Maddy's Book Blog

  Hoping Since Forever by Kiltie Jackson I hadn’t heard of Kiltie Jackson, but liked the sound of the blurb for this book, and I am so glad I read it – despite doing very little else except read for the day! 😂 I will certainly be looking out for other books by this author. Sally was widowed when her husband’s car was involved in an accident – just after they won a lot of money. When Sally puts in the wrong postcode into her Satnav, she end up at a disused farm and falls in love with the farmhouse. She is then reminded of her dream of setting up a B&B and cat rescue. Having bought the farmhouse, she needed someone to renovate it for her, and the locals all recommend Matt – himself a widow of 20 years with a 23 year old daughter. Matt is soon on board with the renovations, and his daughter is on board with helping with the branding, publicity and interior design. However Matt has a secret he hasn’t told Sally – which might affect their professional relationship. Sally soon ...

  The Secret of Flowers by Sally Page I had read a previous book by Sally Page so when I was offered this one I accepted with alacrity. It is two stories, told in alternating chapters, which merge at the end. Emma is struggling after the death of her husband Will, so she resigns from her job, and takes a job at a small garden centre run by the lovely Betty and Les – looking after the plants and arranging the flowers. After a missed talk by Les on the Titanic, Emma starts to wonder who arranged the flowers on the Titanic. This sets her off on a number of very informative journeys, meeting some extraordinary people. Meanwhile in the alternating chapters, Violet is a young girl living with her Mother, two brothers and much younger sister. When her father passed away they all have to make sacrifices to keep the family together. What is fascinating is that the story of Violet is based on the true story of a girl who sailed as a Stewardess on the Titanic. A really interesting and i...

  Swimming to Lundy by Amanda Prowse Amanda Prowse has been described as the Queen of Family Drama, and the description is so apt. She can take relatable situations and turn them into something extraordinary. Her characterisations are spot on, and the settings are described so beautifully that you feel like you have been there. The story is told in alternating chapters. One of current day Tawrie who lives with her mother and Grandchildren since her father died. She decides to take up ‘wild swimming’ with the Peacock Swimmers and one morning on the beach meets a gorgeous man in a pink shirt with whom she feels an instant connection. The alternating chapters are set 20 years earlier when Harriet finds out that her marriage isn’t as perfect as she thought when her husband has an affair, derailing her and her two children. The stories are carefully crafted, until they finally converge in a magic moment. Amanda Prowse is one of my very favourite authors, and one of those I would m...

  Finding Love at Sunset Shore by Bella Osborne You always know what you are getting with a Bella Osborne novel. Good writing, great characters and a romantic and amusing storyline. You may work out what is going to happen early on but the journey is a joy. Ros and Darla are unlikely friends, thrown together to support each other in difficult circumstances. Ros has a lovely job, and a wonderful flat, but her father, who is the centre of her world since her mother left years ago is dying. Luckily Ros has Darla as she has no other real friends around. Darla has living parents, and friends, but since a disastrous and dishonest ex-boyfriend she has been trying to pay back the debts he racked up in joint names before disappearing. Ros’ father wants to see her settled before he dies, so Darla persuades fellow bar worker Cameron to pose as Ros’ boyfriend. Meanwhile Darla’s house sitting/pet sitting with the aim of getting free accommodation doesn’t always pan out the way she thought. ...

  A Love Letter to Paris Rebecca Raisin Reading a Rebecca Raisin book is like sinking into a warm bath – comforting and relaxing and leaving you with a big smile. I read this book in a day Lilou sells dreams – antique love letters, diaries and prayer books from a market stall in Montmartre. When a close friend is struggling to find love, Lilou has the inspiration to set up an online dating site called Paris Cupid – a dating site with a difference. Once matched, members are only given each other’s first names, and they communicate only by letters initially so that they build a connection before meeting. What Lilou didn’t factor in was the popularity of the site when a well-known star went public saying that he had met the love of his life through the group, and that everyone would be trying to find out who is behind Paris Cupid. Also, that Lilou would have a secret admirer of her own. Lilou spends her time trying not to be found out as the brains behind Paris Cupid, and trying to ...

  The Midnight Hour by Eve Chase I liked the premise of the book, so decided to try it. It was ok, but not one of my favourites. The characterisations weren’t believable, and Kit, the younger brother is downright annoying even as an adult. The mother, Dee, is not much better. The story starts in 1998 when Maggie and Kit’s mum Dee disappears, and Maggie is left, at 17 left to look after her much younger brother. She then meets Wolf, a local boy who works for his Antique dealer uncle, and she falls head over heals in love with him. Maggie, Wolf and Kit end up living together in the mum’s house until something happens that threatens all of their safety.   Twenty years later Maggie hears from Wolf that the basement in their old house is being dug up, and this threatens to unearth secrets and things better left hidden. This took longer to read then it should have, probably because a couple of the characters were so annoying. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6564272353

  The Suspect by Rob Rinder Having read the first Rob Rinder book and really loved it, I was so looking forward to the sequel and it didn’t disappoint. This book can be read as a stand alone if you haven’t read the first book, and there is enough in it to enable you to catch the jist of what happened to Adam Green and his colleagues the previous year. When daytime TVs   beloved Jessica Holby dies on live TV in front of millions of viewers, of anaphylaxis, it seems like an open and shut case – the TV chef was the only one with access to the food containing the allergen. Furthermore the TV chef, Sebastian, seemed to be the one with the strongest motive. How was baby Barrister Adam going to help to get him off? In a second, and unrelated case, which Adam finds himself working on concurrently, he finds himself in a dilemma – is getting his other accused off his charges necessarily the best for him? Not only does Adam have to deal with these two important and high profile cases...

  The Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood I have never read anything by this author before but I will be looking for others. It was fun, light hearted, romantic, and I was so hooked from the first page that I read it in a day. Delphine was an introvert, and that’s how she liked it. Other people invariably let her down and left her with heartache, so apart from an elderly neighbour who she took breakfast to every day, she kept herself to herself. One night, when she was eating a microwave burger, and unfortunately not looking her best, she choked on a piece of burger and ended up in the afterlife – which looked remarkably like a launderette! She is just getting used to the idea of being dead, but bemoaning her attire, when a gorgeous stranger turns up and they have a ‘moment’ before he is whisked back as he was not actually dead just under anaesthetic. Delphine is desperate to meet the handsome stranger, who she only knows as Jonah again, and to look after her elderly neigh...

The Bookshop Ladies by Faith Hogan I hadn’t read any of Faith Hogan’s books before but I will certainly be looking out for others. A lovely, well written story, set in a beautiful sounding village in Ireland. I felt fully invested in the characters and wanted them all to succeed. When Joy Blackwood’s husband died, just after his retirement she was distraught. More so, when just before he died he told her that he had a child   – something he and Joy hadn’t managed to have together. After the reading of the will, Joy finds that he has left a very expensive painting to his daughter, and she decides to travel to Ireland and give the daughter the painting personally. When Joy arrives in Ballycove, she finds that the bookshop that Robyn runs is in complete disarray, and so far from profitable that Robyn may have to close it down. Robyn thinks that Joy has come to volunteer in the bookshop, and Joy doesn’t   dissuade of that idea. Slowly, Joy comes to find something in Ballycove ...