+ 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, cosy mystery, crime fiction, dark humour, Historical fiction, humour fiction, List, murder mystery, psychiatric hospital, Sci-Fi, superstition, thriller, time travel
My Top 10 Books of 2024 – Part Four
Here are my favourite ten books of 2024 Part Four, not counting audio books. Quite a disparate selection for a change.
The Portrait Girl by Nicole Swengley
I had no idea what to expect when I started reading The Portrait Girl. What we know is that Freya’s mother has just died and Freya needs to clear out her cottage and then decide whether to sell it, rent it out or keep it. Unfortunately, the jewellery business she ran with her husband failed and it also saw the end of their marriage. She is now on her uppers, and it appears her ex-husband sold one of her designs without crediting her or paying her a fee.
While going through her mother’s things, Freya discovers a portrait miniature, but she has no idea who the subject is or what it has to do with her family. Determined to discover its secrets, she finds herself drawn into the world of art collector Ralph Merrick and his ‘salons’. Merrick invites his friends and colleagues to take part in Victorian evenings, where everyone dresses up and becomes a character. For the evening Freya is known as Emily Meadowcroft, and everyone seems to know her.
For my full review click here
Moral Code
I’m not a SciFi fan but Moral Code has nothing to do with Star Trek, Star Wars or rockets going into outer space and finding other solar systems. Thank goodness. I think it needs its own genre.
Even if you know nothing about artificial intelligence, robotics, nanites or moral operating systems, you will still enjoy this book. It asks so many questions. I’ve been on the ‘readalong’ where we’ve attempted to answer some of them. Can an AI replace human interaction? The jury’s still out. Just because we can build something, should we? Think atomic bomb or cloning humans? No. Cloning my beloved Jack Russell (we lost her three years ago) would be tempting – where’s the harm? Because one thing leads to another and we’ll be cloning humans next.
For my full review click here
The Enlightenment Club by Chris West
It’s 1971 and I’m doing my A levels at the local tech. I apply for Bristol University to read English and – yes you guessed it – Philosophy. I even get as far as a group interview where a load of Old Etonians discuss a load of old you know what. I don’t get in, so I do a foundation year at the Art College instead, followed by Fashion Writing at The London College of Fashion. We have a blast. Go to shows, drink Bucks Fizz at eleven in the morning, while an over-tanned Judith Chalmers does the commentary. So I ‘get’ Stella, though I never got thrown out or tipped a bowl of soup over anyone’s head.
For my full review click here
The Night Counsellor by L K Pang
The Night Counsellor opens in 1953 where Counsellor Jane Galloway, has been hired by the Beaumont lunatic asylum (they still used that term) to try and help Patient ‘A’ to regain her speech. But Jane is getting nowhere and time is running out as the police believe Patient ‘A’ is linked to the death of another woman, whose body was found nearby. They don’t know who either of the women are.
Then we go back to 1952 and Georgina is married to Charles who takes her away from London to live in his huge house in Yorkshire. It’s right next door to his mother Lillian, who comes and goes as she pleases with her own key. They have tried to start a family, but she miscarries every time and she soon finds herself severely depressed. She self-harms and becomes anorexic, and this is where Charles brings in Alexander to ‘help’, while he swans around Europe selling luxury cigars, allegedly.
For my full review click here
The Wonder Drug by Susanna Beard
Imagine this happening to you. There you are, minding your own business, when someone thrusts a folder into your hands and tells you to hide it. Or give it to someone in the media. He gives you their card. Sorry it has to be you, he says. It will probably change your life forever, may even get you killed, but hey ho, I had no choice. Then he disappears. His name was Lars, that’s all you know.
It’s not a prank. It’s for real. What do you do? You’re just an ordinary middle aged woman with no experience of industrial espionage or secrets or whatever this is. At this point I may have given it to someone else and said ‘you deal with it. I’ve only been here five minutes and I’m just covering maternity leave.’
For my full review click here
The Price of Dormice by Steve Lunn
Another book set in a part of the country I know pretty well. I live in Cheltenham, which is mentioned a couple of times in the story. We often visit Oxford, taking the granddaughters to the ‘Nat Hist’ as our accidental hero Mick Jarvis calls it, and the Pitt Rivers with its shrunken heads.
But The Price of Dormice isn’t about the past. It’s about the future, and the price we pay for allowing green belt land to be turned into a massive housing development. The natural world is shrinking thanks to us, and a group of unscrupulous developers are going to make loads of money from it. And I mean LOADS.
