#Review By Lou of The Holiday Bookshop #LucyDickens @PenguinRandom #SummerRead #BeachRead #TheHolidayBookshop

The Holiday Bookshop
By Lucy Dickens

A quick look at the blurb that reads like an ad for a job as a bookseller in a beautiful location and I am hooked. I also would like the job….

The Holiday Bookshop

Blurb

Are you looking to start a new chapter?
Role: Bookseller wanted! (3-month fixed-term contract) Location: A luxury resort on the island of Bounty Cove Cay.
Skills required: The ideal candidate will have experience in a retail environment, preferably within the book industry.
Desired qualities: This role will appeal to a book lover with an adventurous streak who is looking for an escape from their everyday life.
What to expect: Sun, sea, and a bookshop that is far from thriving. No one said it would be smooth sailing.
Please note: You may fall in love with more than just our island along the way…
Looking for your next beach read? Look no further! Escape with The Holiday Bookshop, perfect for fans of Jo Thomas, Phillipa Ashley and Jenny Colgan.

Review

Okay, so I would love the job and maybe I could be somehow spared for 3 months from normal life. I am just about all those things and I could easily get around not working in a bookshop before due to retail and other book experience.

Okay, I’m obviously not the candidate. Jen is the successful candidate and is off for a new life in the Maldives to run the bookshop.

Jen and Marianne were once best friends, but something happened that caused cracks, that becomes a bit of a rift. They ran and co-owned a bookshop called:
The Book Nook, so you really feel for them that things aren’t working out quite as well as they might and both end up leaving Marianne’s brother to run it. Jen, as said, goes off to the Maldives and Mari, along with her boyfriend, plan a trip of a lifetime.

The book is part adventure as it takes you from your cosy reading nook to various places by page. It’s adventure by location and life as, especially Jen, when she meets different people, discovers something quite special, but just needed a nudge to see it.

It’s a lovely read, just when it’s that time of year of planning holidays or lazing around on a beach for a day or even in the garden on a warm day. Even on a rainy day, this brings guaranteed sunshine and joy.

#Review By Lou of The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne By Freya North @freya_north @welbeckpublish #TheUnfinishedBusinessOfEadieBrown

The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne
By Freya North

The Unfinished Business of Freya North is a book I first heard about at a bookish showcase of new books. It instantly grabbed my attention. Being transported to the 1980’s was more than worth it. Discover the blurb and my review below, thanks to Welbeck for the book, in-exchange of an honest review.

Blurb

When your present meets your past, what do you take with you – and what do you leave behind?

Eadie Browne is an odd child with unusual parents, living in a strange house neighbouring the local cemetery. Bullied at school – but protected by her two best friends, Celeste and Josh, and her many imaginary friends lying six feet under next door – Eadie muddles her way through.

Arriving in Manchester as a student in the late 1980s, Eadie confronts a busy, gritty Victorian metropolis a far cry from the small Garden City she’s left behind. Soon enough she experiences a novel freedom she never imagined and it’s seductive. She can be who she wants to be, do as she pleases, and no one back home needs to know. As Manchester embraces the dizzying, colourful euphoria of Rave counterculture, Eadie is swept along, blithely ignoring danger and reality. Until, one night, her past comes hurtling at her with ramifications which will continue into her adult life.

Now, as the new millennium beckons, Eadie is turning thirty with a marriage in tatters. She must travel back to where she once lived for a funeral she can’t quite comprehend. As she journeys from the North to the South, from the present to the past, Eadie contemplates all that was then – and all that is now – in this moving love letter to youth.

Review

Be transported back to the 1980’s and feel nostalgic for how things were, especially if you were young and full of energy and zest for life. Eadie Browne is such a character. She arrives in Manchester, a far cry from what she was used to, but ready to embrace all that the city has to offer. It’s also a signalling of being able to leave her childhood behind her, when she was bullied and hung out at a cemetery by her house and talked to the dead.

In Manchester, she embraces her freedom and the rave scenes. I was too young to go to any, but was very aware and decided it wasn’t my scene, but it was Eadie’s. She’s swept along in a world of counterculture and drugs, E (ecstasy) was rather prevalent. She also has another problem, her past, unwittingly catches up with her and follows her, with quite a gripping twist.

The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne is moving in how it shows her present and past. It’s an emotional an engaging read. In some ways, it is also a love letter to youth that holds some wisdom.

#Review By Lou of The Spy Across The Water By James Naughtie @naughtiej @AriesFiction @rararesources #Espionage #Spies #BlogTour

The Spy Across the Water
By James Naughtie

If you like Spy, Espionage or even just a fan of James Naughtie’s career on the news, you’ll be easily pulled into The Spy Across The Water. I’ve also, on this occasion, decided to attach a link after my review, of the talk he gave at Bloody Scotland. Discover more about the author too.

