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beate251's reviews
443 reviews
The Runaway Wives by Karen King
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC.
Dee is days away from her 60th birthday when she discovers that her husband Nigel has booked a week in Portugal around her birthday. Then she discovers he has not only forgotten her birthday but also he booked the week only for him as a golfing holiday with pals. I don't really know what's worse here but who in their right mind doesn't even tell their wife they are going to be away? Someone as selfish, unsupportive and pompous as Nigel, of course. And unfaithful, as it turns out.
Her best friend Babs always thought she had a great marriage. She has been with Geoff for 37 years but suddenly he wants to move to Spain (hello, Brexit?), puts the house on the market, books flights to and house viewings in Spain and generally behaves very inconsiderately and out of character.
So Dee and Babs decide to go on a little holiday to Cornwall to teach them a lesson. There they integrate into a fully formed community with plenty of pets, and Dee reconnects with old friend Kenny. Does it ever actually happen that you become part of the local community while on holiday?
Both husbands try to get their wives back, but my God, Nigel is a piece of work. I found it annoying how the children pressured them to stay together. To me Dee was the more interesting character but it irritated me that she didn't want to take Nigel for everything he got - I certainly wouldn't have been so accommodating.
I like the fact that elderly women are celebrated here as being and having fun and getting second chances. The author does a good job of marketing Cornwall, its food and its people to the reader.
The lifelong friendship and support between Dee and Babs is lovely and uplifting to see. It's never too late for new friends and new beginnings though!
If you are a fan of Judy Leigh and want to read something feel-good and heartwarming with adventures for the mature gals, you could do worse than picking this.
Dee is days away from her 60th birthday when she discovers that her husband Nigel has booked a week in Portugal around her birthday. Then she discovers he has not only forgotten her birthday but also he booked the week only for him as a golfing holiday with pals. I don't really know what's worse here but who in their right mind doesn't even tell their wife they are going to be away? Someone as selfish, unsupportive and pompous as Nigel, of course. And unfaithful, as it turns out.
Her best friend Babs always thought she had a great marriage. She has been with Geoff for 37 years but suddenly he wants to move to Spain (hello, Brexit?), puts the house on the market, books flights to and house viewings in Spain and generally behaves very inconsiderately and out of character.
So Dee and Babs decide to go on a little holiday to Cornwall to teach them a lesson. There they integrate into a fully formed community with plenty of pets, and Dee reconnects with old friend Kenny. Does it ever actually happen that you become part of the local community while on holiday?
Both husbands try to get their wives back, but my God, Nigel is a piece of work. I found it annoying how the children pressured them to stay together. To me Dee was the more interesting character but it irritated me that she didn't want to take Nigel for everything he got - I certainly wouldn't have been so accommodating.
I like the fact that elderly women are celebrated here as being and having fun and getting second chances. The author does a good job of marketing Cornwall, its food and its people to the reader.
The lifelong friendship and support between Dee and Babs is lovely and uplifting to see. It's never too late for new friends and new beginnings though!
If you are a fan of Judy Leigh and want to read something feel-good and heartwarming with adventures for the mature gals, you could do worse than picking this.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
A sky Full of Stars by Fay Keenan
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC.
Dr Charlotte James is a historical astronomical archivist. She works in the Astronomy Department of the fictional North West Wessex University in Bristol and lives on campus, except for the summer holidays where she usually stays with her friend Gemma. This year, however, she has bagged herself a five week job archiving the records of the Observatory in small town Lower Brambleton in Somerset before it is being torn down to make way for a housing development. It pays well and even offers free accommodation for her and her spaniel Comet.
Her first reaction is to want to preserve the old building but her landlady, elderly Lorelai, and many community members are surprisingly very much in favour of the destruction of the old tumbledown observatory and the construction of new homes on the land. When Charlotte meets Tristan Ashcombe, Lorelai's grumpy grandson, she learns of the tragic events that befell the community 30 years earlier. And then she makes a surprising discovery that could change things but push some people over the edge.
I really liked that this isn't simply a romance but also teaches you interesting things about astronomy. I've learnt of the existence of eclipsing binary stars, and even though Im still not quite sure what they are and why they are a big thing, I loved the enthusiasm. The story also expertly deals with grief and mental health issues.
I loved most of the characters (except for the villain), even Todd the ex wasn't so bad. I also liked that there was barely any miscommunication, and the tour of Bristol really made me want to visit it.
Great book, great cover, and apparently the first in a brand new series. Can't wait for the next one!
