Nosey Parker Cosy Mystery Series Full Tour Banner

Review: Murder on the Menu, by Fiona Leitch

2 February 2021 by Melissa

About the book, Murder on the Menu

Publisher : One More Chapter (January 15, 2021)
Publication date : January 15, 2021
Language : English
Series: Nosey Parker Cozy Mysteries

The first book in a NEW cozy mystery series!

Still spinning from the hustle and bustle of city life, Jodie ‘Nosey’ Parker is glad to be back in the Cornish village she calls home. Having quit the Met Police in search of something less dangerous, the change of pace means she can finally start her dream catering company and raise her daughter, Daisy, somewhere safer.

But there’s nothing like having your first job back at home to be catering an ex-boyfriend’s wedding to remind you of just how small your village is. And when the bride, Cheryl, vanishes Jodie is drawn into the investigation, realizing that life in the countryside might not be as quaint as she remembers…

With a missing bride on their hands, there is murder and mayhem around every corner but surely saving the day will be a piece of cake for this not-so-amateur sleuth?

The first book in the Murder on the Menu cozy mystery series. Can be read as a standalone. A humorous cozy mystery with a British female sleuth in a small village. Includes one of Jodie’s Tried and Tested Recipes! Written in British English. Mild profanity and peril.

Buy, read, and discuss this book:

Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK) | My Book | Goodreads

About the Author, Fiona Leitch

Fiona Leitch is a writer with a checkered past. She’s written for football and motoring magazines, DJ’ed at illegal raves and is a stalwart of the low budget TV commercial, even appearing as the Australasian face of a cleaning product called ‘Sod Off’. Her debut novel ‘Dead in Venice’ was published by Audible in 2018 as one of their Crime Grant finalists. After living in London, Hastings and Cornwall she’s finally settled in sunny New Zealand, where she enjoys scaring her cats by trying out dialogue on them. She spends her days dreaming of retiring to a crumbling Venetian palazzo, walking on the windswept beaches of West Auckland, and writing funny, flawed but awesome female characters.

Connect with Fiona:

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

My Thoughts

Fiona Leitch’s Murder on the Menu, the first of her Nosey Parker novels, is one of those books that feels like it should be something you see on television. Here in the U.S. it would be a perfect member of the PBS “Mystery” series, or for more contemporary viewers something you stream on BritBox.

Labeled as a cozy mystery, this novel certainly lives up to it’s niche. The main character, Jodie “Nosey” Parker is a former cop and a single mother who moves back to her hometown to give her daughter a life free from worry over her mother’s job. She’s smart, funny, engaging, and I really loved watching her code-switch, speaking proper English to people like the (hot) DCI Nathan Withers but switching into the local vernacular when speaking to people like the local cops her father (a former Chief Inspector) recruited to the small-town force, or the townsfolk, many of which have known her since birth. The use of dialect in this book is one of the things I really appreciated because it’s used both sparingly and organically.

Jodie Parker’s choice to become a caterer after leaving the police behind is something I identified with because I always find catharsis in cooking. (Spoiler alert: there’s a recipe at the end of the book, and I plan to try it!), but it was also amusing to watch her reactions to DCI Withers, first annoyance at his handling of the case (a death at her childhood’s friend wedding which she is catering, and later the recognition that he’s attractive in general, finally, getting a bit flirty.

Jodie is more than flirty though, she’s still got being a cop (though not a detective) in her blood, and it’s hard to stifle a lifelong need to know things.

While the murder mystery is gripping and fast paced, the character interactions are just as fascinating. Jodie’s mother and daughter often act as a sort of Greek chorus for her, while her friend Tony (the groom in the wedding) and their other childhood friends are equally dimensional.

The Cornish coast is also a character in this novel, with its beaches and meadows – Jodie’s back yard has a wall just high enough to keep the cows from visiting – and the setting, here, is important because it sets a tone, not just of cozy small-town life, but also of a very specific culture.

Leitch’s writing is compelling, and she balances humor and gravity very well.

I leapt into reading book two as soon as I finished Murder on the Menu and I fear this series may be my new addiction. It may well be yours, too. Highly recommend.

Goes well with: organic sausages and mashed potatoes.

