#Review By Lou of While We’re Young By K.L. Walther @kl_walther #UltimateBlogTour @The_WriteReads #YA #Romance #Romcom #BlogTour

While We’re Young
By K.L. Walther

While We’re Young is a road trip for young adults. What will they get up to on their journey? Will the friendship still be intact at the end and what about the messy romance? This is a book to dive into for pure escapism.
This is a new contemporary romance from the NYT bestselling author of Tik-Tok sensation, The Summer of Broken Rules, K.L. Walther.

Check out the blurb below and my full review, which I bring to you as part of The Write Reads blog tour.

Blurb

Grace, Isa, and Everett used to be an inseparable trio before their love lives became a tangled mess. For starters, Grace is secretly in love with Everett, who used to go out with Isa before breaking her heart in the infamous Freshman Year Fracture. And, oh yeah, no one knows that Isa has been hanging out with James, Grace’s brother—and if Grace finds out, it could ruin their friendship.

With graduation fast approaching, Grace decides an unsanctioned senior skip day in Philadelphia might be just what they need to fix things. All she has to do is convince Isa to help her kidnap Everett and outmaneuver James, who’s certain his sister is up to something.

In an epic day that includes racing up the famous Rocky steps, taste-testing Philly’s finest cheesesteaks, and even crashing a wedding, their secrets are bound to collide. But can their hearts withstand the wreckage?

Four friends. One day off. A whole heap of trouble – this is the perfect love story for readers to escape with this summer and ticks all the boxes for fans of Carley Fortune, Lynn Painter and Emily Henry.

Review

Escapism is just a turn of the page away… It’s light-hearted with friendships, romance and absolute mischief and trouble. With secret love and emotions kept hidden and friendships that become entangled amongst this, it does somewhat pose the questions, how it could end and how messy are things going to get on this adventure?

The pace is quite good and nothing seems over-explained to ruin this, but the setting is nicely written to absorb you into it. There’s some humour and fun throughout the book with the many antics that go on between the friends. With each step into different plans comes just more hi-jinks. It makes a good young adult book that brings laughs with enough to also pull you into wondering what can possibly happen next.
There are also dreams and aspirations with certain lifestyles to explore as well as this next stage in life that the friends try to navigate.

While We’re Young is enough to capture readers to take them to another place for a little while. It’s a book that’s relaxing to ease the cares of the day away into one nice read.

#Review By Lou of The Love Interest By Victoria Walters @Vicky_Walters @BoldWoodBooks #BlogTour #RomFic #Romcom #RomanticComedy #RespectRomFic

The Love Interest
By Victoria Walters

Review written by Louise Cannon

Swoon, have a laugh and take the plunge like Mr Darcy into The Love Interest, perhaps avoiding the water, Dip into the blurb and my review below. Her other books encompass The Summer at the Kindness Cafe and Murder at the Summer Fete, which I also recommend, and others.
Today is my turn on the Rachel’s Random Resources/BoldWood Books Blog Tour.
All opinions are my own and as ever, with no spoilers.

Blurb

No man can be as good as the one in your imagination…

Librarian Liv Thomas has always dreamed of writing a romance novel. But she’s stuck when it comes to creating a romantic hero – sadly – lacking anyone in real life to base him on.

When her brother suggests his best friend stay in their shared flat for a few weeks, she can’t believe her bad luck. Aiden Rivers is irritating and pushes all her buttons. Worst of all, he’s gorgeous, has a sexy accent and reminds her of her all-time favourite character Mr Darcy.

Liv finds herself unexpectedly inspired and the leading man in her novel begins to bear an uncanny resemblance to Aiden. He can never find out though: she’d never live it down. Because Aiden can only ever be her love interest in the pages of her book – and definitely not in real life… right?!

A laugh-out-loud enemies to lovers rom com, perfect for those who spend far too much time thinking about Mr Darcy coming out of the lake!

Review

The Love Interest is a fun rom-com. Maybe libraries can be romantic places after all. Maybe libraries can spark the imagination and aspiration. Maybe librarians aren’t old and stuffy as can be perceived.

Librarian, Liv has read many books and recommended just as many. Now she dreams of creating her own book for those shelves, the hands that touch them and the eyes that read them. She is an aspiring romantic novelist, but is discovering she has no substance to her loveable rogue, the hero of the piece.