Dr Charlotte James is a historical astronomical archivist. She works in the Astronomy Department of the fictional North West Wessex University in Bristol and lives on campus, except for the summer holidays where she usually stays with her friend Gemma. This year, however, she has bagged herself a five week job archiving the records of the Observatory in small town Lower Brambleton in Somerset before it is being torn down to make way for a housing development. It pays well and even offers free accommodation for her and her spaniel Comet.
Her first reaction is to want to preserve the old building but her landlady, elderly Lorelai, and many community members are surprisingly very much in favour of the destruction of the old tumbledown observatory and the construction of new homes on the land. When Charlotte meets Tristan Ashcombe, Lorelai's grumpy grandson, she learns of the tragic events that befell the community 30 years earlier. And then she makes a surprising discovery that could change things but push some people over the edge.
I really liked that this isn't simply a romance but also teaches you interesting things about astronomy. I've learnt of the existence of eclipsing binary stars, and even though Im still not quite sure what they are and why they are a big thing, I loved the enthusiasm. The story also expertly deals with grief and mental health issues.
I loved most of the characters (except for the villain), even Todd the ex wasn't so bad. I also liked that there was barely any miscommunication, and the tour of Bristol really made me want to visit it.
Great book, great cover, and apparently the first in a brand new series. Can't wait for the next one!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Claire Casey's Had Enough by Liz Alterman
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley and Severn House for this ARC.
Claire, 46, mother of 3 (4 if you count the useless husband) has had enough. She writes articles for a parenting website and has once written a children's book but feels she is stagnating. So she decides to re-evaluate her life but is the grass really greener elsewhere?
I had some intense deja vu moments with this book. Especially the head lice infection and the linguini on lap incident sounded incredibly familiar, so either I'm a time traveller or I have read this story or parts of it somewhere before.
Unfortunately, I didn't connect with the writing style. The action takes place over one day, 4 September 2024, but with flashbacks to May and July of the same year and to 1999. This makes it disjointed and confusing, plus that day seemed to go on forever. It's ridiculous all the stuff she has to deal with and that goes wrong within the space of a day. The events were either funny or infuriating, like a day in the life of a working mother, but on steroids. I liked the personal growth in some characters, and her neighbour Bea who was quite with the times for her advanced age. Read if you like chaotic mom-coms.
Claire, 46, mother of 3 (4 if you count the useless husband) has had enough. She writes articles for a parenting website and has once written a children's book but feels she is stagnating. So she decides to re-evaluate her life but is the grass really greener elsewhere?
I had some intense deja vu moments with this book. Especially the head lice infection and the linguini on lap incident sounded incredibly familiar, so either I'm a time traveller or I have read this story or parts of it somewhere before.
Unfortunately, I didn't connect with the writing style. The action takes place over one day, 4 September 2024, but with flashbacks to May and July of the same year and to 1999. This makes it disjointed and confusing, plus that day seemed to go on forever. It's ridiculous all the stuff she has to deal with and that goes wrong within the space of a day. The events were either funny or infuriating, like a day in the life of a working mother, but on steroids. I liked the personal growth in some characters, and her neighbour Bea who was quite with the times for her advanced age. Read if you like chaotic mom-coms.
Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Thank you to NetGalley and Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for this ARC.
Lenny has lost her best friend and flatmate Lou to cancer. She works as a nanny so when she starts a short-term job for single Mum Reese and her 7 year old daughter Ainsley, she meets grumpy Miles who seems to just hang around the flat observing her.
I have to say, at that point I was very confused about who he was and why he was always there, with Reese being reluctant to have him around. It turns out he is her half-brother who she knew nothing about for years. Miles has come to make amends and spend more time with her and Ainsley, who he is very protective about.
Lenny and Miles make a pact - she will show him how to connect with Ainsley and he will be there for her when her grief takes over. This means that they spend a lot of time together, whether on the Staten Island ferry, clubbing, cooking for each other, getting matching tattoos or camping with new-found friends, with the help of a "learn to live again" list from Lou.
This is both a heartwarming story about the friendship between two people damaged by grief, helping each other through it and also a very slow-burn romance. Grief is a heavy topic but it is interspersed with gentle humour. By the end I was a huge fan of Miles and very happy that Lenny had finally stopped crying. Plus, the cover is gorgeous.
Lenny has lost her best friend and flatmate Lou to cancer. She works as a nanny so when she starts a short-term job for single Mum Reese and her 7 year old daughter Ainsley, she meets grumpy Miles who seems to just hang around the flat observing her.
