My Bookish Weekly Wrap Up – 30th October 2021

Hello all! Happy Halloween Weekend! Spotted this spooky yarnbomb on a postbox locally this week – hats off to all the people who make these! I love seeing them and they brighten up the humble postbox perfectly!
On to books, and it’s been another good bookish week! Managed to finish 4 books, added 2 to the netgalley shelf and received 1 book in the post for reviewing! And I didn’t buy any! Wahoo!  So here is my look back..

BOOKS FINISHED

THE BERESFORD by WILL CARVER (audiobook) – 4 STARS

PSYCHOPATHS ANONYMOUS by WILL CARVER – 4 STARS

THE ARCANE by ANDREW S FRENCH – 4 STARS

STARRY SKIES IN FERRY LANE MARKET by NICOLA MAY – 5 STARS

BOOKHAUL

Starting over at Netgalley…

A TIDY ENDING by JOANNA CANNON

publication date – April 2022

A NICE, NORMAL HOUSE

Linda has lived around here ever since she fled the dark events of her childhood in Wales. Now she sits in her kitchen, wondering if this is all there is – pushing the Hoover round and cooking fish fingers for tea is a far cry from the glamorous lifestyle she sees in the glossy catalogues coming through the door for the house’s previous occupant.

A NICE, NORMAL HUSBAND

Terry isn’t perfect – he picks his teeth, tracks dirt through the house and spends most of his time in front of the TV. But that seems fairly standard – until he starts keeping odd hours at work, at around the same time young women start to go missing in the neighbourhood.

A NICE, NORMAL LIFE…

If Linda could just track down Rebecca, who lived in the house before them, maybe some of that perfection would rub off on her. But the grass isn’t always greener: you can’t change who you really are, and there’s something nasty lurking behind the net curtains on Cavendish Avenue.

WINTER GARDENS by CEDRIC POLLET

publication – December 2021

In this stunning reimagination of an entire season, acclaimed and award-winning author and photographer Cedric Pollet presents 20 of the most beautiful winter gardens accross France and the UK.

Winner of the Garden Media Guild – Garden Book of the Year award, Pollet showcases these breathtaking winter gardens which are at their best when most gardens are at their barest.

Rich with blazes of colour and light, these gardens use creative structural planning and subtle textures to greate masterful visual and sensory ensembles.

From berries and barks to vibrant shrubs and evergreens, these gardens will delight and inspire in equal measure, all captured in extroardinary photographs by Pollet, one of today’s masters of garden photography and accompanied by insightful text which picks out the reasons these gardens are so special.

The second half of the book is an illustrated directory of over 300 plants which encourage you to achieve these effects in their own gardens.

From the author of bestselling Bark: An Intimate Look at the World’s Trees, this beautiful guide is a unique and unmissable book on some of the most creative and inspiring gardens around today.

And I received a copy of this to review…

WAHALA by NIKKI MAY

publication date – January 2022

SEX AND THE CITY with a killer edge for fans of QUEENIE, EXPECTATION and MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER

A GRAZIA INSTAGRAM ‘IT’ BOOK

‘Funny, shocking, unputdownable. I loved it’ PAULA HAWKINS, author of The Girl on the Train and A Slow Fire Burning

‘Terrific. I just raced through Wahala. Nikki May writes so well about friendship, food, fashion and the many ways modern women can stumble in their careers and personal lives’ CLARE CHAMBERS, author of Small Pleasures
_______________

Ronke, Simi, Boo are three mixed-race friends living in London. They have the gift of two cultures, Nigerian and English, though not all of them choose to see it that way.

Everyday racism has never held them back, but now in their thirties, they question their future. Ronke wants a husband (he must be Nigerian); Boo enjoys (correction: endures) stay-at-home motherhood; while Simi, full of fashion career dreams, rolls her eyes as her boss refers to her urban vibe yet again.

When Isobel, a lethally glamorous friend from their past arrives in town, she is determined to fix their futures for them.

Cracks in their friendship begin to appear, and it is soon obvious Isobel is not sorting but wrecking. When she is driven to a terrible act, the women are forced to reckon with a crime in their past that may just have repeated itself.

Explosive, hilarious and wildly entertaining, this razor-sharp tale of love, race and family will have you laughing, crying and gasping in horror. Fearlessly political about class, colourism and clothes, the spellbinding Wahala is for anyone who has ever cherished friendship, in all its forms.