For my full review click here
Anywhen by Beth Duke
I hope the author won’t mind, but I am going to approach this review in a slightly different fashion. There will be thousands of reviews in the future, so here goes with mine, based on some of Beth’s bookclub discussion topics.
But firstly let me say that I am in the UK, so I obviously didn’t attend Woodstock in 1969 (I was 16 and had just finished my O levels). I did, however go to the Isle of Wight Festival where Bob Dylan was the headline act, along with The Who. Memories of the toilets are the same as Woodstock, disgusting and overflowing. I can’t believe we were allowed to go when we were so young.
For my full review click here
Broken Madonna by Anna Lucia
What an emotional read. From an orphanage in the poverty-stricken Apennine Mountains of Italy in 1949, to both Italy and England in 1999, this book will leave you in tears, at least it did me. Adelina, aged 15 and 11-year-old Elizabetta are best friends. Fragile and deeply religious, Elizabetta looks to Adelina for support.
When Elizabetta claims to see the Madonna by the River Mollarino, Adelina is sceptical. She thinks her friend is too easily overcome with emotion. But when injured soldier Giulio is ‘healed’, the whole town flocks to see her. She becomes known as The Barefoot Flower Girl of Atina. Her fame spreads and she becomes yet another child to have been ‘visited’ by the Virgin Mary. These appearances are known as the Marian Apparitions, the best known of which is probably Our Lady of Fatima.
For my full review click here
The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
I confess I cried and not just at the end. Real tears running down my face. I found this book so emotional, even more so because much of it actually happened. The two main characters – Ellie and Homa – are fictitious, but their struggles are real. I remember well when the Ayatollah Khomeini took power from the Shah, and the large numbers of Iranians who came to the UK.
Ellie’s family are wealthy, but when her father dies, she and her mother are forced to move downtown, where she meets Homa at her new school. Homa is brave and feisty, but Ellie’s mother doesn’t approve of the friendship, because of Homa’s lower status. Then Ellie’s circumstances change and she is back in the privileged world of her early childhood.
For my full review click here
Happy Bloody Christmas by Jo Middleton
This was hilarious. At times the body in the larder was almost incidental. Who killed Colin was largely irrelevant – he was a smarmy d*”k anyway – except that it gave Anna, husband Oli and best friend Jennie something to focus on apart from the potatoes and the tablescape (whatever that is). The book is often just Anna’s rant against all things Christmas, her snooty, judgemental mother-in-law, ridiculously high expectations, and many other things.
I’m not Anna’s generation. I’m the mother-in-law, the grandmother and the babysitter, but there was still so much I could identify with. I’m a list maker, obsessively so. I think the more times I make a list and write it down, the more chance I will remember what’s on it and even do stuff without referring to it. Fat chance. Luckily I’ve never had to make a list of potential murder suspects.
For my full review click here
It’s been a successful year for reading. I’ve read some brilliant books. My reading challenge was 150 and I’ve read 159. A few more than last year.
Here are my favourite audio books of the year Part Four. There’s always a Gothic mystery in there. Plus Chris Whitaker makes a second appearance of the year.
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
I signed up for this as an audio book on Borrowbox. It’s 20 hours long – which is huge – I can see it’s six hours and 48 mins as a physical book. I had to renew it after 15 days, but then when I tried to renew it a second time, I saw I couldn’t and only had three days to go before it expired and five hours left to read.
I’m a fast reader so it was a bit frustrating. It’s a wonderful book though and is really three separate stories which come together throughout the book.
For my full review click here
The House of Fever by Polly Crosby
The Unravelling (the author’s second novel) is probably one of my favourite books of all time, certainly of the decade. Therefore once again I had high expectations for The House of Fever and I was not disappointed.
Following the death of Agnes Templeton’s father from tuberculosis, Agnes and her mother have fallen on hard times. But while in France, Agnes meets the enigmatic Dr Christian Fairhaven and after a whirlwind romance, they marry. Christian is the owner of Hedoné, an exclusive sanatorium for TB patients who are either every rich like Juno Harrington, or very talented like Sippie and Georgie.
For my full review click here
All The Colours Of The Dark by Chris Whitaker
I can’t pretend I initially enjoyed it quite as much as We Begin At The End, because no-one can take the place of thirteen-year-old Duchess Day Radley, self-proclaimed outlaw.
But thirteen-year-old Joseph ‘Patch’ Macauley is a self-proclaimed pirate, which is almost as good. He was born with one eye, so it goes without saying that he would wear a patch over the other. I loved him and his best friend Saint Brown. I even loved Misty Meyer, who really comes into her own throughout the book.
For my full review click here
Things in Jars by Jess Kidd
I loved this book. I listened to it on Audible and really enjoyed the narrator’s soft Irish accent. Bridie Devine is a fantastic character, a female detective in the late 1800s, who is never phased by what she sees, which includes the dead bodies of murder victims.
There are so many other brilliant characters in this richly woven tale of murder, kidnapping, circus curiosities, and incompetent police. My favourites include dead boxer Ruby Doyle, who only Bridie can see (apart from the lions and snakes that is), seven-foot-tall housemaid Cora, and Eurilie (no idea how to spell it as I was listening to the audio book), the Queen of Snakes.
For my full review click here
It’s the Fourth of July, 2000. In a small Southern town, fireworks light the sky above the City Park, while down the street a smaller flash of light changes everything for 19-year-old Connor Burdette.
He has just lost the girl he loves. Now, buying beer at the Back Home Market, he becomes an accomplice to a shooting. Out of desperation, he runs. It will take ten years and a death to bring him back.
But it’s so hard to come home. The town still blames him for his part in the convenience store shooting. His wealthy grandmother’s will, leaving her fortune to Connor, only causes tension in the family. The Burdettes are caught in the fierce push and pull of loyalties and deception. And like the gun that washes up in a rainstorm, family secrets won’t stay buried.
Nikki, who is married to Connor’s brother, Russ, has kept the most powerful secret of all. Connor has to face his past, his cowardice at the convenience store, and his betrayal of his brother. At the Back Home Market, where it all began, Connor is given one last chance to redeem himself, to be forgiven and to forgive himself.
PRODIGAL is a modern-day retelling of an age-old story, unique in the context of a Southern family. Told by multiple narrators, PRODIGAL is about forgiveness, redemption, and the sacrifice that love demands.
My review
What a lovely book! It’s quite a slow burn, and tells the story of the Burdette family. It’s all about love, forgiveness and atonement.
Nineteen-year-old Connor disappeared ten years ago after a shooting in a convenience store. Everyone thought he did it, though we are pretty sure he wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger. He hasn’t been in touch with his family since he left – until now.
Lady, his grandmother, is a bit of a battleaxe to be honest. Hard to like. When she dies, she leaves everything to Connor, which is bound to cause conflict in the family. Her son Daniel is a Baptist minister, married to Kitty. Connor is the youngest of their children, the other two being Russ and Ivy. Russ is married to Nikki and they have two sons. It took me a while to work all this out!
So back to the story. It’s not complicated, but there are a lot of characters involved. You may not like all of them (especially Boone). I really loved Connor, not so much Russ or Nikki, though I warmed to her towards the end, which is quite strange, as I probably shouldn’t have. Ivy was my second favourite. I struggled a bit with the religious aspect, particularly Daniel. He’s such a kind person, but the Baptist Church thing grated on me at times. Because of where this is set, it’s very alien to us in the UK, the whole community getting together, judging, vilifying anyone who doesn’t go to church. And the use of the word ‘daddy’ because no-one here says that past the age of ten.
But it’s also a snapshot of life in a small town in the Southern States of America. And it was very emotional at the end. Everyone can be saved, secrets will out, but some dilemmas just can’t be resolved.
Many thanks to the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
About the Author
Phyllis Gobbell’s most recent book is Prodigal, released in November 2024. In this Southern novel, a young man tries to come home, to find forgiveness. What he finds are long-buried secrets, but he discovers that sacrifice is the price of redemption.
Gobbell writes a little bit of everything, books, short stories, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She has received awards in both fiction and nonfiction, including Tennessee’s Individual Artist Literary Award. She is an associate professor of English at Nashville State Community College, where she teaches writing and literature. On any Tuesday night, you will find her meeting with her writers group that began thirty years ago. She plays the piano and tennis. She is co-author of two true-crime books based on high-profile murders in Nashville: A Season of Darkness, with Doug Jones, and An Unfinished Canvas with Mike Glasgow. Her narrative, Lost Innocence, appeared in the anthology Masters of True Crime. Turning to traditional mysteries, she released the Jordan Mayfair Mystery Series in Spring 2015. Pursuit in Provence was first in the series. It is available in hardback, trade paperback, large print, and audio book (narrated by Aimee Barrett). Recently this first in the series came out as a mass market paperback. Secrets and Shamrocks was released just before Christmas 2016, and in May 2018, Treachery in Tuscany was released. Treachery in Tuscany won Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award for Cozy Mysteries in 2019. Her newest mystery, Notorious in Nashville, came out in November 2023 and was a Top Pick for Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award for Cozy Mysteries.
As we approach the end of 2024 I have been asked by Love Books Tours to answer a few questions about my year in books with LBT.
Favourite LBT Book – this was hard. There were three:
Daughters of Warsaw by Maria Frances
One Night Only by G.P. Ritchie
The Guests by Charlotte Stevenson
Favourite LBT Book Series – also hard as I don’t read that many series. But I have chosen the following as I know there is a second book coming:
Artificial Wisdom by Tom Weaver
Favourite LBT Author:
Chris West (because of the engagement). His book is called The Enlightenment Club.
But also Tom Weaver because he gives so much of his time to his readers.
Favourite LBT Book Cover – no contest:
The Night Counsellor by LK Pang
Why do you love being an LBT Host?
I get to read great new books by new and established authors.
Why should readers join LBT?
It’s a community of book lovers who enjoy reading and reviewing.
Who are your recommended LBT Hosts?
There are too many to pick out a few which wouldn’t be fair.
Which author would you like to see touring with LBT?
Tina Baker
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Finding true love can be hard when you’re leading a double life …
Kay, a sassy librarian and self-proclaimed queen of deception, thought ghosting her online fling Jeremy was a clever way to avoid awkward goodbyes. But when she falls for his charming brother Dan, her life spins into a tangled web of fake names, outrageous stories, and a world of lies she can barely keep straight.
As ‘Elaine’, her stylish and spontaneous alter ego, Kay navigates a romance with Dan, hiding her true identity while dodging her past with Jeremy. But as her double life starts to unravel, Kay is forced to make a life with her lies or take a risk on love. Can she escape her own web of deceit, or will her past catch up with her at last?
The Lies She Tells is a feel-good, witty romantic comedy that explores the twists and turns of modern love, the lengths we go to for a fresh start, and the surprising power of a well-told lie.
My Review
I really enjoyed this book. I finished it at 2 o’clock in the morning, thinking only a bit more, only 20 mins to go.
The first question here will be do you like Kay? Do you want her to have a happy ending? If she does, will it be deserved? And if she doesn’t, I bet you are thinking it serves her right. Well obviously I’m not saying.
As with all romantic comedies, we usually root for the poor wronged woman, unlucky in love, failed relationship, bad experience with men. It’s 2024, so Kay is on a dating app called Serendipity, using a fake picture. That’s how she ‘meets’ Jeremy, but we can all see he’s too emotional and damaged for someone like Kay. So she ghosts him and goes after his older brother Dan. But Dan has the perfect relationship with Lorna, except it’s not. When they decide to split Jeremy is more devastated than Dan or Lorna.
Kay works at the Library. Her mother wanted her to be a doctor and is disappointed in her. Kay’s colleague is called Sondra. She’s a bit of an oddity, mid-twenties going on fifty. Kay even lies to Sondra.
As she digs herself in deeper with her lies and fake persona as Elaine, I wanted to hide behind the sofa. How is she going to get out of this one. Then another and another.
The book is very funny, and well-written. It’s kind of a romcom, but the lying and role playing takes it to another level.
Many thanks to the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
About the Author
Alex Woolf is an award-winning author of books for adults and children. In his non-fiction he has written on subjects as diverse as sharks, robots, asteroids, flying reptiles and chocolate. His novels span a range of genres, including crime, mystery, science fiction, historical fiction, steampunk and horror.
In 2024, Alex received a Readers Favorite Award for his YA time-slip novel, The Year I Lived Twice. He is a regular author for Fiction Express, online publishers of interactive stories for schools. Fiction Express is read by 1.2 million pupils in over 8,500 schools around the world. Two of his stories have won reader awards. In 2021, he won the prestigious ASE award for his non-fiction book Think Like a Scientist. His horror novel, Soul Shadows, was shortlisted for the Falkirk Red Book Award.
+ audio book, childhood, fiction, gothic, Historical fiction, kidnapping, review, supernatural, superstition, Victorian Britain
Things in Jars by Jess Kidd
Bridie Devine, female detective extraordinaire, is confronted with the most baffling puzzle yet: the kidnapping of Christabel Berwick, secret daughter of Sir Edmund Athelstan Berwick, and a peculiar child whose reputed supernatural powers have captured the unwanted attention of collectors trading curiosities in this age of discovery.
Winding her way through the labyrinthine, sooty streets of Victorian London, Bridie won’t rest until she finds the young girl, even if it means unearthing a past that she’d rather keep buried. Luckily, her search is aided by an enchanting cast of characters, including a seven-foot tall housemaid; a melancholic, tattoo-covered ghost; and an avuncular apothecary. But secrets abound in this foggy underworld where spectacle is king and nothing is quite what it seems.
Blending darkness and light, history and folklore, Things in Jars is a spellbinding Gothic mystery that collapses the boundary between fact and fairy tale to stunning effect and explores what it means to be human in inhumane times.
My Review
I loved this book. I listened to it on Audible and really enjoyed the narrator’s soft Irish accent. Bridie Devine is a fantastic character, a female detective in the late 1800s, who is never phased by what she sees, which includes the dead bodies of murder victims.
There are so many other brilliant characters in this richly woven tale of murder, kidnapping, circus curiosities, and incompetent police. My favourites include dead boxer Ruby Doyle, who only Bridie can see (apart from the lions and snakes that is), seven-foot-tall housemaid Cora, and Eurilie (no idea how to spell it as I was listening to the audio book), the Queen of Snakes.
The book is chock-full of supernatural elements and superstition around mermaids, who are really killers with the teeth of a pike. Is Christabel Berwick one of them? Many seem to believe so, which is why she has been kidnapped, to be sold to the highest bidder.
The villains are almost pantomime caricatures, which makes them entertaining, though be warned that some of the things they do are quite gruesome and not for the faint-hearted.
Yes the book can be a bit weird and not for everyone, but I absolutely adored it.
About the Author
Jess Kidd was brought up in London as part of a large family from county Mayo and has been praised for her unique fictional voice. Her debut, Himself, was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards in 2016. She won the Costa Short Story Award the same year. Her second novel, The Hoarder, published as Mr. Flood’s Last Resort in the U.S. and Canada was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2019. Both books were BBC Radio 2 Book Club Picks. Her latest book, the Victorian detective tale Things in Jars, has been released to critical acclaim. Jess’s work has been described as ‘Gabriel García Márquez meets The Pogues.’
It’s a perfect summer’s day in Southbourne. And Partial Sue’s in one of her rare generous moods. She wants to treat all the ladies of the Dogs Need Nice Homes charity shop to supper.
But before the ladies can shut up shop and head to the chippie, the air is filled with the strains of ‘Greensleeves’. And a clapped-out old ice-cream van lurches into view.
The gang can barely believe their eyes. Especially when they see who’s behind the wheel. Daisy’s daughter Bella.
#TheVanillaKiller X(Twitter) @PeterBoland19 @JoffeBooks @ZooloosBT #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour #booktwitter
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Newly divorced Bella’s only just rid herself of her rotten husband. Now she’s landed herself in an even stickier situation.
This banger may be stocked with sweet treats, but its freezer once held something much more sinister — the dead body of its former owner!
Everyone in the village knows the van’s sinister history. Except poor Bella. The culprit slipped away without a trace. But the village folk all say it’s just a matter of time until the Vanilla Killer strikes again!
When Bella starts receiving poison pen letters, the ladies can’t help but worry. What if their beloved Bella’s next?
There’s only one thing for it, the ladies agree over a steaming pot of tea. They need to put the Vanilla Killer on ice . . . before anyone else dies.
Fans of Richard Osman, Robert Thorogood, Janice Hallett, Simon Brett, Ian Moore and Sarah Yarwood-Lovett will adore this exciting new talent in cozy crime.
My Review
Three pensioners and a dog named Simon Le Bon investigate a cold case, excuse the pun, (no not a historic murder, but a body in the freezer of an ice cream van) in this cosy mystery. In reality the dog doesn’t do much investigating, but he can spot a sweet treat at a hundred paces. Always useful at a dessert-based crime scene.
I’m used to reading gritty crime thrillers, but every now and again I like to delve into lighter genres and this was hilarious. The humour is often quite subtle and I did wonder if everyone would get all the jokes and references. I got vibes of the sitcom Jam and Jerusalem, set in Clatterford, a fictional village in England, and the silliness of it all. But our three brave women investigators are much cleverer.
The Vanilla Killer is set in Southbourne, on the south coast near Bournemouth. It appears to exist. The main characters are Fiona, Partial Sue, and Daisy, plus Daisy’s daughter Bella, who has inadvertently become the new owner of the ‘haunted’ ice cream van. They run the Dogs Need Nice Homes charity shop. There are lots of other characters, like snobby Sophie from the Cats Alliance over the road, and the Wicker Man who pops in from time to time. I haven’t read the first three books so I don’t know the origin of the nicknames.
There is a lot of tea drinking going on all the time, but as we know, it’s the (very British) solution to everything, though there are times when only a gin and tonic will do. Just my opinion!
The book is a great romp of a cosy mystery and I feel I really should read the other three books next time I am in Bournemouth – we went there a lot pre-pandemic – in fact I swam the Bournemouth to Boscombe Pier-to-Pier in 2017.
Incidentally, for those of us who remember, I did love an orange Mivvi, never a strawberry fan.
Many thanks to @ZooloosBT for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
After studying to be an architect, Pete realised he wasn’t very good at it. He liked designing buildings he just couldn’t make them stand up, which is a bit of a handicap in an industry that likes to keep things upright. So he switched to advertising, writing ads for everything from cruise lines to zombie video games.
After becoming disillusioned with working in ad agencies, he switched to writing thriller novels (or was it because he just wanted to work at home in his pyjamas?). He soon realised there’s no magic formula. You just have to put one word in front of the other (and keep doing that for about a year). It also helps if you can resist the lure of surfing, playing Nintendo Switch with his son, watching America’s Next Top Model with his daughter and drinking beer in a garden chair.
Book Links
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221521337-the-vanilla-killer
Purchase Link: https://mybook.to/vanillakiller-zbt
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An uplifting festive romance perfect for fans of Hallmark Christmas movies and authors such as Phillipa Ashley, Trisha Ashley, Sue Moorcroft, Rebecca Raisin and Donna Ashcroft.
Fleeing her heartache and horrendous job, Bella stumbles upon a December wedding in the beautiful village of Haileybrook and the spirit of the season moves her to act as a fake date to handsome stranger Jack.
Jack and Bella hit it off, but Bella has to leave in a hurry and their magical evening soon becomes nothing more than a blissful memory.
A year later, Bella is returning to Haileybrook, seeking a fresh start and a quieter life. With a new job close to her cosy cottage home, a peaceful Christmas is surely only days away.
But it’s not long before family surprises, small-town feuds and romantic drama disrupt Bella’s plans, and she has to wonder if being alone is what she really wants for Christmas …
My Review
I really enjoyed this – perfect for a Christmas read. It’s great fun with just enough intrigue to lift it from a simple romcom into something more interesting, with some lovely characters to root for.
If I ever have to move into a retirement home, I’d love to live in the place where Bella works, but let’s get back to the beginning. Bella is escaping a failed relationship and a conference dinner with the company she works for. She hates her job and needs to get away for a bit. While hiding in the church in the pretty village of Haileybrook in the Cotswolds, she has an unfortunate encounter with a Christmas tree, followed by an embarrassing rescue by the handsome Jack. This results in her posing as his plus one and all seems fun and lighthearted. And maybe a bit romantic as well.
But when she has to rush off, it looks like Jack is just a distant memory. Until she returns to Haileybrook to take up a new position as finance manager at the retirement home.
We meet lots of new people in Bella’s Countryside Christmas plus a few from Claire’s other books like Elle, Kate and Lucinda. I particularly love the retirement home’s committee, or as I call them The Ladies with Lavender (see what I did there) and Iris, Wendy and co.
Another great story from Claire – probably my favourite though I said that last time! Many thanks to the author for an ARC.
About the Author
Claire Huston lives in Warwickshire, UK, with her husband and two children. She writes uplifting modern love stories about characters who are meant for each other but need a little help to realise it.
A keen amateur baker, she enjoys making cakes, biscuits and brownies almost as much as eating them. You can find recipes for all the cakes mentioned in Art and Soul, her first novel, at clairehuston.co.uk along with over 150 other recipes. This is also where she talks about and reviews books.
+ charity, Dogs, family, feel-good, fiction, friendship, humour fiction, love, obsession, relationships, review
Thank You For The Days by Dan Brotzel
Every day counts when you’re chasing love, life, and a little bit of madness…
Luke Milvaine is a drifting 30-something stuck in a dead-end job with an even deader love life. Then the sudden death of a school friend leaves him with a cockapoo puppy and a bizarre challenge to celebrate a different fake holiday every day for a year.
Shower With a Friend Day, Talk Like Shakespeare Day, National Burger Day…
What starts as a ridiculous stunt becomes a life-changing journey filled with strange encounters, surprising friendships, and the unexpected realisation that love might be right under his nose. With humour, heart, and a dash of absurdity, Luke discovers that sometimes, the biggest adventure is learning to appreciate the little things and rethink what – and who – truly matters.
Thank You for the Days is a humorous, heartfelt journey about finding meaning in the mundane and learning to live with purpose.
My Review
I really enjoyed this book and the way in which the relationships gradually unfolded. Luke Milvaine is in his thirties, he hasn’t seen his dad for years because he’s flying around the world on business, his mum died a few years ago and he lives in a flat share with Dom in the basement of his stepdad’s house. His young half brother Milo and half-sister Grace live there too along with inherited cockapoo Ziggy. Luke is in love with Yasmine (the One) even though they have only met once.
Luke works as a content creator at a somewhat dysfunctional company with Holly (she’s lovely), Muriel (she’s on the spectrum though of what I’m not sure), bosses father and daughter Greg and Phaedra, who are always at loggerheads, and a group of assorted misfits. He really wants to ‘escape’.
Luke’s life at this point seems boring and pointless, and he needs something to focus on, other than his annoying obsession with Yasmine (the One). You’re not fifteen Luke. It wasn’t even a seven-day holiday romance in Benidorm. He needs a challenge. So that’s when he begins his life-changing year of celebrating a different fake (actually they are not all fake – there really is a Talk-Like-A-Pirate-Day) holiday every day for a year, for charity. He’s also going to publish a blog, recording his escapades.
The book is also very educational. Thank you to the author for telling me about the origin of the Poinsettia (I have two on the go at the moment) even if I don’t believe it and also for teaching me how to spell Poinsettia – ie putting the second ‘i’ in the right place, I think. Apologies to Mrs Hart but I hate fig rolls. What’s wrong with a chocolate hob nob? And thank you for introducing me to so many useless special days. I will definitely be avoiding the gimp day, the roller-coaster day (I’m with Luke on that one) and the stand up comedy day.
But if I was doing the challenge, I quite fancy these:
June 26th is National Cream Tea Day, easy peasy.
July 7th is World Chocolate Day. You know what to do.
August 18th is National Bad Poetry Day. For many that’s every day.
And October 26th is Worldwide Howl at the Moon Night. Luke may have done this one – I can’t remember. I could go on – don’t worry I won’t.
Many thanks to the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
About the Author
Dan Brotzel describes himself as a “funny-sad author” and writer of novels, short stories, articles and other motley bits of content. The author of Hotel du Jack, a collection of short stories, and The Wolf in the Woods, a novel, he also co-wrote the brilliantly funny Work in Progress – a “novel-in emails” from award-winning publishers, Unbound. He lives in suburban north London with his partner and three children.
When Emmanuel Olympitis decided to turn his pen to a series of children’s books, he didn’t need to look far for an illustrator.
Whispers in the Park is a book for all the family, by a father and daughter team.
Whispers in the Park is the first book of a series, which takes the reader on a rollicking adventure through the treetops and undergrowth of the magnificent St James’s Park, where the most ancient and prestigious school for squirrels resides. When young squirrels Shane and Sophie are given scholarships to St James’s, they are excited and nervous to enter the magical world of squirreldom’s most venerable institution. But as the school’s treasures start to go missing, they are swept up into a gripping detective story, the unravelling of which will require some outside assistance…
Meet squirrel headmaster Horatio Hoyland, Witgift the wise old owl, Boris the tough games master Badger and Sam the siamese cat sleuth, and enter the world of Whispers in the Park – a vivid and whimsical children’s tale in the vein of The Wind in the Willows.
Whispers in the Park is a showcase of imaginative writing by the critically acclaimed Emmanuel Olympitis and the extraordinary talent of the emerging illustrator Olympia Olympitis, in her debut children’s book.
