Kip is moving out and embarking on a new life with Zoe, and Louisa is left to pick up the pieces. Their beloved family home, Charity Cottage, is up for sale, and tensions are running high.

Yet, despite the betrayal and anger, when Louisa lays eyes on what might be a unique and welcoming new home, she feels a first glimmer of hope that life might be taking a turn for the better.

And while Louisa is making exciting plans, Kip finds himself facing challenges of his own and begins to learn that living the dream may not be as simple as he thought…

Sunday Times bestseller Erica James returns with an uplifting, wryly humorous new family drama.

Review

Well, I just couldn’t put it down. In a couple of sittings, I suddenly found myself at the last page, rather quickly than I was planning.

An Ideal Husband shows that everything can seem just fine and could well last forever, but sometimes secrets can be concealed very well. As with Erica James’ previous book, ‘Secret Garden Affair’, she deftly shows a part of relationships that aren’t often known about and perhaps what happens to Louisa, with her husband just deciding to up and leave doesn’t occur very often, but it does and this book highlights this.

Beyond the heartache comes hope and new life and in comes heart-warming aspects of the plot, but that doesn’t happen like a flicker of light switch. There are many challenges and how to deal with the way Kip behaved and divorce, which everyone deals with differently. It becomes quite thought-provoking and insightful into family life when not all is well. There are the complexities that are shown and, like in life, all isn’t straight-forward, making it a twisty plot, some parts of which are unexpected.

An Ideal Husband is a great family drama that, even through some of the most darkest, challenging times of relationships brings positivity, warmth and even a bit of humour.

#Review By Lou of The Sun Over The Mountains By Suzie Fletcher #TheSunOverTheMountains #SuzieFletcher @Octopus_Books @RandomTTours #TheRepairShop #Autobiography #Nonfiction #Memoir

The Sun Over The Mountains
By Suzie Fletcher

Suzie Fletcher is someone you may have heard of. She is one of the crafters in The Repair Shop who works with various materials, including leather, velum etc. For her, life wasn’t always like that. Here, she tells her story in The Summer over the Mountains. There’s much to discover. Check out the blurb and my review below.

Blurb

A memoir of hope, healing and restoration, from star of TV’s The Repair Shop, Suzie Fletcher.

Suzie Fletcher is the warm and friendly face on TV’s The Repair Shop that viewers look forward to watching every week as the resident leather expert – a craft she has honed over four decades and was born out of her love of horses. But while she tends to be the one repairing and offering a gentle kindness to others, Suzie has also been in a process of change, reflection, and healing.

In her first book Suzie looks back over her life – which moves from England to Colorado and back again – and the places, people and experiences that have shaped the person she is today. We’ll hear for the first time, how Suzie has overcome some of life’s most difficult challenges, from complicated relationships to grief.

A self-confessed free spirit with a deep connection to nature, Suzie’s exceptional warmth and zest for life shine through on every page, making The Sun Over the Mountains a truly inspiring read that will resonate with anyone who has faced uncertainty but has the courage and power within them to overcome it.

Review

Suzie Fletcher’s autobiography is fascinating. She has led a fascinating life, living in both Colorado and England. Whilst watching her on The Repair Shop, something of both shows through as she talks and works away on repairing people’s “treasures”, I find anyway. It’s now interesting to find out more about her life as there’s often something that intrigues on that tv programme that there’s more than repairing objects that’s a bit telling that she’s perhaps lived quiet some life. I wasn’t wrong, when reading about her life and quiet reflections on it all.

Readers discover her love of horses and where that comes from. Compellingly she also lets readers know about more challenging times in her life and how complex it has been for her. In many ways the writing is emotional and feels raw and real, especially when it comes to sharing how her relationship with this guy really was and it isn’t pretty. It’s as far removed from some rom-com as it gets.

The book, perhaps gives people hope as she is testament to some people who go through the toughest of times can be strong, resilient and come out the other-side being successful in career choices and still have a positive zest for life and an advocate, in a way in how connecting with nature can be restorative and healing.