CURRENTLY READING

THE ROYAL GAME by ANNE O’BRIEN (audiobook)

HAPPY READING!!
👻👻👻

Advertisement

#BlogTour UNDERNEATH THE CHRISTMAS TREE by HEIDI SWAIN #BookReview @TeamBTC @Heidi_Swain #UnderneathTheChristmasTree

Delighted to be with you today as part of the Blog Tour for the wonderful UNDERNEATH THE CHRISTMAS TREE by HEIDI SWAIN.
My thanks to the author and publisher for putting the tour together and letting me be part of it all!

ABOUT THE BOOK

***The sparkling new Christmas novel from the  Sunday Times  bestselling author Heidi Swain!***

Wynter’s Trees is the home of Christmas. For the people of Wynmouth it’s where they get their family Christmas tree, and where Christmas truly comes to life.

But for Liza Wynter, it’s a millstone around her neck. It was her father’s pride and joy but now he’s gone, she can’t have anything to do with it. Until her father’s business partner decides to retire and she must go back to handle the transition to his son Ned.

When Liza arrives, she discovers a much-loved business that’s flourishing under Ned’s stewardship. And she’s happy to stay and help for the Christmas season, but then she has other plans. But will the place where she grew up make her change her mind? And can it weave its Christmas cheer around her heart…?

Underneath the Christmas Tree is the perfect festive read, promising snowfall, warm fires and breath-taking seasonal romance. Perfect for fans of Milly Johnson, Carole Matthews and Cathy Bramley.

Praise for HEIDI SWAIN:

‘Full of Heidi’s trademark gentle charm. Lock the door, pour some mulled wine and settle into this wonderful Christmas treat!’ Milly Johnson

‘More Christmassy than a week in Lapland – we loved it!’  heat  magazine

‘Sprinkled with Christmas sparkle’ Trisha Ashley

‘Give yourself a Christmas treat and curl up with this magical book!’ Sue Moorcroft, author of  The Little Village Christmas

‘A real Christmas cracker of a read!’ Penny Parkes, author of Practice Makes Perfect

‘Cosy, Christmassy and deeply satisfying! Another wonderful read!’ Mandy Baggot, author of  One Christmas Kiss in Notting Hill 

PUBLISHED BY SIMON SCHUSTER

PURCHASE LINK

Amazon

MY REVIEW

Cosy.  Cheery.  Charming!  I’m smitten!! This was  such a wonderful read, full of all the feels and has me wanting to start up my own Christmas Tree business!! 

Liza has a dilemma! Her father passed away, and his pride and joy was the business he set up in Wynmouth selling Christmas trees.  But with her father gone she doesn’t want anything to do with the business, so handed the day to day running over to his business partner.  It was a deal that suited everyone!

But he’s set to retire, and wanting to hand over the reigns to his relative, and they need Liza home to sort a few things out.  She is looking to cut ties and head off travelling and can’t think of anything worse than returning ‘home’.

Ned has a number of new ideas for the business but Liza is a little hesitant about his plans so there’s a bit of early tension.  But with a lovely local community around them, and her starting to get a bit more hands on with the business, you wonder what is going through her mind.  Should she stay or should she go?!

I fell immediately in love with all the characters!  They all had such wonderful hearts and you just want to be part of their community! The setting was magical and the situations they found themselves facing were touching and felt ‘real’ so you could just imagine yourself in similar situations!

A real feelgood and fun Christmas read!!  And it’s never too early to read a festive tale so I highly recommend grabbing your copy ASAP!!

★★★★★

#BookReview PSYCHOPATHS ANONYMOUS by WILL CARVER @BlackCrow_PR

ABOUT THE BOOK

Maeve has everything. A high-powered job, a beautiful home, a string of uncomplicated one-night encounters. She’s also an addict: A functioning alcoholic with a dependence on sex and an insatiable appetite for killing men. 

When she can’t find a support group to share her obsession, she creates her own. And Psychopaths Anonymous is born. Friends of Maeve. 

Now in a serious relationship, Maeve wants to keep the group a secret. But not everyone in the group adheres to the rules, and when a reckless member raises suspicions with the police, Maeve’s drinking spirals out of control. 

She needs to stop killing. She needs to close the group. 

But Maeve can’t seem to quit the things that are bad for her, including her new man…

A scathing, violent and darkly funny book about love, connection, obsessions and sex – and the aspects of human nature we’d prefer to hide – Psychopaths Anonymous is also an electrifyingly original, unpredictable thriller that challenges virtually everything.

PUBLISHED BY ORENDA BOOKS

PURCHASE LINK

Amazon

MY REVIEW

What must go on in the mind of an author to come up with a character such as Maeve??!! Probably best not to ask! And to just to enjoy the madness of his creation!!

I loved the way this story was told. We’re in the mind of Maeve – not a sane place to be! – but we hear every train of thought as she process her life, her encounters and everything in between! She’s a woman with zero empathy! Her views are cynical, cold and calculating! Yes she can appear ‘normal’ on the outside, but that illusion is quickly shattered when you’re alone with her!