My Review
A few years ago, we went to London and walked through St James Park. I’d never seen so many squirrels in one place and they were so tame, you could hand feed them. I’m told they will climb up your leg (this happened to me in our Parish Church grounds, though this particular creature looked me in the eye and realised my suede boots were not a tree and scurried away). Tourists love them. Some people just think they are tree rats and want to get rid of them. Not me.
None of the squirrels were wearing school uniform though, but you can use your imagination. In Whispers in the Park, not all the animals are squirrels. We have Witgift the owl, Warburton the hedgehog, Boris the badger, Veronica the water vole, Miriam the hare, and the dastardly Fabian the fox to name but a few. Plus Sam the Siamese cat, a master sleuth.
Then of course we have the founder of the school – a red squirrel called Rufus, who created the Five Rules. It is also said that if a red squirrel returns to the school after 300 years, a prophesy will be fulfilled. When the school is in mortal danger, a direct descendant of Rufus will come to save it.
But I’m jumping forward. The story starts with Shane and Sophie, two young squirrels who join the prestigious St James’s academy on scholarships. Little did they know that they would encounter such intrigue and adventure in the first few days of attendance.
While the book is a Wind in the Willows type of tale, there is a deeper message here. It’s all about friendship, respect, team spirit and diversity. They may just be squirrels and such, but they have important life messages to teach us. I’m looking forward to book two, when hopefully we’ll find out more about the prophecy. I’ll never be able to visit Brownsea Island again without thinking about it!
Many thanks to Grace Pilkington Publicity for inviting me to be part of the blog tour.
About the Author and Illustrator
Emmanuel Olympitis is a British businessman who has held many public company directorships during his career. He is also the author of critically acclaimed By Victories Undone and Marked Cards.
Olympia Olympitis is a full-time illustrator based between London and Wiltshire, having studied at City and Guilds of London Art School and The University of Edinburgh. Specialising in house portraiture, landscape illustration and bespoke wedding & event stationery, Whispers in the Park is her first book.
A modern fairy tale in which two children unite a community to topple a greedy king.
Join Kandy and Kane as they unite Kazam’s children to challenge the greedy King’s tax on flushing the loo. Will his palaces survive the river of poo? Will the brave children get the playground he refused to build?
The proceeds from King of Kazam will go to the Trussell Trust. This is our charity campaign for the year, and we are proud to support it without any campaign fees.
About The Trussell Trust
“We exist so everyone can be free from hunger”
“We’re an anti-poverty charity and community of food banks. We work together to ensure no one in the UK needs a food bank to survive, while providing food and practical support to people left without enough money to live on.”
My Review
Is this a book about poo? Because we know that kids think the word ‘poo’ is hilarious. Well it is, but in reality The King of Kazam is about vanity, pride and greed. Even the king’s children think he is greedy. They want playgrounds with swings and unicorn rides. But the King just wants tributes to himself. And to do that he needs money.
So how to raise money? Tax everything. Including flushing the toilet. That can only lead to disaster and the results are hilarious (though not for the king and his celebrity wife). The book is written in rhyme, which makes it easy to read for younger children. Kids will love it.
And brilliant that sales of the book will help the Trussell Trust, which is a charity that I fully support.
Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of #TheKingOfKazam readalong.
About the Author
Jen is a fiction writer. She is an alumna of the Curtis Brown six month selective novel writing course and a member of the Society of Authors. She convenes the Edinburgh Writers’ Forum and is a trustee of Edinburgh Women’s Fiction Festival. Previously, she has written non-fiction articles, blogs and books for The Guardian, Forbes, World Economic Forum, Huffington Post, World Bank and many others.
Jen hosts She Reads podcast and previously, Two Lit Chicks. She has won numerous awards and made many media appearances including on the BBC and ITV.
About the Illustrator
“Originally from the American Midwest, I trained as a Fine Art major, minoring in Art Education. I currently work in Edinburgh as both an artist and an art teacher of young children. All of my art lessons incorporate Art History and the creation of artworks inspired by the work of specific artists or even just a single work by an individual. My professional practice focuses on drawing people, architecture and creating pieces using a variety of art materials.
“My work has been exhibited throughout the UK and USA, notably the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh and the Barbican Artists Studios in London. I divide my work time between creating illustration pieces for various corporate and private clients and teaching children and adults.”
Buy links
https://www.jenhyatt.com/king-of-kazam
Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/219524719-the-king-of-kazam
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