Spotlight: Trust Me, by Candace Hutton – With Giveaway

24 January 2021 by Melissa

About the book, Trust Me

Brooke Anderson never pictured herself as a divorcee at twenty-eight. But when she mentions getting a post-nup to her husband Garrett after one deliciously sex-filled year, he promptly serves her with divorce papers. Admittedly, she could’ve told him about how her father left her and her mother homeless when she was young, and how she’s never been wired to trust anyone. Especially those closest to her. Now, all she wants to do is avoid anywhere he might be so she won’t have to face him again.

But she’s not the only one who can’t seem to trust.

Garrett Call grew up with parents who married for money and wants no part of a life that puts material possessions above love. He reinvented himself in college, complete with a new last name so he couldn’t be tied to his family’s lucrative business. He never even told Brooke the truth. Admittedly, he could’ve handled the issue of a post-nup better with his ex-wife. Maybe he didn’t count on how much he was going to miss having her in his life.

When their best friends’ wedding forces the exes to see each other again, a dangerous man from Garrett’s world threatens Brooke’s life. And they realize the only way to save themselves is to finally learn to trust each other.

Buy, read and discuss this book:

Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK) | Goodreads

About the author, Candace Hutton

– Candace Hutton was born and raised on books. She spent a great deal of her teenage years in libraries and bookstores and still tries to sneak off to them as often as possible. Some of her other favorite things are coffee, puppies, and the smell of rain.

Connect with Candace:

Twitter

Read an Excerpt from Trust Me

Context: Brooke and Garrett bump into each in a club, and they argue about their decision to divorce.

Brooke took a sip of her martini just as a familiar body slid into the chair across from her. Garrett. It wasn’t fair for him to look that good, with the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up and his tie missing. His hair was artfully tousled, and she felt a stab of satisfaction when she noticed he’d done it himself. It hadn’t been caused by a woman running her fingers through it over and over.

God, why the hell wasn’t he out of her system yet?

His lips were pulled up in a smirk when he sat down, but then the smile slipped a little when he looked at her. “You okay?”

“Perfect.”

“Like I can’t tell when you’re upset.”

She stirred her martini with the olive stick. “Since we’re no longer married, you really don’t have a right to ask me questions like that.”

“I don’t have a right to be a caring human just because we’re no longer married?”

Brooke didn’t respond. She’d never told him about her dad or mom. Never told him about sleeping under an overpass when it rained or wanting someone to come along and rescue them. She didn’t want him thinking she was weak, didn’t want to be that scared little girl around him.

Garrett leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “If it were up to me, we’d still be married.”

“If you’d wanted to stay married, you would’ve signed the damn post-nup,” she snapped.

His jaw twitched with anger. “A marriage built on a contract wouldn’t last.”

“Maybe we weren’t meant to last from the beginning.”

He settled back in his seat. “I don’t know about that. I think I always did a pretty decent job lasting.”

Giveaway to Win a $30 Amazon Gift Card (Open Internationally)

*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organizer and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for dispatch or delivery of the prize.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Comfort Foods, by Kimberly Fish – with Giveaway

21 January 2021 by Melissa

About the book, Comfort Foods

Series: Comfort Stories – but this is a Standalone Novel
Categories: Contemporary / Second Chance Romance
Publisher: Fish Tales Publishing
Date of Publication: October 7, 2020
Number of Pages: 385 pages
Scroll down for Giveaway

From the award-winning author of Comfort Plans and Comfort Songs comes a story of two rising stars blitzed by social media. Lacy Cavanaugh and single-dad Rudy Delgardo live a hundred miles apart but meet in the worst possible way. Working at a weekly paper and creating social media for area businesses helps Lacy connect with locals who open her mind to a perspective beyond Instagram. In launching a food-and-wine festival to support Comfort’s new event center, she discovers surprising skills bubbling over, much like the food she’s attempting to cook.

Rudy, on the brink of his restaurant’s takeover, struggles to improve time management so he can create a better relationship with his daughter. Distracted by Lacy and her invitation to the festival, he’s tempted by her beauty, wit, and courage, but as a chef, he rarely gets to enjoy life outside the kitchen. Enemies, illness, and exes add unwelcome spice to the dish they’re concocting—one that will teeter with misunderstanding until the very end.