I have to say, at that point I was very confused about who he was and why he was always there, with Reese being reluctant to have him around. It turns out he is her half-brother who she knew nothing about for years. Miles has come to make amends and spend more time with her and Ainsley, who he is very protective about.
Lenny and Miles make a pact - she will show him how to connect with Ainsley and he will be there for her when her grief takes over. This means that they spend a lot of time together, whether on the Staten Island ferry, clubbing, cooking for each other, getting matching tattoos or camping with new-found friends, with the help of a "learn to live again" list from Lou.
This is both a heartwarming story about the friendship between two people damaged by grief, helping each other through it and also a very slow-burn romance. Grief is a heavy topic but it is interspersed with gentle humour. By the end I was a huge fan of Miles and very happy that Lenny had finally stopped crying. Plus, the cover is gorgeous.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Sisterhood by Cathy Kelly
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for this ARC.
Lou has a thoughtless husband, an unappreciative employer and a toxic mother. Her best friend died two years ago, and her younger sister seems to have it all. It all comes to a head on her 50th birthday when her employer overlooks her for a promotion, her husband didn't buy her a present and her mother tells her drunkenly that her father isn't her father.
This is a heartwarming story about female empowerment when Lou and her sister Toni, with the help of a young pregnant hitch-hiker, decide to travel to Sicily to find Lou's birth father and find out what happened 50 years ago. Lou is a people pleaser with a history of anxiety and depression (something she calls The Barking Dog), and Toni's husband is a gambler who lost all their money. She also seemingly just sabotaged her career. With all that's happening in their private lives we don't get to Sicily until halfway through the book.
The story is well told and reads smoothly, and it was lovely to see that Lou and Toni have a loving relationship and have people around them like daughter Emily and aunt Gloria that appreciate them. The "secret" wasn't hard to figure out, and the end resolved a little too neatly. Hitch-hiker Trinity wasn't really necessary for the story but she wasn't holding it up, just giving perspective on the "single and pregnant" stigmata that still exists in Ireland.
Lou has a thoughtless husband, an unappreciative employer and a toxic mother. Her best friend died two years ago, and her younger sister seems to have it all. It all comes to a head on her 50th birthday when her employer overlooks her for a promotion, her husband didn't buy her a present and her mother tells her drunkenly that her father isn't her father.
This is a heartwarming story about female empowerment when Lou and her sister Toni, with the help of a young pregnant hitch-hiker, decide to travel to Sicily to find Lou's birth father and find out what happened 50 years ago. Lou is a people pleaser with a history of anxiety and depression (something she calls The Barking Dog), and Toni's husband is a gambler who lost all their money. She also seemingly just sabotaged her career. With all that's happening in their private lives we don't get to Sicily until halfway through the book.
The story is well told and reads smoothly, and it was lovely to see that Lou and Toni have a loving relationship and have people around them like daughter Emily and aunt Gloria that appreciate them. The "secret" wasn't hard to figure out, and the end resolved a little too neatly. Hitch-hiker Trinity wasn't really necessary for the story but she wasn't holding it up, just giving perspective on the "single and pregnant" stigmata that still exists in Ireland.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy
Pieces of Us by Eve Ainsworth
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley and Canelo for this ARC.
Sara has a cat called Goose, works in a care home and misses her best friend Lottie who has recently died from cancer. Lottie's Mum Erica, bitter after her divorce and not very friendly towards Sara, gives her a present from Lottie - a Jar of Joy that she made for her designed to remember all the nice times they had together.
In highschool, Lottie, Sara, Jay and Dec all used to hang out together. The relationship between Sara and Jay was complicated - they seemed destined to end up together but their parents hated each other. The true toxicity however in this Romeo and Juliet scenario came from none other than Lottie who did everything to keep those two apart, even forging a letter.
Can you be violently angry towards a tragic young woman who died from cancer when all she wanted was to be loved by people? Yes, when she is selfish and jealous, directly conspiring against the happiness of her apparent best friend. So she had a father who neglected her and a bitter mother, and all her privilege didn't mean anything to her - you know what, I don't care. She did a horrible thing and she didn't make it right before she died.
Ok, some of that can be attributed to Sara's utter inability to communicate with those around her but especially Lottie and Jay. But she is a kind person with a complicated family life and I liked her relationship with old Derek who lives at the care home, and her colleague Jess. She was always a good friend to Lottie and forgave her anything, while the other way round this can't be said. I was so sad for her, thinking bad things about Jay for so long.
