Monthly Archives: February 2025

Review Card & Book Review – Winter Magic On Railway Lane By Alison Sherlock

Join the residents of Railway Lane for one last magical adventure…

Globetrotting Libby Jacobs has lost her job but is looking forward to spending more time in her home village of Cranfield.

She dreams of turning her chocolate making hobby into something more permanent. There’s only one problem – Ethan Connolly.

Despite being soul mates growing up, Libby hasn’t been close to Ethan since their disastrous date at the school prom. But now he’s back and he has just what Libby needs… a large kitchen! But can they even bear to be in the same room together?

Ethan never stays in Cranfield too long as it reminds him of his parents’ terrible marriage. But when disaster strikes, he’s forced to stay and help realise his grandad’s dream of a Christmas train. Can the whole village help Ethan create a seasonal spectacular in time?

Can Libby confront her secrets and realise her dreams?

And can Ethan ever stop running from his past and trust his heart?

Perhaps the magic of winter on Railway Lane might just give Libby and Ethan a second chance after all…

About The Author

My Review

Libby Jacobs returns to her hometown of Cranfield after losing her job and dreams of turning her passion for chocolate into a business. Complicating matters is Ethan, her childhood soulmate, who’s back in town to help with a Christmas train project while dealing with his own past. As they reconnect, their old feelings resurface, but Ethan’s fear of love, shaped by his mother’s actions, holds him back. The story explores loss, illness, hope, and the magic of Christmas. Libby’s journey, mixed with chocolate-making and small-town charm, creates an uplifting, heartwarming read full of promise.

My Rating

Link To Purchase

Happy Publication Day – 14 February 2025

What Happens In Paradise By Olivia Spring

What happens in paradise… stays in paradise!

Hotel guest relations manager Jasmine, also known as a Love Alchemist, adores her job at the exclusive Spanish Love Hotel. She prides herself on helping guests meet their perfect match. But matchmaking is absolutely forbidden between staff. And so Jasmine must resist the attraction she feels every time she’s around delectable sous-chef, Alejandro. The problem is, she knows the feeling is mutual. But she cannot jeopardise her job or break the rules.

Because all her hard work is about to be recognized when she’s asked to set up the new branch of the hotel in Jamaica. With an ocean between her and temptation, Jasmine is ecstatic. This is just the distance she needs to keep her feelings under control. But there is one kink in her plan… Alejandro has been asked to join her. For two whole weeks!

Under the sultry Jamaican sun, keeping it strictly professional becomes impossible when romance is literally all around them! So they agree a (secret) holiday fling may help satisfy their desires and then they can move on. After all, what happens in paradise stays in paradise… right?

Review Card & Book Review – What She’s Having By Laura Moher

She may be strong, but she’s not unbreakable.

July Tate is a force to be reckoned with—a big, strong blond with a heart the size of her whole town—but beneath her capable exterior lie the scars of a devastating lost love. To July, love equals vulnerability, and she can’t afford either.

Joe Anderson knew from the first moment he saw her that July was The One. Now, after years apart, he’s back, driven by the need to explain his disappearance. In search of the girl who filled his teenage dreams, he finds instead a powerhouse woman who steals his heart and soul.

Joe embodies everything July has been missing, and together they spark as brightly as ever. But with Joe around, July, who can usually outwork four men is suddenly making mistakes right and left. And that scares her. Because if July falls again, this time her beloved town could go down with her.

About The Author

My Review

July Tate, a resilient woman, reunites with her lost love, Joe Anderson, after years apart. Their old spark reignites, but July fears vulnerability and making mistakes in love again, risking everything, including her town. While the story portrays a small-town romance and explores deep emotions, some readers may find the focus on their brief teenage romance and miscommunication frustrating. The second chance trope is handled well, showing rather than telling the connection between Joe and July, though the physical progression feels abrupt. The book is inclusive, emotional, and offers a sweet, simple plot, despite occasional repetition.

My Rating

Link To Purchase

Happy Publication Day – 13 February 2025

The Ex Effect By Jo Watson

They had a night to remember. For all the wrong reasons.

Thirteen years ago, Ash was planning the night of her life with her high-school boyfriend, Logan. They were madly in love, wild about each other, and had been waiting patiently for this moment. It was going to be perfect.

That is, until it went down in very unsexy flames. Logan disappeared and Ash was left, quite frankly – and very inconveniently – sexually cursed.

After years of disastrous dating and even more disastrous sex, cinematographer Ash has almost given up. But some seriously flirtatious emails with location agent Maximillian Adam, to set up a scouting trip, offer her hope. Because if rumor is to be believed, Maximillian Adam might just be God’s sexual gift to women.