#Review By Lou of Love In Provence By Jo Thomas @jo_thomas01 @RandomTTours #LoveInProvence #ContemporaryFiction #RomFic #SummerRead

Love In Provence
By Jo Thomas

Having got some family in France, although not in Provence, it’s a country I like to sometimes read in fiction. Having read and reviewed books by Jo Thomas before, I am pleased to again, on the Random T. Tours blog tour. It may make you feel all rather summery with notes of lavender.

Blurb

Escape to the beautiful lavender fields of Provence this summer

Del moved to the south of France three years ago and hasn’t looked back. She’s found new friends, new purpose, and new love with gorgeous Fabien.

But just as harvest on her little lavender farm is due to begin, Del gets some shocking news. With no time to dwell as she welcomes a new crew of lavender pickers, she unexpectedly waves goodbye to Fabien for the summer.

Usually cooking – the thing she loves best – would help soothe her troubles, but Del doesn’t remember how . . . And then chef Zacharie comes to town, dropping another bombshell!

Over one summer in Provence that’s full of surprises, friends old and new rally round. Can they complete the harvest and pull the community back together? And if Fabien returns, will Del finally get her happy-ever-after?

Review

If books had smell/scratch parts, you’d get the delightful, calming scent of lavender gently emitting from this book from the farm which Del has. There’s also a group of seasonal pickers and within this friendship buds. There’s a real sense of community spirit as people rally round to ensure the harvest is picked in time. After all the challenging times that Del is left to face, this is truly heart-warming to read. Fabian also has hard times as someone has died, so he has to rush off, which is why Del has so much to tend to on the farm.
Provence delights and has some interesting people within this books, which may make readers feel a bit peckish with all the food.

Love in Provence has a warm glow of sunshine around it for readers to soak up in their hearts.

#Review By Lou of Miss Harris in the New World by Peter Maughan @PeterMaughan5 @FarragoBooks #CompanyOfFools #MissHarrisInANewWorld #Theatre #Books #Humour

Miss Harris in the New World
By Peter Maughan

Theatre, humour and great for those who like old Ealing Comedies and P.G. Wodehouse. Check out the blurb and review below.

Blurb

The Red Lion production of Love and Miss Harris is booked to tour America, opening in Manhattan.

On arrival the group finds that it’s not the Manhattan with the Great White Way of Broadway at its glittering heart, but the part between the Bowery and the East River, on the Lower East Side, in a vaudeville venue owned by a local mobster. And when members of a rival gang decide to disrupt the play, the action shifts from the theatre’s state to its auditorium…

Determined to fulfil the rest of their tour dates, the company heads west from New York. Try as they might to shake it off, trouble seems to follow them wherever they go.

Review

This is the second of the Comedy of Fools series of books, which can be read a standalone too, the first being Love and Miss Harris is a fun duo of books. They are reminiscent of the likes of P.G. Wodehouse and old comedy capers. It follows the touring actors as they try and put on a show. It shouldn’t be so challenging, but they have dates still unfilled and things don’t get off to a good start, even on opening night, when a rival gang to the mobster who owns the theatre makes their presence felt. It reminds potential audiences not all is plain sailing all of the time to put on a show. The books themselves could be quite good fun if they were actually staged as they are a bit like a play within a play, as well as giving a look at behind the scenes.

This is just good old British humour written very well for a 2024 audience.

#Review By Lou of Wild Flowers By Richard Robinson #RichardRobinson @between_pr #WildFlowers #Espionage #TheTopazFiles #SpyFiction

Wild Flowers
By Richard Robinson

Wild Flowers is the second in The Topaz Files series and it has many surprises. Today, I am on the Reading Between the Lines Blog Tour with the blurb and my review.

