Review card – Page 117

Review Card – Rainbows Over Puddleduck Farm By Della Galton

Don’t dream your life, live your dreams….Phoebe Dashwood is a passionately committed vet who’s living the dream. She’s about to open her own small animal practice at her grandmother’s animal shelter, Puddleduck Farm in the New Forest.
Phoebe is helped by her two oldest friends. Her best friend Tori is a mix of hard-headed journalist and hopeless romantic, who thinks love will conquer all when she finds the right man!
Then there is Sam, Phoebe’s staunchest ally, whose integrity and selflessness mean he would do anything to make Phoebe happy, no matter what the cost to himself.
Very soon Phoebe discovers that fantasy and reality don’t quite match.
An unscrupulous bunny breeder, a poisoned stream, and a complicated attraction all conspire to throw her dreams in a spin.
Events come to a shocking climax at the New Forest Show where Phoebe’s world is turned upside down and she has to make some life changing decisions.

About The Author

Della Galton is the bestselling author of several romantic comedies set around the Dorset beaches and the beautiful New Forest. Her stories feature strong female friendship, quirky characters and very often the animals she loves.

When she is not writing she enjoys walking her dogs around the beautiful Dorset countryside.

Find out more about Della Galton, her books, speaking engagements & workshops, on her website, dellagalton.co.uk

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Review Card – Mr. Grump By Leslie North

I have a confession.

I hate bachelorette parties. A night of dick straws, awkward dancing and being told “it’ll be you soon, Kaitlyn!”Especially when it’s at a super swanky Miami club—exactly where I don’t belong.Couldn’t get any worse, right?

Enter Mr. Tall, Dark and I-didn’t-know-they-made-people-this-gorgeous. Grump supreme. His scowl has a scowl.Especially after I knock a drink onto a VIP and myself. He must be the manager of the club because he has keys to the penthouse above it.A penthouse he offers to let me change clothes in.

A penthouse we screw all over.Then, he gets a call and kicks me out. Jerk.Told you it got worse.

Ready for worser?First day at my new job as a nanny and Mr. Scowl is my boss. James Morris.Billionaire club owner, deal maker, and first grade bosshole—if the tabloids are to be believed.Also a single dad to an adorable daughter who needs my help.

But there’s no way I can take this job—every time I look at him, I’m back in that penthouse. And from the way he smiles when he looks at me, he’s thinking the same.Then he tells me why this has to work. Why he needs me. Why I can’t say no.

New confession?I hate my boss

About The Author

Leslie North is the USA Today Bestselling pen name for a critically-acclaimed author of women’s contemporary romance and fiction. The anonymity gives her the perfect opportunity to paint with her full artistic palette, especially in the romance and erotic fantasy genres.

The truth of the matter is she loves her fictional persona, Leslie North, more than her normal, day-to-day persona! Her bestselling books focus on strong characters and particularly women who aren’t afraid to challenge an alpha male. Inspired after years of travel, her stories are set all over the world, from the tough streets of Russia to the beautiful beaches of the middle east.

Leslie fell in love with romance when she first picked up a scrappy, dog-eared romance book from her local library. She began writing soon after and the rest, as they say, was history. She now lives in a cozy cottage on the British coast and enjoys taking long walks with her two Dalmatians, George and Fergie.

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Review Card – The Shape Of Your Heart By Debbie Howells

Callie’s always been the least ambitious of her sisters but also the happiest, until fate snaps her fiancé away before they can say I do.

One year later, she is still putting her life back together, but she might be ready for more. With so much life left to live, she has to find a way to be happy.

Nathan knows not everyone gets a second chance at life and he’s not going to waste his. He’s left the city behind, moved to Cornwall and is starting over. When he meets a beautiful woman at the beach it feels like fate, but her heart belongs to someone else.

Could Callie and Nathan be just what each other needs?

About The Author

Debbie self-published three women’s fiction novels before writing The Bones of You, her first psychological thriller. It was a Sunday Times bestseller and selected for the Richard and Judy book club.
Since, she was written The Beauty of the End, The Death of Her, Her Sister’s Lie, the e-book bestseller The Vow, and her latest, The Secret.
Her women’s fiction novel, The Life You Left Behind will be published on 23rd February.

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Review Card – An Island in the Sun By Kate Frost

Running away is easy, until saying goodbye becomes too hard…
When successful songwriter Tabitha Callahan swaps a summer of sadness for pet sitting around the world, she intends to use the time to heal her broken heart.