Is Max going to be the one to finally break the curse? And, even better, break it over and over again?

Or when Ash and Max finally come face to face, will they both get so much more than they bargained for?

The Love Intervention By Caroline Khoury

Science says love is the solution to her problems, but will she find the right formula?

Clinical scientist Laila has no time to date. Cooped up in a hospital lab all day, she’s busy working towards her five-year plan. But when her carefully structured world starts to crumble, her friends stage an intervention – a love intervention.

Their plan: remind Laila there’s more to life than work and reconnect her with the three men who stole her heart while she was studying in the States ten years ago – Austin, Edoardo, and Mateo. From California to Puerto Rico and Costa Rica, Laila reunites with her past and reignites passions she thought were long dormant.

But who will be the one to rewrite her five-year plan? And was it just her love life which needed an intervention?

A sparklingly fun love-square…

Review Card & Book Review – How To Charm A Nerd By Katherine Garbera

Dungeons and dragons and nerds, oh my…

The spooky season is almost here, and occultist and tarot reader Liberty Wakefield is already feelin’ it. But ever since her sick nan muttered the name of Liberty’s mysterious biological father, nothing feels normal. Not her friends, her family, nor the quirky shop she runs with her besties. So maybe it’s time for Liberty to track down the father she’s never met. Of course, that means getting a little help from the sexy nerd she’s been not-so-secretly vibing since last summer…

Merle Rutland hasn’t met anyone like the vivacious, bubbly Liberty. Part of him wishes he was more like her—instead of hiding his geekery from his hyper-athletic family. The other part just wants to pull the curvy redhead close, steal a kiss and hope he doesn’t roll a critical fail.

Only, somewhere between Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, pumpkins and a few ridiculously hot sexy-times, Liberty and Merle discover their respective weirds might be a match. Yet as Halloween draws closer, it seems everyone has skeletons in the closet…and nothing spells disaster quite like being haunted by the past…

About The Author

My Review

Liberty Wakefield, a witch, enlists Merle Rutland, a nerdy D&D expert, to uncover her biological father’s identity. Their chemistry grows through shared experiences, but repetitive inner thoughts slow the story’s pace, detracting from its engaging premise of romance and self-discovery. While their connection deepens, unresolved pasts threaten their budding relationship. The novel is compelling but lacks execution, focusing too much on inner dialogue instead of action.

My Rating

Link To Purchase

Happy Publication Day – 12 February 2025

Remember, I Love You By Claudia Carroll

Recently-widowed father of one Luke is desperate for a sign.
Since his beloved wife Helen passed, Luke and six-year-old Amy are just about keeping the show on the road, but he’d do anything to have Helen near him again.
Connie’s much-missed mum was everything to her daughter. A friend, a cheer-leader, a comfort, and the best housemate Connie ever had. What she wouldn’t give to speak to her one more time…
Teenage twins Alex and Lucy both miss their dad desperately but neither have the words to put it right.
In the heart of Dublin, a quiet community is forming, drawn together by the loved ones they have lost, but kept together by friendship and laughter. As Luke, Connie, Alex, Lucy and the other patrons of the Leesom Street Café learn to smile again, none of them are quite ready for meeting the person who may be able to make all their dreams come true.
Because if you love and listen hard enough, goodbye might not be the end.

Review Card & Book Review – Last Christmas By Clare Swatman

As Christmas approaches, Bea Preston has a choice.

Looking up at the departures board in Heathrow airport, her flight to New York boarding soon, she knows that getting on that plane changes everything. Her life in London has grown stale, her relationship with boyfriend Dom has run its course, and New York has always been her dream. But it’s a risk – she’ll miss her parents, her friends, her job.

What if Bea could live both lives? In one she goes back home for Christmas, and in another she heads to the Big Apple. Would her fate remain the same, or can one decision really change everything?

About The Author

My Review

Bea is on a plane to New York just before Christmas, contemplating whether to start a new life in the Big Apple or stay behind. She’s leaving a strained relationship with her live-in boyfriend, who suffers from depression, and is unsure if she should move forward with her own life. On the flight, she meets a man she nicknames Paddy, who keeps his real name a secret, hinting that it’s something people have laughed at in the past. The story alternates between two parallel timelines: Bea’s life at home and her life in New York, leaving the reader to wonder which is real and which will work out.

This novel is praised for its unique and clever premise, seamlessly blending two possible realities. It explores the idea that life’s path can be shaped by fate, with unexpected twists leading to different outcomes. The book is a life-affirming romance, reassuring readers that the right things happen for the right reasons, even if they don’t align with initial expectations. The story is well-crafted, Christmas-themed, and emotionally gripping, making it a memorable read that’s difficult to put down.

My Rating

Link To Purchase

Happy Publication Day – 11 February 2025

Change Of Heart By Falon Ballard

Campbell Andrews despises precisely three things in life: incompetence, lateness, and love stories. Having made partner at her law firm at thirty-four, she has no time for anything – or anyone – else. Especially after yet another disastrous first date.

But then she wakes up in Heart Springs – her own personal hell. The good news? She’s not dead. She’s just been magically transported to a small town straight out of the Hallmark channel, complete with a meddling mayor, seasonal festivals, friendly townsfolk . . . and Ben, her date from the night before.

Cam really doesn’t have time for this, but in order to make it back to her real life, she must fulfil three tasks: find a career she’s passionate about, help the community, and find true love. It really seems impossible.

But stuck in this pastel purgatory and forced to give Ben another chance, she starts to realise that maybe anything’s possible with a change of heart .

Born For This By Caitlin Devlin

Rachael has it.

Harley wants it.

But what’s the true price of fame?

Rachael Carmichael was a global movie star, living in a glamorous world of red carpets, money, awards—and a high-profile wedding to director Greg Foster. So why did she become a total recluse when they divorced?

Aspiring actress Harley Roth is desperate to be as famous as her aunt Rachael. But even with her industry connections, she’s still stuck on the outside, waiting for her big break.

So when Harley hears there may be a biopic in the works about her aunt, she jumps at the chance. After all, everyone has always told her she looks exactly like Rachael—so who better to play the part? To her surprise, Rachael welcomes Harley into her life, and agrees to talk for the first time about her marriage, and the mysteries surrounding it.

But the movie industry is a world of ruthless ambition, underhand favours and twisted promises. After a lifetime of acting, can Harley trust that Rachael is telling her the truth? Because family ties don’t mean the same to everyone, and fame always comes at its own cost…

The Kiss Lottery By Ilsa Madden – Mills

Roses are red, violets are blue—someone in Rose has feelings for you…

Yeah, bad ones. Everly Davis didn’t leave her tight-knit hometown on the best terms. It’s been ten years, but you don’t forget heartbreak like that. Then again, the anonymous invite to the annual Kiss Lottery in Rose, Tennessee, gives Everly content for her podcast. And she has a bone to pick with that old heartbreak anyway.

Beckett Whitfield has never left Rose—and he’s never forgotten Everly. He even named the villain in his latest bestseller after her. Turns out she’s not happy about that. Nothing about their reunion is particularly happy, and after the way they left things, what did he expect?

When the Kiss Lottery pairs them together, Everly and Beckett will have to confront old feelings that never went away and the secrets they never shared. But finally telling each other everything might be exactly what they’ve needed all along.

Review Card & Book Review – One Midnight With You By Shari Low

What would you do if you had just twenty-four hours to change your life?

Ailish Ryan has been in hiding since her husband’s affair ended their marriage. But when a friend forces her to face her new reality, will she choose to revisit the past or embrace a brand-new future?

Ailish’s daughter, Emmy, thought her boyfriend was nothing like her cheating father, but now she’s not so sure. As the hours pass, she turns detective to find out if she picked the right man, or if history is repeating itself.

Grandmother, Minnie Ryan is on a mission to deliver a very special gift to a lifelong friend. But will dogged determination and a touch of divine intervention be enough to overcome the obstacles that fate puts in her way?

Dario Moretti has spent his whole life working in the family business, but now it’s in trouble and he’s all out of options. Will he have the strength to let it go, even if it means hurting the people he loves?

The clock is ticking… but will twenty-four hours be long enough to heal four broken hearts?

About The Author

My Review

*”One Midnight with You”* follows three generations of women—Ailish, her daughter Emmy, and mother-in-law Minnie—through a single day on New Year’s Eve in Glasgow. The story is set over 24 hours, divided into two-hour segments, as multiple characters face pivotal moments of loss, whether it be a job, a loved one, or a relationship. As the clock ticks toward midnight, they must make decisions that will shape their futures.

The novel is heartwarming and packed with emotions—laughter, tears, love, and anxieties—as the characters gather at GINO’s, their traditional New Year’s Eve spot. The book emphasizes the importance of letting go of the past to embrace the future, and despite the challenges, each character brings a heartfelt determination to find solutions. It’s a feel-good read where even those who’ve made mistakes are genuinely likable, making it easy to lose yourself in their stories.

My Rating

Link To Purchase