This is an emotional story about childhood traumas, toxic friendship, romance, secrets, grief, forgiveness and second chances which I really tried to like, but I got very impatient at the end. It just drags on and on while the reader knows the issue but it takes Sara ages to catch up, do the things from the Joy Jar and read Lottie's diary. There are two POVs, two timelines and a lot of repetition. This book could have been at least 50 pages shorter and half as infuriating. As it stands, this wasn't for me.
Sara has a cat called Goose, works in a care home and misses her best friend Lottie who has recently died from cancer. Lottie's Mum Erica, bitter after her divorce and not very friendly towards Sara, gives her a present from Lottie - a Jar of Joy that she made for her designed to remember all the nice times they had together.
In highschool, Lottie, Sara, Jay and Dec all used to hang out together. The relationship between Sara and Jay was complicated - they seemed destined to end up together but their parents hated each other. The true toxicity however in this Romeo and Juliet scenario came from none other than Lottie who did everything to keep those two apart, even forging a letter.
Can you be violently angry towards a tragic young woman who died from cancer when all she wanted was to be loved by people? Yes, when she is selfish and jealous, directly conspiring against the happiness of her apparent best friend. So she had a father who neglected her and a bitter mother, and all her privilege didn't mean anything to her - you know what, I don't care. She did a horrible thing and she didn't make it right before she died.
Ok, some of that can be attributed to Sara's utter inability to communicate with those around her but especially Lottie and Jay. But she is a kind person with a complicated family life and I liked her relationship with old Derek who lives at the care home, and her colleague Jess. She was always a good friend to Lottie and forgave her anything, while the other way round this can't be said. I was so sad for her, thinking bad things about Jay for so long.
This is an emotional story about childhood traumas, toxic friendship, romance, secrets, grief, forgiveness and second chances which I really tried to like, but I got very impatient at the end. It just drags on and on while the reader knows the issue but it takes Sara ages to catch up, do the things from the Joy Jar and read Lottie's diary. There are two POVs, two timelines and a lot of repetition. This book could have been at least 50 pages shorter and half as infuriating. As it stands, this wasn't for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship
The Art of Starting Over by Heidi McLaughlin
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Devorah Campbell sits in the nail salon when her life changes forever. Her BFF Ester posts a video about having fallen in love with her best friend's husband. That would be Chad Campbell, and after this public humiliation, Devy packs her bags and daughter Maren, 9, and moves back to hometown Oyster Bay in Rhode Island, to reconnect with brother Colt and father Father Tremaine "Crow" Crowley, who is the local sheriff.
Hayden McKenna lost his wife Sofia last year in a car accident. He moves back to small-town Oyster Bay with son Connor, also 9, for new beginnings. He used to be in some sort of relationship with Devy when they were teenagers but they never made it official. Now he suddenly stands in front of her again. Can he avoid past mistakes and declare his feelings once and for all?
This is a sweet story about forgiveness, healing and second chances, with blended families and an adorable dog called Cordelia, but it's also predictable, cliché-filled (the men go fishing, the women shopping) and not very memorable. Chad and Ester are caricature villains but everyone else is almost too nice. Still, a nice if not taxing small-town read. The Crafty Cathys were fun.
Hayden McKenna lost his wife Sofia last year in a car accident. He moves back to small-town Oyster Bay with son Connor, also 9, for new beginnings. He used to be in some sort of relationship with Devy when they were teenagers but they never made it official. Now he suddenly stands in front of her again. Can he avoid past mistakes and declare his feelings once and for all?
This is a sweet story about forgiveness, healing and second chances, with blended families and an adorable dog called Cordelia, but it's also predictable, cliché-filled (the men go fishing, the women shopping) and not very memorable. Chad and Ester are caricature villains but everyone else is almost too nice. Still, a nice if not taxing small-town read. The Crafty Cathys were fun.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Infidelity, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
Nobody's Fool by Harlan Coben
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House, Cornerstone for this ARC.
Sami Kierce, a former Detective in the NYPD but fired after tampering with evidence, is now making ends meet by being a private detective and teaching a criminology night class to a gaggle of misfits. One day, a woman enters the room, sees him and flees. Sami recognises her immediately - he met Anna backpacking in Málaga, Spain more than two decades ago, and one morning he woke up next to her with a bloody knife in his hand and her in a pool of blood. How can she be alive and here, all these years later?