Tabitha can’t believe her luck when she picks up a housesit on the rugged and beautiful Portuguese island of Madeira.
The villa is luxurious, the views breath-taking and her charges, a gorgeous but aloof cat and two cute and friendly Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, are perfect companions while she works on some new material and attempts to reconcile her past. However, her peace is shattered when an unexpected house guest puts paid to her much-needed time alone, forcing her to confront not only her feelings but what she actually wants from life.

New friends and old dominate her time on the island, along with deep-rooted regret and unspoken sorrow.
Will a year of running away be enough to put the past to rest and allow someone new to inch into her heart?

About The Author

Kate Frost is the author of best-selling romantic escape novels (The Baobab Beach Retreat, A Starlit Summer, The Greek Heart, The Love Island Bookshop and The Amsterdam Affair), character-driven women’s fiction (The Butterfly Storm series and Beneath the Apple Blossom), and Time Shifters, a time travel adventure trilogy for children. She has a MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University, where she also taught lifewriting to creative writing undergraduates.

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Review Card – Thirty Days In Paris By Veronica Henry

Because Paris is always a good idea…

Years ago, Juliet left a little piece of her heart in Paris – and now, separated from her husband and with her children flying the nest, it’s time to get it back!

So she puts on her best red lipstick, books a cosy attic apartment near Notre-Dame and takes the next train out of London.

Arriving at the Gare du Nord, the memories come flooding back: bustling street cafés, cheap wine in candlelit bars and a handsome boy with glittering eyes.

But Juliet has also been keeping a secret for over two decades – and she begins to realise it’s impossible to move forwards without first looking back.

Something tells her that the next thirty days might just change everything…

About The Author

Veronica Henry is a highly successful scriptwriter who has written for The Archers, Family Affairs and Heartbeat. Her first novel, Honeycote, was published in July 2002. She lives in Worcestershire with her husband and two sons.

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Review Card – Love Begins On The Boardwalk By Georgina Troy

Bella is happiest running her tiny antique business from the front room of her cottage on the Boardwalk. To ensure she has enough income coming in, she also rents out two of her bedrooms to paying lodgers. But she didn’t count on having a secret crush on Jack Collins, one of her lodgers and her best friend’s brother… As if life wasn’t complicated enough,her world-travelling mother appears on her doorstep on the same evening that Jack’s ex-fiancée arrives on the Boardwalk determined to win him back. Bella has a lot of thinking to do and soon discovers that not all gems sparkle.

About The Author

Georgina Troy writes uplifting contemporary romance series for Boldwood Books. She was a finalist in the Contemporary Romance Category, Romantic Novel of the Year Awards 2016 (RoNAs) with A Jersey Kiss, Book 1 in her Jersey Scene series. She was also a finalist in the Joan Hessayon Award for New Writers 2015.

She sets her books on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands where she lives near two beaches with her husband and three rescue dogs.

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Review Card – Wedding Days At Halesmere House By Suzanne Snow

The last thing on Lizzie’s mind is catching the bouquet…

Events planner and maid-of-honour Lizzie Martin knows her best friend Gemma is making the right decision for her wedding. After the original venue catches fire, and a space opens up at Halesmere House, it makes complete sense to move the wedding to the Lake District artists’ residence. But Lizzie has painful memories of Halesmere…

When she bumps into Cal, her first love, she is forced to confront the past. Now a sought-after blacksmith, Cal has his own studio at Halesmere (based on Halecat House in Cumbria) and the two must find a way to get along if this wedding isn’t going to be a complete disaster.

It soon becomes apparent that their attraction hasn’t waned, but can Lizzie put their shared past behind her and learn to trust the man who left her once before?

About The Author

Suzanne writes contemporary and uplifting fiction with a vibrant sense of setting and community connecting the lives of her characters. A horticulturist who lives with her family in Lancashire, her books are inspired by a love of landscape, romance and rural life.

Her first novel, The Cottage of New Beginnings, was a contender for the 2021 RNA Joan Hessayon Award. Her seventh book, Starting Over at Halesmere House, will be published by Canelo in October 2023.

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Review Card – Summer Sundaes On The Boardwalk By Georgina Troy

When Sacha Collins, cafe owner and sundae-maker extraordinaire, meets Italian archaeologist, Alessandro Salvatore in Rome, she’s grateful to him for being her tour guide. Now he’s turned up in the seaside village where she lives and is setting up a gelateria in direct competition to her retro Summer Sundaes Café.