As for her brother, you don’t know whether to yell at him or hug him. I mean, he left Aiden Rivers, one of the most irritating men ever to stay with her and yet becomes her muse as she writes and writes a character who may just become someone resembling one people will want to read. Just shows that even the most annoying of people may spark something into life, even when you may have an instinct to kick them out.
If you’ve read Pride and Prejudice and seen the 90’s film version, then you really get the sense of what Aiden sounds like, basically in my head, a bit like Colin Firth.

Victoria Walters has created characters you want to see how it ends up, especially whether writing on a page can ever translate into real life in good-terms.

It’s worth taking the plunge into The Love Interest for warm-hearted entertainment. It isn’t hilarious all the time, but there are enough laughs and it is a good read to jolly life along and make those happy endorphins leap around and fill you with happiness.

Buy Link:
Waterstones WH Smith

#Review By Lou of: Stand-Up Guy By Nina Kaye @NinaKayeAuthor @canelo_co @rararesources #BlogTour #StandUpGuy

Stand-Up Guy
By Nina Kaye

Stand-Up Guy is a heart-warming book, set around the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. For those who don’t know what this is, it is the biggest fringe festival in the world that lasts for the whole month of August. There’s a mix of comedians, plays, musicals, music of many genres, cabaret, magic. talks and more…
This was one of the things that grabbed my immediate interest, having attending it quite a number of times over the years. That, and I liked the idea that there could be romance under those sometimes blue, sometimes grey Edinburgh skies.
It gives me great pleasure to conclude this blog tour with my review. Discover this and the blurb below…

Blurb

Dumped by Instagram post. Not a whiff of a social life. Can it get any worse?

After a string of failed relationships – romantic and platonic – Lea’s had enough of watching life happen without her. When she bumps into Shep, a comedian at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in need of accommodation, it feels like destiny. And voilá – Lea now has a lodger and some company.

The two get on like a flat on fire, and Lea can’t resist falling for outgoing Shep. But she knows it’s a mistake that will cost her heart – he’s just another guy passing through, after all. And with Shep’s stand-up routine edging him closer to his big break, there’s no way he’ll stick around.

Love is no laughing matter as the Fringe draws to a close. Can Lea find the confidence to step up and confess her feelings to Shep? Will he want to stay?

A feel-good, heartwarming romance for anyone desperate to break out of their shell and find their true self.

Review

I liked just how contemporary this book was. I mean, being dumped, not just by text, but over Instagram, harsh, but I can imagine that happening.
Lea is so unlucky in love!

Shep is a new comedian who has a stand-up routine he will perform at the Edinburgh Fringe. He doesn’t have any accommodation, until he conveniently bumps into Lea, who by that time could do with the company. Loneliness has seeped a lot into her life. What better than some unexpected excitement of a new lodger, even one who is a stranger, after all, he could be the next best comedian, since lots of people in real life started out at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and are now huge household names, some who still graciously perform at the festival.
Nina Kaye paints the city in August very well. You can feel the overarching atmosphere brimming with energy and fun that hangs in the air at that time of year, when it’s festival time.

Shep, it turns out is good and gets positive reviews, but isn’t supported by his family, so Lea shows hers. So, there’s humour to be had in this book as well as possible romance sizzles in the air, as well as a bit of wonderment as to whether Lea will say how she feels about Shep before time runs out and he, like the other performers, return home.

Both main characters have quite a bit of self-discovery within their lives as they work out just what they are capable of doing and feeling and what direction they want to take their lives in and how to be authentic.

Overall, Stand-Up Guy is an engaging heart-warming book with some humour, some sadness, some fun and some heartfelt chats and some poignancy.

#BookReview By Lou of The Back Up Man by Phoebe Luckhurst @pheobeluckhurst @MichaelJBooks #TheBackUpMan is a witty #Romcom

The Back Up Man
By Phoebe Luckhurst

Today I have my review of a humorous romantic read – The Back Up Man. Find the blurb below and then my review.

Blurb

*Shortlisted author for the The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize*

‘Fresh, funny, satisfying – it’s everything I want in a book’ Holly Miller, author of Richard and Judy pick The Sight of You

They made a pact to marry at thirty.

The problem? Euan’s nowhere to be found.

Can Anya track down her back up man . . . ?

Twenty-nine, single, jobless and in a house share with her cousin who can barely look at her, things could be going better for Anya Mackie.

When she stumbles across the pact she made with high school crush, Euan Carrick – to marry at thirty if they’re still single – a silly teenage idea suddenly seems like a lifeline.

However, Euan hasn’t been seen for a decade.