After tracking her down to the estate of the rich Belmont family, he is hired by them to find out who had kidnapped her. So starts a fairly complicated case about Victoria Belmont/Anna who was last seen on New Year's Eve 1999 but returned to her family 11 years later, not able to tell people what had happened to her. We're also delving into the murder of Sami's former fiancée Nicole Brett after her murderer Tad Grayson is released due to a technicality directly to do with Sami's fall from grace. And why is someone stalking his family?
I found the storyline quite confusing, especially as it took me a while to understand that Spain must have happened in 2003 and not 2000 as the blurb suggests, because the narrative variously talks about events having happened 22 and 25 years ago.
This story is faintly connected to characters and events from a previous book, but we're never given a proper summary as that would be spoilers for that book. I have read Fool Me Once and remembered the bare bones, but I had no recollection anymore of Judith Burkett, who, reading up on her, really should be in prison, not still lording it over her decimated family and poor Caroline.
I love all the twists and turns, connections and secrets and lies in Harlan Coben's books. I also liked Sami's quirky criminology students and how they started sleuthing with him, no questions asked. They are such characters, and it's good that Sami has people around him he can rely on, like wife Molly, lawyer Arthur and former police partner Marty.
This is a fast-paced and well-written semi standalone novel with several strands that come together towards the end. Nothing is as it seems and no one is as innocent as they first look. It reads extremely well and fast - the sentences are short and easy to comprehend in this far-fetched but entertaining and gripping page-turner that speeds up the more we get to the conclusion. I finished the book in a day.
Sami Kierce, a former Detective in the NYPD but fired after tampering with evidence, is now making ends meet by being a private detective and teaching a criminology night class to a gaggle of misfits. One day, a woman enters the room, sees him and flees. Sami recognises her immediately - he met Anna backpacking in Málaga, Spain more than two decades ago, and one morning he woke up next to her with a bloody knife in his hand and her in a pool of blood. How can she be alive and here, all these years later?
After tracking her down to the estate of the rich Belmont family, he is hired by them to find out who had kidnapped her. So starts a fairly complicated case about Victoria Belmont/Anna who was last seen on New Year's Eve 1999 but returned to her family 11 years later, not able to tell people what had happened to her. We're also delving into the murder of Sami's former fiancée Nicole Brett after her murderer Tad Grayson is released due to a technicality directly to do with Sami's fall from grace. And why is someone stalking his family?
I found the storyline quite confusing, especially as it took me a while to understand that Spain must have happened in 2003 and not 2000 as the blurb suggests, because the narrative variously talks about events having happened 22 and 25 years ago.
This story is faintly connected to characters and events from a previous book, but we're never given a proper summary as that would be spoilers for that book. I have read Fool Me Once and remembered the bare bones, but I had no recollection anymore of Judith Burkett, who, reading up on her, really should be in prison, not still lording it over her decimated family and poor Caroline.
I love all the twists and turns, connections and secrets and lies in Harlan Coben's books. I also liked Sami's quirky criminology students and how they started sleuthing with him, no questions asked. They are such characters, and it's good that Sami has people around him he can rely on, like wife Molly, lawyer Arthur and former police partner Marty.
This is a fast-paced and well-written semi standalone novel with several strands that come together towards the end. Nothing is as it seems and no one is as innocent as they first look. It reads extremely well and fast - the sentences are short and easy to comprehend in this far-fetched but entertaining and gripping page-turner that speeds up the more we get to the conclusion. I finished the book in a day.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Kidnapping, Grief, and Murder
From Provence With Love by Alison Roberts
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC.
This is book 2 in the One Year in France series. The three Gilchrist sisters Ellie, Laura and Fiona have inherited an old stone house in Provence called La Maisonette from an uncle they never knew, due to their alcoholic father leaving them when they were young. In Falling for Provence, Ellie and Laura travelled to Provence to take a look and start selling the house as neither wanted to live in it. However, something compelled Ellie to stay for the summer and renovate the building for a better sale. Soon she met her grumpy neighbour Julien and his adorable little son Theo.
From Provence with Love is Laura's story and it starts simultaneously to the first book which first confused me because it repeated quite a few things. Ellie is still heavily involved, and we celebrate her wedding to Julien, who has also bought La Maisonette at the end of book 1 / middle of book 2. The fact that she had a child that died at six months old is also still a topic for Laura, who struggles with it in her whirlwind affair with estate agent Noah Dufour.