Will Lacy and Rudy embrace their second chances and discover the perfect seasonings of family, resilience, and grace to create a handwritten recipe of love that will stand the test of time?

Buy, read, and discuss this book:

Amazon | Goodreads

About the author, Kimberly Fish

Author Kimberly Fish resides in Longview, Texas, and enjoys writing contemporary fiction set in the Hill Country. During the seven years she lived in San Antonio, wandering in and around Comfort, Texas, provided endless space for her imagination to develop stories of women discovering their grit. She studied the small Texas town that had seemingly dug its heels into the limestone and refused modern development and thought that was fertile ground for stories about women remodeling their lives. It made a juxtaposition of place and purpose that was hard to ignore. Plus, anything that takes intentional effort has a much higher value than the things that come easily—Comfort personifies this, and the novels remind readers that anything worth having is worth the work.

Comfort Foods is the third full-length novel in the set, Fiction from the Texas Hill Country, and follows behind the award-winning novels Comfort Plans and Comfort Songs. A novella, Emeralds Mark the Spot, is available as a free eBook download to subscribers of the incredibly sporadic newsletter at kimberlyfish.com and is the original story from which all other Comfort novels grew.

Connect with Kimberly:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

My Thoughts

Kimberly Fish is one of those authors you can trust to always tell a great story. She writes realistic, interesting characters, who feel like people you’d want to know (with a few exceptions who are still vividly drawn, but so annoying you hope they walk off a cliff – I’m looking at you, Amy Marsh). The fact that she can create such a visceral reaction to antagonist who exists mostly in references made by the protagonist is proof of her craft. Ms. Fish is an amazing writer.

Fish’s latest novel, Comfort Foods is an amazing book.

At 385 pages, this novel is a meaty, satisfying story that is as much about reinventing yourself as it is about finding love at different stages of your life. Protagonist Lacy Cavanaugh is a former singer and social influencer who has been put in tech jail after using her powers to expose the truth about the afore-mentioned Amy Marsh. leaves the bright lights of Dallas for the Texas Hill Country town of Comfort, where her sister raises goats and makes cheese, and her friend runs a lavender farm. If that sounds more like a vacation than a punishment, than you, like me, will love this book.

Lacy comes off as a bit self-entitled at first, but I quickly grew to find her charming. She’s pretty, funny, smart, and a loyal friend, and though she’s forbidden from posting to her own social media accounts, is happy to help her sister and friends maximize their exposure. She’s the kind of woman who does a lot of things well, and just hasn’t settled into a really productive and positive niche. Even though I’m a couple of decades older than Lacy, I really identified with that aspect of her personality. (I sometimes joke that I’m a professional dilettante.)

Lacy may be the central character, but the other people we meet, in Comfort and a hundred miles away in Austin, are equally compelling. Rudy Delgardo, a successful chef and divorced father to a precious little girl named Luna, is dynamic. His conflict over his responsibilities to his job and to his child are totally plausible – things every working parent must work through. It’s no surprise when he’s reluctant to enter into a relationship.

But Lacy and Rudy aren’t the only paring in this novel. Fish gave us two fantastic characters in Frank, owner of the local paper and Lacy’s boss/mentor and Gloria, Frank’s ex-wife, who is also Lacy’s landlady and mother-figure (because every woman needs a mother, no matter her age – and I love that Kimberly Fish understands that.) Watching the combination of tenderness and pricklyness between the two is both funny and endearing – I’d happily read a whole novel based on just them.

Kale, AJ (the lavender farmer), and their spouses round out the regulars in Comfort, and each one is a perfect voice in the chorus that is this novel.

And then there is Comfort itself. This fictional Texas town is as much a setting as a character, and after reading two of Fish’s previous books set there, it’s a town I wish I could visit in real life and not just in the pages of a novel.

Overall, Comfort Foods is a wonderful slice of life story with just enough romance to keep things interesting, but without being overpowering. It has scenes with great food. It has moments of perfect sunsets over fields of lavender. It is the perfect book for these January days when we are past the holidays, stuck in the winter doldrums, and overwhelmed by the realities of the Pandemic and politics.

Kimberly Fish is an author who always hits the right notes with her stories. In Comfort Foods those notes are herbs and spices instead of chords, but they still harmonize beautifully.

Goes well with a burger made on a backyard grill, homemade French fries, and a cold “Dublin” Dr. Pepper (the kind made with real sugar and sold in glass bottles

Giveaway

ONE WINNER

GRANDPRIZE (US only):

Signed copy of COMFORT FOODS +

Ina Garten’s MODERN COMFORT FOOD

Ends Midnight, CST, January 22, 2021

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Visit the Other Great Blogs on This Tour

or visit the Lone Star Literary Life tour page

1/12/21	Guest Post	Hall Ways Blog
1/12/21	Review	Sydney Young, Stories
1/13/21	Excerpt	Forgotten Winds
1/14/21	Review	Jennie Reads
1/14/21	Author Interview	Texas Book Lover
1/15/21	Review	The Clueless Gent
1/16/21	Review	Jennifer Silverwood
1/17/21	Guest Post	All the Ups and Downs
1/18/21	Review	Momma on the Rocks
1/18/21	Character Interview	StoreyBook Reviews
1/19/21	Review	Book Bustle
1/19/21	Guest Post	That’s What She’s Reading
1/20/21	Review	Carpe Diem Chronicles
1/21/21	Review	It’s Not All Gravy
1/21/21	Review	Bibliotica

Review: The Black-Marketer’s Daughter, by Suman Mallick

9 January 2021 by Melissa

About the book, The Black-Marketer’s Daughter

Category: Contemporary / Literary Fiction / Multicultural
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Date of Publication: October 13, 2020
Number of Pages: 166 pages

Zuleikha arrives in the US from Lahore, Pakistan, by marriage, having trained as a pianist without ever owning a real piano. Now she finally has one-a wedding present from her husband-but nevertheless finds it difficult to get used to her new role of a suburban middle-class housewife who has an abundance of time to play it.

Haunted by the imaginary worlds of the confiscated contraband books and movies that her father trafficked in to pay for her education and her dowry, and unable to reconcile them with the expectations of the real world of her present, she ends up as the central figure in a scandal that catapults her into the public eye and plays out in equal measures in the local news and in backroom deliberations, all fueled by winds of anti-Muslim hysteria.

The Black-Marketer’s Daughter was a finalist for the Disquiet Open Borders Book Prize, and praised by the jury as a “complicated and compelling story” of our times, with two key cornerstones of the novel being the unsympathetic voice with which Mallick, almost objectively, relays catastrophic and deeply emotional events, and the unsparing eye with which he illuminates the different angles and conflicting interests at work in a complex situation. The cumulative effects, while deliberately unsettling to readers, nevertheless keeps them glued to the pages out of sheer curiosity about what will happen next.

Praise for this book:

“Mallick offers an impressively realistic depiction of a woman caught between tradition, family, and her own sense of empowerment.” ~ Kirkus Reviews
“The Black-Marketer’s Daughter is a key-hole look at a few things: a mismatched marriage, the plight of immigrants in the U.S., the emotional toll of culture shock, and the brutal way Muslim women are treated, especially by men within their own community. Titling it—defining the heroine by her relationship to a man rather than as a woman in her own right—suggests how deeply ingrained that inequality can be.” ~ IndieReader Reviews
“The Black-Marketer’s Daughter is the portrait of a woman who endures violence, intimidation, xenophobia and grief, and yet refuses to be called a victim. In this slender novel, Suman Mallick deftly navigates the funhouse maze of immigrant life in contemporary America—around each corner the possibility of a delight, a terror, or a distorted reflection of oneself.” ~ Matthew Valentine, Winner, Montana Prize for Fiction; Lecturer, University of Texas at Austin

Buy, read, and discuss this book:

Amazon | Bookshop.org | Goodreads

About the author, Suman Mallick

Suman Mallick received his MFA from Portland State University and is the assistant managing editor of the quarterly literary magazine Under the Gum Tree. He lives in Texas.

Connect with Suman:

WEBSITE | TWITTER | AMAZON | GOODREADS | INSTAGRAM

My Thoughts

Suman Mallick’s debut novel The Black-Marketer’s Daughter is more than just a story. It’s a sonata that unfolds one movement at a time, in lyrical language that compels, frustrates, infuriates, and finally delights the reader. It’s a portrait of the culture-within-a-culture of Muslim Pakistani immigrants to the United States, and specifically North Texas (where I also live) that exposes the harsh reality of assimilating into American society, of being a modern immigrant, and, yes, of the status of women in general, and abused women in particular. It’s also a celebration of diversity, of identity, and of personal strength and growth.

And all that in less than two hundred pages!

Zuleikha, our heroine, is a musician and a dreamer. She wants love, and wants to be in love. At one point, she even explains to someone that the books and DVDs her father sold on the black market to fund her piano lessons and her dowry taught her to fall in love with the idea of falling in love. It is her point of view through which this story unfolds, and that view is rich and complex. She’s intellectually curious, but has never really bothered to expose herself to current affairs, choosing the focus on the arts section of newspapers.

Iskander, her husband via an arranged marriage is not a villain, though parts of this story attempt to paint him as one, but is reserved, stoic to the point where I felt like I was reading about some of my husband’s midwestern relatives who are much the same. For the first half of the novel, he is simply there. An unremarkable presence in the life of a woman who is meant to be remarkable, and clearly a poor match for Zuleikha.

Mallick’s tale isn’t one of happy families, though. Rather it’s about what we do when we are desperate for love, and cannot find it. He writes about the darker events in this novel with the same craft he used to describe music, motorcycles, and a Ferris wheel ride at the state fair. There is only one violent scene, and it’s written so that you cannot look away, but must bear witness, because it represents many, many violent scenes that happen outside the pages of novels.

What I loved about this book was the language. Mallick’s writing is music The high points sing in lofty trills and glorious crescendos. The heavier moments thud like the bass notes on a piano keyboard, dark and thunderous, but still gripping. Even the parts of the story that were dark and disturbing were so carefully phrased that I couldn’t skip through them, but had to drink in every delicious word.

I also appreciated that Mallick didn’t pause his narrative to explain Muslim or Pakistani terms for white readers. Articles of clothing, items of food – these were referred to as Zuleikha and Iskander would have grown up calling them, and that made the story more real. He trusted us to either figure things out from context or look them up. It takes a confident author to trust his readers to meet him where he stands.

If I had one problem with this novel it was only that it was relatively short. 166 pages may have completed the story, but I wanted more.

If you want a novel that you can read in a day, but may also choose to savor, with dynamic characters and amazing language, read The Black-Marketer’s Daughter. You will be richer for the experience.

Goes well with: chicken biryani, lamb kebabs, and Murree’s classic lager.

Visit the Other Great Blogs on This Tour

(or check out the Lone Star Literary Life tour page for direct links to each post.)

1/6/21	Promo	Hall Ways Blog
1/7/21	Review	The Clueless Gent
1/7/21	Guest Post	Momma on the Rocks
1/8/21	Review	Forgotten Winds
1/8/21	Author Interview	All the Ups and Downs
1/9/21	Review	Bibliotica
1/10/21	Excerpt	Texas Book Lover
1/11/21	Author Interview	That’s What She’s Reading
1/11/21	Review	It’s Not All Gravy
1/12/21	Playlist	Chapter Break Book Blog
1/13/21	Review	StoreyBook Reviews
1/13/21	Scrapbook Page	The Page Unbound
1/14/21	Author Interview	KayBee’s Book Shelf
1/15/21	Review	Reading by Moonlight
1/15/21	Review	Missus Gonzo

Cover Reveal: River, Sing Out, by James Wade

17 December 2020 by Melissa

About the book, River Sing Out

Categories: Contemporary / Literary Fiction
Rural Fiction / Crime Fiction / Coming-of-Age
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Date of Publication: June 8, 2021
Number of Pages: 315 pages

“And through these ages untold, the river did act as the lifeblood of all those things alongside it.

Jonah Hargrove is celebrating his thirteenth birthday by avoiding his abusive father, when a girl named River stumbles into his yard, injured and alone. The teenager has stolen thousands of dollars’ worth of meth from her murderous, drug-dealing boyfriend, but lost it somewhere in the Neches River bottoms during her escape. Jonah agrees to help her find and sell the drugs so she can flee East Texas.

Chasing after them is John Curtis, a local drug kingpin and dog fighter, as well as River’s boyfriend, the dangerous Dakota Cade.

Each person is keeping secrets from the others—deadly secrets that will be exposed in violent fashion as all are forced to come to terms with their choices, their circumstances, and their own definition of God.

With a colorful cast of supporting characters and an unflinching violence juxtaposed against lyrical prose, River, Sing Out dives deep into the sinister world of the East Texas river bottoms, where oppressive poverty is pitted against the need to believe in something greater than the self.

Pre-order this book:

Watch the trailer for this book:

River, Sing Out – Book Trailer from AV FILMS on Vimeo.

About the author, James Wade

James Wade lives and writes in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Jordan. He has had twenty short stories published in various literary magazines and journals. He is the winner of the Writers’ League of Texas Manuscript Contest and a finalist of the Tethered by Letters Short Fiction Contest. All Things Left Wild is his debut novel.

Connect with James:

Connect with Blackstone Publishing:

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE TOUR PAGE

FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH POST ON THIS BOOK BLITZ.

Christmas-at-the-Marshmallow-Cafe-Kindle

Spotlight: Christmas at the Marshmallow Cafe, by CP Ward

14 December 2020 by Melissa

About the book, Christmas at the Marshmallow Cafe

When downtrodden checkout assistant Bonnie Green receives a letter from a mysterious uncle, she can hardly believe her eyes.

Gifted a hundred-year lease on a famous cafe situated in the middle of a mythical theme park, Bonnie sets off with her best friend Debbie on an adventure to a hidden valley in the Lake District where they will find new friendship, love, and happiness, all set against the magic of Christmas … and more marshmallows than they can possibly eat….

Buy, read, and discuss this book:

Purchase | Goodreads

About the author, CP Ward

CP Ward is an author from Cornwall in the UK.

Connect with CP:

Facebook Discussion Group

Christmas In Cockleberry Bay Full Banner

Review: Christmas in Cockleberry Bay, by Nicola May

8 December 2020 by Melissa

About the book, Christmas in Cockleberry Bay

Publication date : November 13, 2020
Print length : 237 pages
Word Wise : Enabled
Publisher : Nowell Publishing (November 13, 2020)

Meet old and new characters in the Bay for Christmas fun and frolics.

With both the Corner Shop and Cockleberry Café in safe hands, Rosa turns her attention to Ned’s Gift, the charity set up in memory of the great-grandfather whose legacy turned her life around.

Over at the Ship Hotel, Lucas has his work cut out with his devious new girlfriend and the mystery poisoning of an anonymous hotel inspector. Will the hotel still get its 3-star Seaside Rosette?

Will Mary find true love at last? Can Titch cope with the demands of the shop and being heavily pregnant. And can Rosa, with a baby of her own, pull off the Cockleberry Bay Charity Christmas Concert in time?

Christmas in Cockleberry Bay is a festive delight for fans of Rosa and her cheeky mini dachshund Hot, delivering a feast of unpredictable events and surprises.

Buy, read, and discuss this book:

Kindle (US) | Kindle (UK) | Paperback | Goodreads

About the author, Nicola May

Nicola May is a rom-com superstar. She is the author of eleven romantic comedies, all of which have appeared in the Kindle bestseller charts. Two of them won awards at the Festival of Romance, and another was named ebook of the week in The Sun. The Corner Shop in Cockleberry Bay became the best-selling Kindle book in the UK, across all genres, in January 2019, and was Amazon’s third-bestselling novel in that year.

She lives near Ascot racecourse with her black-and-white rescue cat, Stan.

Connect with Nicola

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

My Thoughts

Dropping into Nicola May’s Cockleberry Bay again was a delightful experience, made even more so by the fact that this visit happened at Christmas time. This fictional seaside community with it’s cast of lovable, funny, dramatic, and irascible characters is fast becoming a second home to me, and this visit was probably one of my favorites.

Like any good family reunion, Christmas in Cockleberry Bay is replete with babies, both new and soon-to-come, dogs, couples having typical couplish dramas, eccentric relatives, and small business owners trying to improve their lots by earning new rating stars from the coastal rating group. Oh, and Christmas cookies (sorry, biscuits) – we mustn’t forget those.

As always the Corner Store and Rosa’s Cafe are the cornerstones of a trip to the Bay, though this story has us spending a significant time at the Ship Hotel and Lobster Pot as well.

What I love about Nicola May’s writing is that she’s equally adept at writing one-on-one scenes, like the ones with Rosa and Titch comparing the joys and woes of young motherhood, and massive chaotic ensemble bits with people talking over each other and having side conversations, which latter is extraordinarily difficult to convey in writing.

What I love about this series is that while the focus characters change, everyone we’ve met so far, plus the new additions, get their moment in the spotlight.

Some details I really appreciated were Tina trying to hide her natural accent when she’s answering the hotel phone, and Nate being concerned – unnecessarily – when he introduces his Christmas “plus one” to his sister. (I’m being intentionally vague because I don’t want to spoil the reveal.)

Any visit to Cockleberry Bay is worth the time spent, but spending Christmas in Cockleberry Bay might just be the perfect antidote for the socially distanced, largely separate holidays we’re all facing this year. Or at least, it’s a warm and wonderful story seasoned with love and salt air, that makes this very atypical December feel a bit brighter.

Goes well with mulled wine, sharp cheddar, a crackling fire, and a (non-lethal) coastal storm.

Spotlight: You Never See Rainbows at Christmas by Elaine Spires

6 December 2020 by Melissa

About the book, You Never See Rainbows at Christmas

Paperback : 170 pages
ISBN-10 : 0992867282
ISBN-13 : 978-0992867287
Published : November 17, 2020

Like a rhinestone Miss Havisham Eloise plans to spend Christmas alone, lying on the settee, crying her eyes out and listening to Dolly Parton’s Greatest Hits. But a fall in the sleet two nights before Christmas lands her at the feet of rough sleeper Adam who is fighting his own demons. Limping, cut and bruised, she has no alternative but to accept his offer of help. And instead of rejection and solitude there’s friendship and company and the festive season suddenly seems brighter. Eloise’s never seen a rainbow at Christmas… Until now.

Buy, read, and discuss this book:

Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK) | Goodreads

About the author, Elaine Spires

Elaine Spires is a novelist, playwright and actress. Extensive travelling and a background in education and tourism perfected Elaine’s keen eye for the quirky characteristics of people, captivating the humorous observations she now affectionately shares with the readers of her novels. Elaine spends her time between her homes in Essex and Five Islands, Antigua (W.I.).

Connect with Elaine

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Review: Solo: A Down to Earth Guide for Travelling the World Alone, by Aaron Hodges

4 December 2020 by Melissa

About the book, Solo: A Down to Earth Guide for Travelling the World Alone

Item Weight : 10.4 ounces
Paperback : 160 pages
ISBN-10 : 0995129657
ISBN-13 : 978-0995129658
Publisher : Aaron Hodges; Illustrated edition (December 10, 2019)

Feeling alone? Trapped? Lost?

Time for an adventure!

The bad times won’t last forever, and for more than five years, Aaron Hodges has journeyed the globe alone, visiting everywhere from Istanbul to Argentina. Honest and insightful, SOLO is packed with his personal travel tips and humorous stories. Learn about the ups and downs, the triumphs and the pitfalls of venturing off the beaten path. Follow his guidelines for exploring the world alone and be inspired to take the trip you’ve always dreamed of.

Discover the world of solo travel.

Go Solo!

Buy, read, and discuss this book:

Amazon | Books 2 Read | Goodreads

About the author, Aaron Hodges

Aaron Hodges was born in 1989 in the small town of Whakatane, New Zealand. He studied for five years at the University of Auckland, completing a Bachelors of Science in Biology and Geography, and a Masters of Environmental Engineering. After working as an environmental consultant for two years, he grew tired of office work and decided to quit his job in 2014 and see the world. One year later, he published his first novel – Stormwielder – while in Guatemala. Since then, he has honed his skills while travelling through parts of SE Asia, India, North and South America, Turkey and Europe, and now has over a dozen works to his name. Today, his adventures continue…

Connect with Aaron:

Facebook | Instagram

My Thoughts

Reading travel books when you’re stuck in quarantine, and in the country no one wants visitors from, may seem counter-intuitive, but the truth is Solo: A Down to Earth Guide for Travelling the World Alone, is so breezy and engaging that reading it gave me hope for a future when travel is easy and accessible again.

In this book, which is aimed at a demographic I’m not in (I’m a good twenty years older than the author, and very, very married), author Aaron Hodges theorizes that his readers share something in common with him – they have boring desk jobs, they’re restless, or they just ended relationships. This latter, he specifically mentions as one of the things that pushes people to stop dreaming about travel and actually do some.

A lot of this book is aimed at adventure-travellers – people who want to backpack through Europe and stay in hostiles – or at least engage in rugged activities. While that’s never been my thing (I’m much more into museums and cute shops with the occasional beach day and maybe time on a rented ocean kayak) Hughes friendly style makes these things seem appealing and even exciting.

He even made me consider where I’d go if I were travelling without my husband. (In truth, I’ve done this to a point. On trips where he was working I hired local guides and wandered on my own.)

Hughes makes good points about language barriers being daunting to some, and about choosing your destinations wisely, but more than that, he is all about living your dreams instead of waiting for someone to hand them to you.

Part guide, part memoir, if you’re planning a trip, or even just wishing you could get up and go, this is the book for you.

Goes well with a local dish you’ve never heard of in a hole-in-the-wall cafe in a foreign country.

Review: Christmas at Moonshine Hollow, by Angela Britnell

3 December 2020 by Melissa

About the book, Christmas at Moonshine Hollow

Paperback : 193 pages
ISBN-10 : 1781893640
ISBN-13 : 978-178189364
Publisher : Choc Lit (November 24, 2020)

Mistletoe and moonshine: a Christmas match made in heaven?
Moonshine Hollow’s famous ‘Lightning Flash’ might be an acquired taste, although the same could be said for moonshine distillery owner Cole Landon, what with his workaholic habits and ‘Scrooge’ tendencies when it comes to all things Christmassy.

But when Jenna Pendean from Cornwall pays a visit to Cole’s family-run distillery in Tennessee during the holiday season, will Cole’s cynicism about the existence of Christmas miracles be put to the test?

Buy, read, and discuss this book:

Purchase Link | Goodreads

About the author, Angela Britnell

Angela grew up in Cornwall, England and returns frequently from her new home in Nashville, Tennessee to visit family and friends, drink tea and eat far too many Cornish pasties!

A lifelong love of reading turned into a passion for writing contemporary romance and her novels are usually set in the many places she’s visited or lived on her extensive travels. Thanks to over three decades of marriage to her wonderful American husband she’s a huge fan of transatlantic romance and always makes sure her characters get their own happy-ever-after.

She is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, the Romance Writers of America and the Music City Romance Writers. Her first novel ‘Truth and Consequence’ was published in 2006 and she’s now had over 30 novels published internationally and several short stories in women’s magazines.

Connect with Angela:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

My Thoughts

“So bring us some figgy pudding and a drop of good cheer… ” In this novel, Christmas at Moonshine Hollow, the “good cheer” comes in the form of moonshine – not the ilicit, illegal kind from the days of prohibition, but the legal version made in shiny family-owned distilleries and marketed like any other kind of alcohol. More than moonshine though, is the relationship between Landon Moonshine heir Cole, and Brit-out-of-water Jenna, who meet when she shows up at a tour of his family business.

This is a Christmas romance, written with a deft hand by Angela Britnell, so it’s no surprise that sparks immediately fly between Jenna and Cole, but it turns out that all isn’t snowy and perfect, because there’s drama in the Landon family (they may have to sell the distillery) and there’s drama from Jenna as well, or, rather, a bit of holiday intrigue.

While the romance is at the forefront of this story, the time devoted to Cole’s relationship with his stepfather and his extended family is well spent – love and money are difficult things to mesh and families tend not to be honest about either when they should. As well, we see Jenna’s relationship with her estranged (from each other) parents, who have her trapped in the middle of their toxic relationship.

Aside from Cole, Debbie, Sylvia, Martin, Mimi, and Jenna, all characters who felt plausibly real and believable, especially the southern characters, whom Britnell imbued with just enough accent to make it almost audible, one thing I really appreciated about this novel was what I learned about moonshine as I read it. I always assumed that it was basically flavorless, like Everclear. It never occurred to me that it came in varietals and flavors, more like tequila.

Overall, this was a delightful holiday romance, and worth reading on a chilly December evening.

Goes well with a massive burger and a locally brewed beer.

Then she climbed on.