Genre: Chick Lit

A Very Merry Manhattan Christmas~ Netgalley Review

27 Dec, 2016 by in Uncategorized Leave a comment

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

A Very Merry Manhattan Christmas~ Netgalley Review

A Very Merry Manhattan Christmas

by Darcie Boleyn
Published by Canelo on November 7, 2016
Genres: Adult, Chick Lit, Christmas
Pages: 201
Format: eARC
four-half-stars
Source: Netgalley
Buy the Book •
Lucie Quigley hates Christmas. It’s the time of year when everything goes wrong in her life. So this year, when she’s asked to be a bridesmaid at her friend Petra’s Manhattan wedding, she jumps at the invitation to escape the festivities.

Dale Treharne has been best friends with Lucie for as long as he can remember. He’s used to looking out for his oldest friend and when she asks him to be her plus one, he can’t seem to find a reason to refuse. Instead, he sees it as a way to help Lucie get through what is, for her, the most miserable time of the year.

In New York, as the snow starts to fall, Lucie and Dale start to realise that their feelings run deeper than just friendship. But can they overcome their pasts, and make it a very merry Manhattan Christmas?

A holiday read with a magical setting, A Very Merry Manhattan Christmas was the perfect escape. Lucie is invited to be a bridesmaid to her college friend Petra in Manhattan, and needs a plus one. What better choice than Dale, who has been by her side since they were children. The two have to find a way to break it to his parents that he will not be home for Christmas, but taking a trip abroad. And, Lucie will have to somehow overcome her core aversion to celebrating the holiday which reminds her of all she has lost.

Prepare to laugh and swoon and have a wonderful diversion via these two in their thirties who are seemingly perfect for each other, but need to figure it out on their own. Thanks so much to Netgalley for the free copy! Some adult content, more than I would have liked, not for readers under 18.

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Christmas at the Vicarage Review

18 Nov, 2015 by in Uncategorized Leave a comment

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Christmas at the Vicarage Review

Christmas at the Vicarage

by Rebecca Boxall
Published by Lake Union Publishing on Nov 17, 2015
Genres: Adult, Chick Lit, Christmas
Pages: 226
Format: eARC
four-stars
Source: Netgalley
Buy the Book •
It’s been fifteen years since Rosamunde last lived at the vicarage in Potter’s Cove, the pretty coastal village where she grew up, experienced her first true love—and a heartbreak that changed her life forever. But now Potter’s Cove is calling her back: it’s time to make peace with the past and go home.

Rosamunde’s return to the vicarage in the days before Christmas is a whirlwind of festive cheer and heartwarming reunions with friends, family and her loving father, the vicar. And while seeing the old place after all this time stirs painful memories of long-ago grief, it also reminds her of all the love she left behind. Fifteen years ago she vowed never to let herself be vulnerable again—but now that she’s back she’s not so sure. Is it possible that real happiness could strike more than once?

Spanning three decades of family life, Christmas at the Vicarage is a warm, feel-good tale that examines what it means to love and to lose—and to be brave enough to try again.

What drew me to this book?

The cover and a promise of a Christmas story set on the English coast

What I Liked?

There were plenty of plot twists to keep the reader absolutely engaged through the whole book. It is set in two time periods, life for Rosamnunde as a teen and life as a woman in her 40’s trying to resolve the past.

I loved the part set in Paris and the stories she hears about her mother as a young woman. While the ending was slightly predictable, I truly enjoyed the main male character and his gentle nature.

I struggled with

The “love her life” Stephen and his selfish ways.

The fact that some of the story elements were very convenient and far fetched.

Overall, while not necessarily a light hearted fun Christmas book, it shows hope in recovery from sadness and despair. Christmas at the Vicarage has a great cast of supporting characters and a feel good at the end conclusion.

Content: Adult (highlight to reveal) language, sex, extramarital affairs.

About the Author

Rebecca Boxall was born in 1977 in East Sussex, where she grew up in a bustling vicarage always filled with family, friends and parishioners. She now lives by the sea in Jersey with her husband and two children. She read English at the University of Warwick before training as a lawyer, and also studied Creative Writing with The Writer’s Bureau. Christmas at the Vicarage is her first novel.

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From Paris With Love This Christmas by Jules Wake

12 Nov, 2015 by in Uncategorized Leave a comment

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.
From Paris With Love This Christmas by Jules Wake

From Paris With Love This Christmas

by Jules Wake
Published by Harper Impulse on Oct 29, 2015
Genres: Adult, Chick Lit, Christmas
Pages: 332
Format: eARC
four-stars
Source: Netgalley
Buy the Book • Goodreads
The gorgeous, Christmassy feel-good follow up to the Summer best-seller ‘From Italy With Love’.

Just until Christmas…

That’s what Paris socialite Siena Browne-Martin keeps telling herself. She’ll stay with her estranged sister, Laurie, just until Christmas. Running away from the chateaux to escape her hot-tempered fiancé Yves’s wrath, may not have been the most rational decision. But Laurie had always said that Siena had a room at the cottage and right now she really needed it.

But arriving at the airport to be greeted by the grumpiest, most brooding—and dangerously gorgeous—man Siena has ever met, is not what she expected. And learning that Laurie isn’t living at the cottage anymore is even more of a surprise. Now Siena is stuck rooming with sullen Jason Landon, which is definitely not in the plan! Especially when his protective nature and quiet compassion threatens to ignite something in Siena that she never knew existed…

For Jason, Christmas can’t come soon enough. This pampered Parisian princess is the last person he wants to share his house with—he knows the destruction high-maintenance gold-diggers can cause and he’s never going there again. But Jason soon realises that there’s more to his unexpected house guest than meets the eye and suddenly Siena staying just until Christmas doesn’t seem like long enough…

This Christmas, fly to Paris with Siena and Jason and experience the magic of the holiday season in From Paris With Love This Christmas by dazzling contemporary romance author Jules Wake!

Siena is a rich up and coming Parisien who hasn’t seen her sister in years. She’s running from an uncertain future and finds herself being picked up at the airport by the most grumpy driver she’s ever met. Only, he’s not just a driver, he’s her housemate. What starts off as a trip to escape turns into an opportunity to start over in England. Siena needs to find a job, pursue her dreams of being a fashion designer and mend relationships long neglected.

The most stunning parts of the book are set in Paris. I wish more of England could have been fleshed out in the same manner. This is an adult read as there is a lot of swearing. In fact, so much so that it turned me off. I enjoyed the character arc both Siena and Jason go through and the message of escaping abuse for a more healthy relationship. I also loved the richness of each friend she encounters and the resolution.  Thanks to Netgalley and HarperImpulse for the review copy!

Content- adult, highlight to view: domestic violence, sex, swearing.

 

About the Author

Jules’ earliest known declaration that she planned to be a writer came at the age of ten. Unfortunately the urge to actually get her backside into gear and write a book didn’t revisit her for quite some time after that.

After a twenty year career in the glamorous world of PR, working on luxury brands, she switched profession to give her more time and energy to write. By day she works in a junior school and by night writes romantic comedy and happy ever after stories which are the sort of books she’s always enjoyed reading.

Her debut novel, Talk to Me, was published by Choc Lit in 2014, and her second, From Italy With Love, published by HarperImpulse was released earlier this year in May and reached the top of the Amazon Kindle Charts. Her third novel, From Paris With Love This Christmas, published by HarperImpulse is now available as an ebook and the paperback will be published on 3rd December.

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I Need a Hero by Emma Bennett ~ Review

24 Oct, 2015 by in Emma Bennett, I need a hero Leave a comment

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I Need a Hero by Emma Bennett ~ Review

I Need a Hero

by Emma Bennett
Published by Joffe on July 17, 2015
Genres: Adult, Chick Lit, Womens Fiction
Pages: 163
Format: eARC
four-stars
Source: Netgalley
Buy the Book • Goodreads
A lovely summer romance read that you won’t want to put down
Romance writer Bronte Huntington has vowed she will never settle for anything less than ‘the one.’ When pleasant red-haired dentist Ryan moves in next door he just doesn't fit the bill. They have plenty in common but Bronte wants nothing more than friendship with him.

Then it looks like Bronte’s dreams have finally come true when dashing Sebastian Fairfax rescues her on his horse after she has an accident in the countryside around her idyllic little cottage. Sebastian is tall, dark, handsome, and heir to a massive country estate!

But is Sebastian the one? Or will Bronte’s romantic dreams of the perfect hero turn out to be as fictional as her novels? And will Bronte's temperamental cat ever stop getting in the way?!

Perfect for fans of Samantha Tonge, Lucy Diamond, Mandy Baggot and Catherine Ferguson

First of all..the cover: LOVE!

I’m always looking for charming British books

The characters: Very Austen-esque. I had a had time picturing the main heroine as 30, she was written a bit like a spinster. Living alone in a cottage, writing novels and going to critique groups.  When she trips and falls down a hill in the forest and sprains her ankle it compounded the problem. I finally settled on Royal Prince Henry look a like for the main male character Ben, but it took about 3/4 of the novel to not see him as a mop headed middle aged man as well. I wish the author would have used a bit more adjectives in her writing and not such a detached style. But I loved it none the less! There were several moments to snicker and swoon.

A perfect, cozy chick lit pick, especially if you read fairy tales or Jane Austen.

 

About the Author

Emma grew up and lived in London, before falling in love and moving to Wales to marry her own hero. Emma now lives with her husband, children, and many animals in a small Welsh market town. She can often be found in rivers attempting to control an overexcited chocolate labrador.

Four charming romances are currently available from the Amazon bestselling authoress:

Number 1 Australian kindle bestseller, ‘His Secret Daughter’, is the heart-rending story of Iris, a woman falling in love with the father of her child. The only problem is she never told him they had a daughter.

The beautiful landscape around her home gave Emma the inspiration for ‘The Green Hills of Home’, a tale of love and duty in which country girl Gwen struggles to save her family home and avoid her feelings for her handsome, suave new boss. Is he quite all he seems?

‘Just Desserts’ is a novella about confused chef Leah, who’s falling for her handsome French co-worker Jean-Claude, but meant to be marrying to Dan in just a few weeks! Who will she choose?

‘I Need A Hero’ was released in July 2015, it’s a lovely comic romantic read for anyone who’s ever searched for Mr Right (and failed to find him!). Despair of Bronte, a romance writer, incapable of spotting when the perfect man is right next door! Full of horses, country houses and dentists, just beware of the foul-tempered cat Mr Darcy!

Emma likes (in no particular order): cake, books, Cary Grant films, prosecco, chocolate, guinea pigs, knitting, quilting and happily ever afters!

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