Ah, Noah, oh la la. He starts out as one of those typical men who relentlessly stalk a woman they like the look of, call her ma chérie and just generally display red flags before they drop their conquests again. We later learn that his beloved sister Elise died from cancer at seven years old, which makes him damaged and not wanting a family, so when Laura discovers she is pregnant, he does not react nicely. This did not endear him to me, pas de tout.
This is a love story that starts out as a holiday romance but never convinced me. It's wishful thinking that we can convert committment phobes into doting family men just by getting pregnant, so I have deducted points for nonsense. I wanted to scream at Laura to at least have her baby in France because with that and a French father it would have a right to a French and therefore EU-wide passport. Did she think about that? You'll have to read it to find out.
Provence with its lavender fields and sunflowers plus the mouth-watering food is described wonderfully, making you want to live there too - if there wasn't that tiny thing called Brexit that romance writers routinely ignore, n'est-ce pas? I found the first book charming but this wasn't for me. It's all about the healing power of love, so if that appeals to you, this might be for you. But if you didn't like me sprinkling my review with French words, you won't like it in the book either.
This is book 2 in the One Year in France series. The three Gilchrist sisters Ellie, Laura and Fiona have inherited an old stone house in Provence called La Maisonette from an uncle they never knew, due to their alcoholic father leaving them when they were young. In Falling for Provence, Ellie and Laura travelled to Provence to take a look and start selling the house as neither wanted to live in it. However, something compelled Ellie to stay for the summer and renovate the building for a better sale. Soon she met her grumpy neighbour Julien and his adorable little son Theo.
From Provence with Love is Laura's story and it starts simultaneously to the first book which first confused me because it repeated quite a few things. Ellie is still heavily involved, and we celebrate her wedding to Julien, who has also bought La Maisonette at the end of book 1 / middle of book 2. The fact that she had a child that died at six months old is also still a topic for Laura, who struggles with it in her whirlwind affair with estate agent Noah Dufour.
Ah, Noah, oh la la. He starts out as one of those typical men who relentlessly stalk a woman they like the look of, call her ma chérie and just generally display red flags before they drop their conquests again. We later learn that his beloved sister Elise died from cancer at seven years old, which makes him damaged and not wanting a family, so when Laura discovers she is pregnant, he does not react nicely. This did not endear him to me, pas de tout.
This is a love story that starts out as a holiday romance but never convinced me. It's wishful thinking that we can convert committment phobes into doting family men just by getting pregnant, so I have deducted points for nonsense. I wanted to scream at Laura to at least have her baby in France because with that and a French father it would have a right to a French and therefore EU-wide passport. Did she think about that? You'll have to read it to find out.
Provence with its lavender fields and sunflowers plus the mouth-watering food is described wonderfully, making you want to live there too - if there wasn't that tiny thing called Brexit that romance writers routinely ignore, n'est-ce pas? I found the first book charming but this wasn't for me. It's all about the healing power of love, so if that appeals to you, this might be for you. But if you didn't like me sprinkling my review with French words, you won't like it in the book either.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Death, Sexism, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
Bad Men by Julie Mae Cohen
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
REVIEW IN PROGRESS
This is my first audiobook in decades. I picked a book I had read before, so thankfully I remembered the plot reasonably well, because I found it hard to concentrate, and sometimes wasn't sure who was supposed to be speaking right now.
The story is about a female serial killer who started at 12 years of age with her Stepdad who was a paedophile. No wonder she is damaged but putting a little dog into danger just to get close to a man she doesn't even plan to kill really didn't endear me to her. The story is a bit convoluted, with her love interest Jon being a true crime podcaster who managed to catch a serial killer and is then kidnapped by another one.
There is lots of dark humour but I felt it was too much about podcaster Jon who seems to be catnip for serial killers and not enough about Saffy getting rid of bad men.
This is my first audiobook in decades. I picked a book I had read before, so thankfully I remembered the plot reasonably well, because I found it hard to concentrate, and sometimes wasn't sure who was supposed to be speaking right now.
The story is about a female serial killer who started at 12 years of age with her Stepdad who was a paedophile. No wonder she is damaged but putting a little dog into danger just to get close to a man she doesn't even plan to kill really didn't endear me to her. The story is a bit convoluted, with her love interest Jon being a true crime podcaster who managed to catch a serial killer and is then kidnapped by another one.
There is lots of dark humour but I felt it was too much about podcaster Jon who seems to be catnip for serial killers and not enough about Saffy getting rid of bad men.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail