#Review By Lou of Secrets of Villa Amore By Carol Kirkwood @carolkirkwood @HarperCollinsUK #SecretsofVillaAmore

Secrets of Villa Amore
By Carol Kirkwood

Cosy up against the storm, Carol Kirkwood has been showing on BBC Breakfast Weather and be transported to those hazy days of summer sunshine and fun with her third book: Secrets of Villa Amore. As with previous books, they are standalones. Find out more in the blurb and my review below…

Blurb

The new sun-drenched summer read from the bestselling author and TV presenter By the glittering shores of the Mediterranean, two families gather for the wedding of the year.

Carina is marrying her childhood sweetheart, Giorgio. He isn’t the person she thinks he is.

Hollywood starlet Edie is the dazzling bridesmaid. She’s hiding something that could destroy her best friend.

Mother-of-the-bride Philippa is stunned by the arrival of a lover from her past. Can her marriage survive?

As the guests gather under the azure skies of the Amalfi coast, scandal and intrigue are waiting to be revealed, and one of the guests will do anything to hide the truth …

Get swept away by Carol’s compelling page-turner, you won’t want to put it down.

Review

Carol Kirkwood “sent” readers to a Greek Island then to The English Riviera and this time around, let’s join in the ride to the glitz and glam of the Villa Amore on the Amalfi Coast. Feel the heat radiating from the sun in azure skies and the rich atmosphere as you turn the pages and meet childhood sweethearts, Carina and Giorgio. It all sounds sweet and so perfect, except it isn’t. It’s full of drama as key people want to be elsewhere and secrets start to emerge and it all becomes rather messy and with it with scandal. Kirkwood knows how to twist things and knows people can’t resist a scandal, so that’s what she presents in this book, along with enough charm to ensure you’re already hooked and then reels you in even more because of course you just have to find out what happens next, with the amount of intrigue created to see what other secrets and lies there are to emerge. It seems everyone has something to hide or thought not to come back into being in their lives. Suddenly, not all seems so perfect after all in the world of “how the other half live.” There is also, at the heart of this, as well as secrets of course, is friendship and well-drawn characters and the setting is almost a character itself in a way, not overly descriptive, but enough to pull you there and keep you on the Amalfi Coast until what is a satisfying ending.

*Thanks to Harper Collins for providing an e-book.

Perhaps also consider taking look at sites such as Bookshop.org to buy.
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Please note, I am not affiliated in any way to the website I’ve chosen to feature here and my review is my own opinions.

#Review By Lou of: Went to London, Took the Dog: A Diary by Nina Stibbe @ninastibbe @CamillaElworthy @panmacmillan #WentToLondonTookTheDog

Went to London, Took The Dog: A Diary
By Nina Stibbe

Review by Louise (Lou)

Went To London, Took the Dog: A Diary is witty and candid and having being a fan of her books ever since a friend bought me Love, Nina for a Christmas present years ago, I’ve been enjoying her books ever since.

This book was another I just knew I really wanted to read. It’s perfect for travelling with or for those days where you want to be entertained. Let’s find out what it is about in the blurb and then as you travel down, you’ll come across my full review.

Blurb

Twenty years after leaving London, Nina Stibbe is back in town with her dog, Peggy. Together they take up lodging in the house of writer Deborah (Debby) Moggach in Camden for ‘a year-long sabbatical’. It’s a break from married life back in Cornwall, or even perhaps a fresh start altogether.

Debby does not have many demands – only to water the garden, watch for toads, and defrost the odd pie – so Nina is free to explore the city she once called home. Between scrutinising her son’s online dating developments, navigating the politics of the local pool, and taking detergent advice at the laundrette, this diary of a sixty-year-old runaway reunites us with the inimitable voice of Love, Nina, as the writer becomes, as she puts it, ‘a proper adult’ at last.

Review

Whether you want to dip into the diary entries every now and then or read in one go, Went to London, Took the Dog is an absolute delight to read. Nina and her dog Peggy are on an adventure back to London, where she once called home, about 20 years ago and she takes readers in a wise, humorous journey.

Friendship, parenthood and the literati are all spoken about. The way Stibbe writes is with great wit and fantastic comic-timing, but then she also brings emotion too, especially the reason why she’s taken this trip, it truly is a sabbatical and one because of how her marriage now is, bravely showing a bit of vulnerability. She magnificently brings the everyday, the life stuff that many people do like eat pie, complain about the dog poo, meet friends, contemplate being an adult etc. It’s all relatable. It’s the way that it is all written down on the page that makes this magnificent. She has a way of drawing her reader into her life, even from afar, just a little. Her creativity for bringing her life experiences onto the page and making it enthralling and ingeniously witty and warm, as, in turn, can’t help but care about what she writes and what she’s conveying. I love that she can still bring this, even through tough times.

Nina Stibbe is 61 and also now menopausal, but it doesn’t matter if you’re of similar age or, like me, younger, this is one of the best diaries published in book form that I’ve read in a while.

Published 2nd November 2023, you can treat yourself or buy as a gift at Bookshop.org Waterstones and many other retailers.

*Thanks to Camilla Elworthy for sending me the copy of the book.
Please note that opinions are my own and are impartial.

#BookReview By Lou of That Festive Feeling By Heidi Swain @Heidi_Swain @simonschusterUK @RandomTTours #BlogTour #ChristmasReads #Christmas

That Festive Feeling
By Heidi Swain

Review By Louise (Lou)

This Christmas, cosy up with That Festive Feeling, a seasonal book that will melt the iciness outside and the heart inside to get into the festive spirit. Today, I am on the blog tour, thanks to Random T. Tours for inviting me. Discover the blurb, my review and a bit about the author below.

Blurb

Holly has the place to herself this Christmas. It’s not her place, though – she is house-sitting for friends who live on Nightingale Square – just there to keep the place warm and cosy and only for long enough for her to sort her life out. Newly single and finding herself unsure about next steps for her career, she plans to hunker down and make some life decisions.

To clear her mind, she sets off on early morning walks around a nearby lake and bumps into May, an older lady who is also new to the area, and her dapper Dachshund Monty. Quickly, a firm friendship blossoms. Then when Holly meets Bear, a rather large and rather attractive man, at the local pub, and his rescue dog Queenie, her stay at Nightingale Square suddenly feels even more appealing.

As the community comes together for the season’s festivities, Holly must start thinking about where her life will take her next. Some big decisions need to be made, but distractions close to home make thinking about the future more tricky than ever…

Will she get that festive feeling this Christmas…?

Review

That Festive Feeling brings that feeling of wrapping up in a cosy fleece blanket with a mug of hot chocolate and marshmallows, hunkering down the house and indulging in some you time with a great book to sweep you away.

The book can be read as a standalone or as part of the series. Essentially the stories are complete within themselves, whether you are returning to the warmth of Nightingale Square or are a newcomer, like Holly, who is housesitting for a friend. By the end, you leave, not only with a real sense of the character and scenery of the place, but also where people live, in the detailed writing that has a light touch.

Nightingale Square is painted as a wonderful place to live in, even through its challenging times as a community or for individuals living there, it has some of the best spirit. It’s a generational rom-com, which is brilliant for readers of many ages.

This time, readers meet Holly, an inescapably befitting name for this new Christmas book. She’s newly single and housesitting, which gives her a change of scene to work out what she truly desires as her next stage in life. As a reader, we can enjoy Nightingale Square when Holly takes to her walks. Upon meeting May and her Dachshund, a new friendship sparks and we see Holly fitting in pretty well. She also meets Bear, a rather attractive man in the local pub and the feeling of romance is in the air.
Life isn’t as easy as that. This in someways has thrown a curveball for Holly as she has decisions to make about what she wants out of life and what to do as time marches on. She has her future to work out as festivities happen all around her, which she may or may not be quite in the mood for.

That Festive Feeling is a snug book to cosy up against the fierce wintry weather or how about buying it for someone as a present this Christmas to bring them joy and comfort.

About the Author

Heidi lives in beautiful south Norfolk with her family and a mischievous cat called Storm. She is passionate about gardening, the countryside, collecting vintage paraphernalia and reading.
Her TBR pile is always out of control!

#Review By Lou of Search Performed By Mark Watson on a UK Tour @comedianwatson #StandUpComedy #Theatre #ComedyGig #UKTour

Review of Search – Standup Comedy
Performed By Mark Watson

Review By Louise Cannon (Lou)

If you’re in need of a laugh and desire a great night out, look towards Mark Watson and his live comedy show – Search. He’s on a UK wide Tour Now – Details below.
Mark Watson is a seasoned comedian and writer of comedy and books, known for being on TV shows like Taskmaster and Mock the Week.

The laughter just kept coming, from start to finish, with well-constructed jokes with some clear talent for improvisation as he had a couple of hecklers in the crowd, which he masterfully made light of.

From jokes about the weather to precarious flights to parenting groups on WhatsApp, his storylines had relatable storylines with excellent punchlines.
He had great stories to tell about his family in-relation to search engines and also spends some time focusing on the location of where he is performing and discovering what an internet search brings up.
Intelligently, as well as seeing what the internet throws up for his search, he also searches in his main themes, the meaning of everything we do in life, how anxiety inducing subjects impact life, in this case, with his dad’s health (he’s fine now) and his teenager with a new phone, signalling he is no longer the living alternative to Google to answer all the questions of the day.

He’s quite revealing about himself as he lets audiences in a little bit more into his life of being divorced, how a withering comment made in a supermarket to him, that forever sticks in his mind, involving some fruit that is far from the norm.

Big meaty topics, bring lots of humour throughout the show.

Mark Watson is a comedian I highly recommend and his latest show – Search is one to go to for a great night out.

I saw Mark Watson at the Tolbooth, Stirling, Scotland.
Find out more tour dates around the UK and book tickets in this link: UK Tour Dates

#Review By Lou of Fatal Blow By Brian Price @crimewritersci @HobeckBooks #CrimeFiction

Fatal Blow
By Brian Price

This series, set in Mexton, that can be read in or out of order is exciting and worth following. Today, I am on blog tour for Fatal Blow. Find out more about the book in the blurb below and then my review below.

Blurb

A shattering revenge attack Mexton’s Major Crimes team is targeted by an Albanian crime gang as an explosion rips through the unit’s base.
For DC Mel Cotton – the attack is all too personal. DC Tom Ferris is seriously injured in the blast. His fiancée, Mel, maybe physically unharmed but she’s dealing with wounds you can’t see. She’s determined to return to work, but is she ready?
Death on her doorstep Mel’s latest case is close to home – investigating a body found in her and Tom’s garden, the body of someone last heard of in Australia. Can she catch the murderer? And can anyone stop the Albanian crime gang on their ruthless campaign of revenge?

Review

From an explosive beginning, you know you’re in for quite a high adrenaline ride. Fatal Blow is book 4 in the DC Mel Cotton or Fatal series – Fatal Trade, Fatal Hate, Fatal Dose, Fatal Blow.

Mexton’s Major Crimes Unit is not only under threat, but under fire in scenes it’s not faced before, not to this extent. DC Tom Ferris’s life hangs in the balance and DC Mel Cotton has emotional scars to deal with. It’s an emotional read. If you’ve followed the characters from the start, you may have grown attached to them, so by this book, you’ll really care about what happens to them.

The OCG – Albanian crime gang want revenge and to bring back the criminal activity that the police had been trying to put a stop to.

A body in a garden is of a person who was assumed to be in Australia.

DC Mel Cotton is determined to capture the murderer and whoever planted the bomb, harming her and her fiancé.

It’s a very involving book as cases weave in and out, giving an insight into policing and how there isn’t only one case on the go and also how the police have their personal lives.

It’s another gripping and fast paced book that has a sense of realism and yet the ability to be compelling. Fatal Blow is, especially a tense page-turner with insight to a police station.

So, I certainly recommend readers head to their favourite reading spot and turn their attention to Mexton, a place, safe enough from the armchair, but not necessarily in the written word on the pages.

Thanks to Hobeck Books for inviting me onto the blog tour with a copy of the book in-exchange of an honest review.

#Review By Lou of Lovers By Fran Clark @FranClarkAuthor

Lovers
By Fran Clark

Review By Louise

Cosy up this autumn with Lovers by Fran Clark.

Beautifully and emotively written as the words paint a compelling picture of life and love. Discover more in the blurb and then my review below.

Blurb

It’s Soho, 1983, and Charlie’s world is moved by the female singer in a blues band. Brenda sings at the Soho Cellar and Charlie is about to fall into a love story that was never meant to be.

In 2020, their story rises from the ashes and pulls a group of strangers into its heart. They are all trying to start a new story of their own. As their worlds intertwine, love is just a coincidence away.

For love to conquer, they each need to take a chance. But will a perfect stranger become a perfect lover?

Review

Lovers is beautifully written and pulls you deeply in. Even the description of rain is emotive. Ione is who you meet at first. She has lost someone dear to her and it pulls, hard, at your heartstrings. If you read this book and ever know how that feels and to have the ashes in your possession, you’ll feel it, as Ione does, in every fibre of her body, but especially the heart. It is also emotional because there is abuse, that is written starkly.

There is Marta, a Polish woman, who meets Elliott, a 42 year old with a teenage daughter, in a music shop, selling instruments. His eyes are emotive and makes you wonder what he’s thinking when he has not got a customer in the shop. The writing reminds me of a painting I like that used to hang in the National Gallery in Scotland. I would look at it often and wonder what the lady was thinking as she was being painted. It all has the same effect of drawing on the curious mind.

Marta is funny in a way. She is very matter-of-fact when it comes to Elliott’s shop.

There’s Charlie, who likes Motown and sadly has something lifechanging happen to him.

Together, these characters portray a sensual and compelling look at life and love, whether it is through landscape or relationships between lovers or family, sometimes with an air of joy and other times, with an air of melancholy.

Lovers is a book to read and get fully immersed with the characters lives.