Blurb

In ‘Wild Flowers,’ the second explosive instalment of the Topaz Files inexperienced spy Jones Is thrust into the heart of danger aboard the General Eduardo—a colossal container ship laden with stolen arms worth millions.

Trapped and desperate, Jenny Richmond is the linchpin in a daring operation by the Topaz team, racing against time to recover the lethal cargo hijacked by the Russians and bound for clandestine camps in Belize.

But in the shadowy world of espionage, they are not alone. Joseph Armstrong, a double agent ensnared in a deadly game, is torn between his loyalty to Russia and a tempting offer from an enigmatic Zimbabwean farmer, Irvine Terre-Blanche.

What’s at stake?
Millions of pounds and the sinister secrets of the Wild Flowers Project.

Book 3 in Topaz Files Series:
Coming Early 2025

Review

Now that you’ve read the blurb, you can see that one of the surprises is that this isn’t a wild flower book as you would expect. It’s about greed, espionage, corruption and politics.

There’s quite a lot of geo-politics, bringing a certain amount of complexity, but also enough to provoke thoughtfulness. It’s surprisingly fairly fast-paced with secrets to uncover, none-less so than in the ‘Wild Flowers Project’, which I won’t say what that’s about as it would lead to spoilers. Let’s just say it isn’t as pretty as you might imagine.

The lives of spies and the deadly situations are intriguing, from a spy operation point of view and in a character’s personal point of view, especially when it comes to loyalties and having to make huge fundamental decisions.

It’s an intriguing, gripping read that has high intensity.

#Review By Lou of The British Bloke Decoded @GeoffNorcott @RandomTTours #NonFiction #Humour #TheBritishBlokeDecoded #EdFringe

The British Bloke Decoded
By Geoff Norcott

Finally, women, here is all we need to know about The British Bloke, all in a top-notch, humorous book. For those who are those guys, you can take a read and see if you can relate and also enjoy the banter and more… Find out more in the blurb and review as well as a link to the show he has at The Edinburgh Fringe that relates to this book.
First, thanks to Random T. Tours for inviting me to the blog tour and for arranging a copy of the book to be sent to me.

Blurb

If you see a man drinking a pint in an airport pub alone, that’s a bloke.
If you see a man driving to the tip on a Saturday morning with a smile on his face, that’s a bloke.
And if you see a man heading back from the tip and on the way to the pub, that’s a very happy bloke.

The British Bloke appears simple and straightforward. He loves football, cricket, beer and sheds. But beneath that simple exterior lies a mysterious and complex being…

In The British Bloke Decoded, writer, comedian and regular bloke, Geoff Norcott, peels back the layers of blokedom, revealing the truth behind the behaviour of Britain’s husbands, dads, brothers and friends. He dives into the value of banter, the roots of mansplaining, the near impossibility of getting blokes to send birthday cards, and whether there could be a medal system for vacuuming.

Based on 46 years of intensive field research and semi-scientific insights, this book is a celebration of. the simple British bloke in all his splendour.

Review

After many years of research, there’s finally a book that decodes The British Bloke. In quick chapters about the bloke, it gives insight into their perspective on other people, sports, films and the why they are how they are in personality and various foibles.

Geoff Norcott explains it all, the whole developing from a lad to a chap to becoming the guy that then grows further in into becoming The British Bloke, who wants a medal for doing household chores and even for being perhaps a stage further in the fatherhood stakes than their own dad. Then there’s also the man-flu, which is particularly pleasing to have been included, after all that’s what we all need to know, isn’t it? This mysterious flu that happens at a drop of a hat.

Through the facts, there is much humour to be had. It’s a rather fun book, with elements of seriousness in it to read. It has so much that is relatable and recognisable. It’s attempted rather well to explain all that we’ve been witnessing for years.

I recommend this humorous, fact-filled, non-fiction book that’s perfect for everyone’s book collection.

Find Tickets at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the biggest fringe festival in the world in the link here: https://tickets.edfringe.com/venues/underbelly-bristo-square