Blurb

From one of our most treasured BBC broadcasters, The Spy Across the Water is the third instalment in James Naughtie’s brilliant spy series, woven around three brothers bound together through espionage.

We live with our history, but it can kill us.

Faces from the past appear from nowhere at a family funeral, and Will Flemyng, spy-turned-ambassador, is drawn into twin mysteries that threaten everything he holds dear.

From Washington, he’s pitched back into the Troubles in Northern Ireland and an explosive secret hidden deep in the most dangerous but fulfilling friendship he has known.

And while he confronts shadowy adversaries in American streets, and looks for solace at home in the Scottish Highlands, he discovers that his government’s most precious Cold War agent is in mortal danger and needs his help to survive.

In an electric story of courage and betrayal, Flemyng learns the truth that his life has left him a man with many friends, but still alone.

Review

Will Flemyng, the British Ambassador in Washington is who’s story you follow.
The political backdrop on what is happening with Northern Ireland creates this fast-paced, well detailed thriller with facts throughout the fiction.
There’s much tension to be felt within the espionage and the secrets.

Naughtie allows readers to take a look into the inner-workings of the embassy, which is quite fascinating.

A Scottish retreat in Perthshire, provides a bit of glamour. It is lavish and creates intrigue through the character interactions and events.

Essentially, it is quite a powerful and suspenseful book with intricate plotting, but not complicated to follow as the pace carries you through in a way that makes you want to know what happens next.

Link to Talk: Bloody Scotland Write-Up

About the Author

James Naughtie is a special correspondent for BBC News, for which he has reported from around the world. He presented Today on BBC Radio 4 for 21 years. This his third novel, and his most recent book is an account of five decades of travel and work in the United States – On the Road: American Adventures from Nixon to Trump. He lives in Edinburgh and London.

#Review By Lou of The Trial By Rob Rinder @robbierinder @PenguinRandom #TheTrial #CrimeFiction #LegalThriller #CourtroomDrama

The Trial
By Rob Rinder

I bought The Trial ahead of Rob Rinder’s appearance at Bloody Scotland. It’s a terrific debut. Author Tony Parsons says: “I have not enjoyed a legal thriller this much since Grisham’s The Firm”. Fair enough, but for me, I reckon The Trial, even as a debut book, is even better than The Firm. Discover the blurb and my full review below. I have also attached a write up on a talk I saw at crime book festival, Bloody Scotland as Rob Rinder was on a panel, interviewed about his debut novel and more… He gives fascinating insights… find it after my review of The Trial.

Blurb

**NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**

ONE MURDER. ONE IMPOSSIBLE CASE. WHO IS GUILTY?

When hero policeman Grant Cliveden dies from a poisoning in the Old Bailey, it threatens to shake the country to its core.

The evidence points to one man. Jimmy Knight has been convicted of multiple offences before and defending him will be no easy task. Not least because this is trainee barrister Adam Green’s first case.

But it will quickly become clear that Jimmy Knight is not the only person in Cliveden’s past with an axe to grind.

The only thing that’s certain is that this is a trial which will push Adam – and the justice system itself – to the limit.

Review

Opening lines, they’re important and the one in The Trial is fantastic! Right there, in one short sentence, there’s emotion and intrigue, centering Detective Inspector Grant Cliveden, formerly of Royal Security to now presenting a strategy on crime on morning tv in an interview.

The book is insightful into what it can be like being a pupil barrister as readers follow Adam Green with his hopes for tenancy in a Chambers and also get to know other people at the Bar. Rinder clearly uses all his experience and weaves this into the story very well, allowing the reader to be getting a good look into what happens behind the scenes, as it were, of Chambers with the cut and thrust of life there. Not all cases are an immediate desire to take on, however much a colleague thinks it perhaps should be.

There’s also the personal life of Adam Green and a glimpse into the family. This, combined with the cases he sees, the main one being the death of D.I. Cliveden.

It’s an intriguing and pacy plot with twists and turns and overall, a good read that you can lose yourself in, with a great ending.

Click into the Link below for the talk write-up

Bloody Scotland Write Up on Talk with Rob Rinder

#Review By Lou of Found In A Bookshop By Stephanie Butland @under_blue_sky @headlinepg @HeadlineFiction #FoundInABookshop

Found In A Bookshop
By Stephanie Butland

Who wouldn’t want to be found in a bookshop in York? Discover the blurb and my review below the cover.

Blurb

Loveday Cardew’s beloved Lost for Words bookshop, along with the rest of York, has fallen quiet. At the very time when people most need books to widen their horizons, or escape from their fears, or enhance their lives, the doors are closed. Then the first letter comes.

Rosemary and George have been married for fifty years. Now their time is running out. They have decided to set out on their last journey together, without ever leaving the bench at the bottom of their garden in Whitby. All they need is someone who shares their love of books.

Suddenly it’s clear to Loveday that she and her team can do something useful in a crisis. They can recommend books to help with the situations their customers find themselves in: fear, boredom, loneliness, the desire for laughter and escape.

And so it begins.

Review

York is a beautiful city, a place I have visited many times. It has quite a history, with lovely streets to boot and is a great setting for Found In A Bookshop as basically some of those streets lend themselves wonderfully to this. You can truly picture a bookshop on a quaint street and want to work there.

Loveday Cardew sets up her bookshop, Lost For Words (which incidentally actually made me remember a fantastic children’s book of the same name of the shop by Natalie Russell, that I have read to many children). Anyway, back to the book in question.

The year is 2020 and lockdown has happened as Covid sweeps the nation. Loveday Cardew comes up with an idea of recommending books to people in certain situations, whether the author was piqued by part of what librarians organise, who knows or some Indie bookshops do too.
Anyway, as you read the book, it becomes something quite heart-warming as this adds some soul as, in a sense it shows a little of community spirit. It shows that, whatever you do, even in business, you can do something to help people’s lives a little in times of uncertainty.
It’s also interesting getting to know customer’s lives and not all are happy ones as there’s some real hardship for some of them, with broken relationships and loneliness playing a part.
There’s also a love story as Rosemary and George, married for 50 years set on a wonderful journey and “travel” for miles, through books as they come closer to the end of their life. For me, they were most endearing and it is them that kept me the most hooked.
Books play a big part, one way or another in the character’s lives, to remedy them, be part of them etc. It is, after all, true to say that there is/was a time when books were prescribed and certain places held lists and stock of what to read for wellbeing and certain circumstances and this book touches a bit into this.

Overall, it’s an interesting book with succinct narratives that intrigue and give a feeling of warmth. It may even make you wonder what you might find in a bookshop and which one you’ll be found in.

#Review By Lou of Expert Gardening Guide – Create Your Own Nature Garden By Joe Swift #JoeSwift #GardenersWorld #CreateYourOwnNatureGarden #Gardening #GardeningGuide #Spring #Summer #Nature #Plants #Flowers

Nature Garden
By Joe Swift

Now’s the time to start thinking about your garden and planning ahead for spring and summer. Will you add to it? Change it? Nature Garden is inspiring. Find out more in the blurb and my review below of Create Your Own Nature Garden, whether you’re a beginner, intermediate or expert, there’s always something new to pick up.

Blurb

Support and protect the natural world with tips from expert gardener Joe Swift.

With around 16 million UK gardens covering a larger area than all our nature reserves, you could say our largest nature reserve is one big garden! In this practical guide, Joe shows you how to support and protect our rich and varied wildlife habitats.

Joe’s no-nonsense approach covers everything you need to know about doing your bit for wildlife. Learn how to manage soil and carefully select plants to create rich and varied habitats, from tall trees down to tiny, spring-flowering bulbs.

In this book, Joe demonstrates how to manage your outdoor space sensitively, and debunks the common misconception that ‘wildlife-friendly gardens’ have to be unkempt.

From bug hotels to pollinators, he also shares his ideas on fun and innovative projects to help kids, as the future custodians of our planet, engage with nature.

Joe Swift is an author, TV presenter and garden designer. He makes regular appearances on BBC’s Gardener’s World and the RHS Flower Shows

Review

I like Joe Swift’s books. I reviewed a book of his about Houseplants. It was so good, I bought a copy for a friend’s Christmas and she loved it very much for its tips.

Nature Garden is another book with a great, easy to use layout, full of hints, tips and practical advice for what to plant to create or add to your garden.

We all know garden’s are great for the environment and for wellbeing. With this book, you can attract bees and butterflies etc and create a wonderful chilled out space for you and your family.
This book shows it doesn’t have to be complicated and you can create something good, whatever your budget and space.

Gardens change in fashion all the time and now is the age of the nature garden, where plants and configurations of them is to encourage wildlife and help it along. Joe Swift guides you by the hand to do this, in a gentle and helpful way. Even on the page, it feels like he could easily be there in-person as the book tells you everything you need to know, even which plants are best and how to plant them.

I highly recommend this easy to use book, that you can dip in and out of for help and to inspire. So, I wonder what you’re going to plant this year…