Reluctantly enlisting the help of Euan’s emotionally unavailable best mate Jamie Kildare, who has his own mysterious reasons for tracking Euan down, Anya sets off across the country to find her Back Up Man.

Will Euan even remember her, or their pact?
And why is Anya betting her future on her past?

The Back Up Man is a hilariously romantic tale of mishaps and matrimony, love and long shots, foibles and friendship, that may make you text that old school boyfriend of yours . . .

Review

We all think of plan A right? We know so much about the “plan A” man, but give little to no thought about a “plan B” man. This is where the fresh look at romance comes in. It is about exactly that – The Back Up Man.

Anya is a food influencer with aspirations, so have snacks at your side. It makes you hungry. She may be doing well in that field, but her love life isn’t going quite so well. She has broken up with a man and even her best friend lives miles away. It sparks a promise made long ago, so the hunt is on to find her backup man. You really feel for Anya because she is so down on her luck as things go wrong and she tries to seize her past. As the book goes on, it becomes rather funny as certain events happen.

It is a cosy romantic comedy with heart. It has a layered pace, that starts off relaxed and builds. All in all, this is a book to have on-hand as part of a relaxed weekend.

#Review By Lou of The Man I Met On Holiday By Fiona Gibson @FionaGibson @AvonBooksUK #ContemporryFiction #Romcom #HolidayRead

The Man I Met On Holiday
By Fiona Gibson

I have a review on a lovely holiday read – The Man I Met on Holiday. Thanks to Avon Books.

Blurb

A hilarious and heart-warming tale of second chance love, perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Kristen Bailey and Jill Mansell.

Is he just a summer fling? Or the one she’s been waiting for?…

How Lauren thought her summer holiday would go: Priceless mother-son memories of swimming and sunshine before Charlie leaves for university.

How things actually are, now they’re here: Charlie refusing to speak to her, locked in a darkened room in their Corsican cottage, and a creeping sense of dread contemplating the rest of her life alone.

Although Charlie has decided that holidays with Mum are now deeply uncool, Lauren is determined not to waste this trip. Then she meets James, who was supposed to be holidaying with his daughter but is now, like her, unexpectedly flying solo.

Lauren is soon sneaking away for romantic dinners under the stars. Instead of the end of something, she hopes this could be a new beginning.

But what happens when Lauren and James pick up their emotional baggage back home? And what will their kids make of their mid-life rom com in the making?

Review

The Man I Met On Holiday is a book to easily relax to, whilst on holiday.
There is the holiday fling and the aftermath of it. Lauren and James are in their 50s and with kids, who really don’t think holidaying with parents is cool anymore. It is interesting to see how each person relates to each other. There is humour to be had there.

There is the emotional side laid bare as to what happens when they return home and the question of whether they get it back together in their main parts of their lives or not, when reality hits home again. There’s the emotional baggage of family, the possibilities of complications and of previous relationships and the busyness of everyday life, including work to contend with as they decide what path to go down.

It took me a little while to get into, but once I did, it is a book to sit back, kick off the shoes and relax into and is quite a fun read to be immersed in.

Have You Received Your Invitation To Seashell Bay? #AnInvitationToSeashellBay Part 1 by @osborne_bella is publishing on the 10th of May. Available to pre-order now!’ @AvonBooksUK #Romcom

You have an invitation to Seashell Bay:
The new summer rom-com from Bella Osborne, is full of laughter, love and life’s twists and turns!
Follow on down to find out the enticing details

Blurb

One ambitious businesswoman.

One irresponsible heir.

A deal that will turn both their lives upside down…

To save her business, All Things Crafty, Nancy is in desperate need of two things: help and money. After a pitch goes horribly wrong, Nancy is convinced she’s failed to secure either. But, when a potential investor recommends an assistant, she jumps at the chance to hire them – hoping it will help her land a much-needed deal. 

Enter Freddy Astley-Davenport, a notorious socialite with zero work experience. He’s poised to inherit his family’s estate in sunny Seashell Bay, but only if he can hold down a job for six months first. Nancy is not impressed. Freddy’s late, rude and totally incompetent – and that’s just the first day!

Nancy is further horrified to learn of Freddy’s plan to take the assistant role in name only, then do the least work he possibly can, expecting Nancy to lie to his parents on his behalf. She has other ideas, though, and the pair butt heads from day one.

However, as they argue, sparks begin to fly…

An absolutely escapist, funny, feel-good summer romance. Fans of Cathy Bramley, Katie Fforde and Milly Johnson will adore Bella Osborne.