She’s only been running her café for two years since taking over from her father. Until now the only other shops on the boardwalk have been a wool shop, an antique shop and a second-hand book shop. These have helped rather than hindered her custom. How will her creative sundaes made from fresh Jersey ice cream compete with his delicious Italian gelato?

Sacha is worried. Is there enough custom for both businesses to thrive? Who is behind the strange changes being made on the boardwalk? And when the oldest resident on the boardwalk is threatened with eviction can Sacha and Alessandro come together and find a way of helping her?

For a peaceful little boardwalk overlooking one of the quieter beaches on the island, there’s an awful lot going on and some of it is going to lead to big changes.

About The Author

She sets her books on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands where she lives near two beaches with her husband and three rescue dogs.

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Review Card – Sandy Wishes By Judith Keim

Sometimes, wishes do come true…

Brooke Weatherby is tired of being the dependable one, the boring one of everyone at Sanderling Cove. She agreed to come to the cove for the summer unaware her two cousins, Charlotte “Charlie” Bradford and Olivia “Livy” Winters, would also be there to help manage The Sanderling Cove Inn while her grandparents take a long road trip in Europe. More than anything, she wishes for independence from her role as a sometime caretaker of her mother, so she’s free to find true love.

Unknown to her and her cousins, the five grandmothers at Sanderling Cove have invited their beloved grandchildren to spend as much time as possible this summer at the cove, hoping that romance might flourish among them.

One grandson, Dylan Hendrix, is a well-known artist who decides to take a break from Santa Fe and experiment with different kinds of paintings inspired by the scenic Gulf Coast of Florida. As he and Brooke get to know each other, he encourages her to discover her own artistic talent. Brooke’s world opens to colors and possibilities she never dreamed of as her life begins to change.

Grandmothers can be very determined when it comes to seeing their grandchildren happy. A family saga full of love. Be sure to read all the books in the series – Waves of Hope, Sandy Wishes, Salty Kisses.

About The Author

Judith Keim, A USA Today Best Selling Author, is a hybrid author who both has a publisher and self-publishes. Ms. Keim writes heart-warming novels about women who face unexpected challenges, meet them with strength, and find love and happiness along the way, stories with heart. Her best-selling books are based, in part, on many of the places she’s lived or visited and on the interesting people she’s met, creating believable characters and realistic settings her many loyal readers love.

She enjoyed her childhood and young-adult years in Elmira, New York, and now makes her home in Boise, Idaho, with her husband and their two dachshunds, Winston and Wally, and other members of her family.

While growing up, she was drawn to the idea of writing stories from a young age. Books were always present, being read, ready to go back to the library, or about to be discovered. All in her family shared information from the books in general conversation, giving them a wealth of knowledge and vivid imaginations.

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Book Review – Come What Maybe By Kerri Carpenter

Social media strategist Lauren Wallace plans everything. But when she returns to the charming—if not too small for comfort—town of Seaside Cove, it’s only about a second before her tough-love Grams is already on her case. So when Grams tells her not to go to that bar, Lauren decides it’s time for a temporary rebellion. Which is exactly when the trouble starts.

Grams was right. The bar was not a good plan. Because suddenly super-cute bar owner Ethan McAllister has gone from being Lauren’s (kind of) high school nemesis to a very unexpected one-night stand. And worse, Lauren’s attempts to resume her ultra-responsible life keep getting thwarted by more unwelcome spontaneity. And a pregnancy.

Now there’s a baby on the way, Lauren’s the talk of the entire town, and all her planning has gone right out the window. All that’s missing is childbirth to make her pain complete. But it’ll be nothing compared to Grams’s reaction when she finds out that Lauren broke the biggest rule of all…falling for the wrong guy.

Published Date: 24 January 2023

My Review

Lauren arranged with her other sister, Brooke to go-back to her Gram’s house to help her youngest Gabby to get her life back on track. She have a love hate relationship with her grandmother and to be back home took a lot of courage to do. When she reached, she already started to argued with her grandma and when she told her she wanted to go out to find food, her grandmother told her NOT to go to the local pub. Being her rebellious self, she found herself at the pub and encounter her frenemy Ethan who is the owner of the pub. After a night of drinking, she found herself in Ethan’s bed and thereafter, she found herself pregnant.

This book have few subplots which showed who Lauren’s true self to the reader and showed how different she is with Ethan. She basically live according to the bullet point in her planner whilst Ethan is an impulsive type of person. Am glad that they find the best balance for them in the end. Overall it is a good read to me.

My Rating