We follow her in this story as she seeks to quench her thirst for all the bad addictions in her life – drugs, drink, sex and killing! She is very careful with who she picks out as a victim, and the more she gets away with the more driven she becomes! You wonder just what it is she is looking for throughout this journey, and to be fair, I don’t think she knows either! She just has a need to be in control, like a true psychopath!

You’re always wondering if her way of dealing with life is going to catch up with her, and the author does a fantastic job of immersing you in her world and watch her playing with fire – with very little concern for the outcome! She’s the kind of killer who will judge the goings on in reality tv while torturing a victim! Zero F’s given for any of her victims!!

There’s a ton of sex, drugs and violence (not rock and roll!), and it’s a book that stays long in the mind for very dark reasons!! Will Carver is a master at creating such twisted and insane offerings – and as a reader I am very thankful!!!

★★★★★

My thanks to Jamie and the team at Black Crow PR for the e-copy in return for a fair and honest review.

#BookReview THE BERESFORD by WILL CARVER #Audiobook

ABOUT THE BOOK

Just outside the city – any city, every city – is a grand, spacious but affordable apartment building called The Beresford.

There’s a routine at The Beresford.

For Mrs May, every day’s the same: a cup of cold, black coffee in the morning, pruning roses, checking on her tenants, wine, prayer and an afternoon nap. She never leaves the building.

Abe Schwartz also lives at The Beresford. His housemate, Sythe, no longer does. Because Abe just killed him. 

In exactly sixty seconds, Blair Conroy will ring the doorbell to her new home and Abe will answer the door. They will become friends. Perhaps lovers. 

And, when the time comes for one of them to die, as is always the case at The Beresford, there will be sixty seconds to move the body before the next unknowing soul arrives at the door.

Because nothing changes at The Beresford, until the doorbell rings…

Eerie, dark, superbly twisted and majestically plotted, The Beresford is the stunning standalone thriller from one of crime fiction’s most exciting names.

PUBLISHED BY ORENDA BOOKS

PURCHASE LINK

Amazon

MY REVIEW

I listened to the audio version book of this book.What a deliciously dark and twisted read this was!!!

On the surface The Beresford looks a nice place to rent an apartment! All overseen by the mysterious Mrs May, who plays the little old lady landlord role perfectly, it’s a place that draws in those looking to escape from their pasts, find their own independence and a bit of normality…. oops! That’s what is lacking at The Beresford!!

Previous residents have just disappeared without a trace, leaving their families asking questions .. but not too many! And as soon as one resident leaves, another moves in…. and the cycle begins again.

I loved the madness of this book! You get a glimpse at each of the new characters move in and you’re taken in by their ‘normality’ until something happens! And then you’re shocked at how easy they take on their new role and play their part! As the story unfolds in front of you, you just wonder how darker it can get … and it gets very dark!!

It’s one of those books that you shouldn’t enjoy but you can’t help yourself because of the wonderful way the story plays out, and the characters you find yourself cheering for but then shocked by their behaviour! A great insight into the split personality side of humans – harmless exterior, dark interior!!

★★★★

#BlogTour THE TWELVE EVEN STRANGER DAYS OF CHRISTMAS by SYD MOORE #BookReview @rararesources @PointBlankCrime @SydMoore1 #12EvenStrangerDaysofXmas

Extremely delighted to be with you today to help kick off the Blog Tour for the fabulous THE TWELVE EVEN STRANGER DAYS OF CHRISTMAS by SYD MOORE. My thanks to the author, publisher and Rachel of Rachel’s Random Resources for putting the tour together and letting me be part of it all!

The Twelve Even Stranger Days Of Christmas

From the twice CWA Dagger shortlisted author of The Twelve Strange Days of Christmas come thirteen twelve stories to transport you to the macabre world of inexplicable phenomena.

As the dark winter nights get longer, prepare to lose yourself in the world of the strange. With a tale for each day of Christmas and a rather unlucky 13th, Christmas is not the only spirit in these pages. ‘Tis the season for sacrificial feasts, cultish communities and a train with a rather final destination. So wrap up warm and let yourself get lost in the world of the strange, the scary and the supernatural…

published by Point Blank 

Purchase Links 

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Twelve-Stranger-Christmas-Museum-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B0929TLH6Q

US – https://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Stranger-Christmas-Museum-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B0929TLH6Q 

Author Bio

SYD MOORE is the author of the Essex Witch Museum Mysteries (Strange Magic, Strange Sight, Strange Fascination, Strange Tombs and Strange Tricks) all published by Point Blank. The series was shortlisted for the Good Reader Holmes and Watson Award 2018. She has been shortlisted twice for the CWA Short Story Dagger for The Strange Casebook (2018) and The Twelve Strange Days of Christmas (2019). Her debut screenplay, Witch West, which she developed from an original idea, has been optioned by Hidden Door Productions for production in 2021. Syd is a founder member of the Essex Girls’ Liberation Front which successfully got the term ‘Essex girl’ removed from the Oxford English dictionary. She lives in Essex.

@PointBlankCrime

@SydMoore1

MY REVIEW

If you love your stories to be spooky and quirky (I do!!) then here they are!!  In this wonderful collection of 13 (not unlucky for us!) short stories, we are taken in all different directions from the alternative Seven Dwarves (now their names finally make sense!!), a very strange train experience on the C2C line (not that unusual for any of us who have taken that journey!), seaside dates, and the four housewives of the apocalypse to name but a few!!

I found this so easy to read! And so fun too! The stories are so different and that makes you just want to read them all in one sitting as you never know what you’re going to encounter next!  And some of the stories take you off into very weird tangents and I loved that! I also loved the Essex mentions in some of them! Definitely had me smirking at many observations!  And I now find myself looking at murals in more detail now!!

There’s also a visit back the Essex Witch Museum in one of the stories so that was nice to get to check back in with the characters from the Essex Witch Museum Mysteries series – if you’ve not checked that series yet, then get to it NOW! 

A book that’s perfect 12 months of the year – not just for Christmas!  Full of the weird, the wonderful, the spooky and the strange!! Loved it!!

★★★★★

#BlogTour THE WEDDING CAKE WISH by ROSIE GREEN #BookReview @rararesources

Delighted to be with you today as part of the Blog Tour for the wonderful THE WEDDING CAKE WISH by ROSIE GREEN. My thanks to the author, publisher and Rachel of Rachel’s Random Resources for putting the tour together and letting me be part of it all!

The Wedding Cake Wish, Little Duck Pond Cafe

Wedding excitement is in the air! With their big day approaching, Fen has her heart set on a gorgeous, intimate celebration with not much fuss at all. But strong-minded mother-of-the-bride Marjery seems to have considerably grander plans. There’s also the small problem of a missing best man, and when Fen tasks Hudson Holmes and Ruby Watkiss with the job of tracking him down, their investigations unearth far more secrets than they bargained for.

 Will the Big Day go ahead in the light of such dramatic revelations? Can a wedding cake wish save the day? One thing’s for sure – this will definitely be a wedding to remember!

Purchase Link – https://amzn.to/3BBqWNI

Author Bio 

Rosie’s series of novellas is centred around life in a village cafe. The latest, ‘A Summer of Surprises’, is out now.

Look out for ‘Snow Falls over Sunnybrook’, a heart-warming Christmas delight, out in November 2021. As snow drifts down over the village, will romance finally blossom for one very special pair?

Follow Rosie on Twitter – https://twitter.com/Rosie_Green88 

MY REVIEW

The series that just keeps giving!! I cannot believe this is the 17th novella in The Little Duck Pond Cafe , and it still feels as fresh as Book 1!!  

The build up to the wedding continues and, as you can imagine, it doesn’t run smoothly! When does it ever?!  So there’s another case for Ruby and Hudson to solve and I love these characters together.  They just work so well together and nothing seems to stop them on getting to the bottom of things!

And poor Fen should be looking forward to her wedding, but as introvert she is finding it all a little too overwhelming and spiralling out of control, mostly thanks to her mother who has somewhat taken over the planning and she doesn’t seem to understand the meaning of a quiet, intimate ceremony!

Full of wonderful characters and intriguing situations, it’s one of those stories that just grabs you from the get go and I’m already counting down the days until the next installment!!

★★★★★

#GuestPost STRICTLY CHRISTMAS SPIRIT by HELEN BUCKLEY #PublicationDay @ChocLituk @HelenCBuckley

Hello!  Happy Tuesday and Happy Publication Day to STRICTLY CHRISTMAS SPIRIT by  HELEN BUCKLEY!  What a cover!! That glitterball!! I want one!!  
So it’s a pleasure to hand over the blog today to Helen as she shares some thoughts with you all!

Over to you Helen…..

🎄🎄🎄

Release Day: Strictly Christmas Spirit by Helen Buckley

When I was younger, I was obsessed with celebrity gossip. I loved reality TV, and spent hours poring over gossip magazines with friends. I started out with J17 and Smash Hits, devouring information about the bands and singers I loved. Then I moved on to Cosmopolitan, Heat, Now!, Grazia, and Glamour, soaking up the fashion commentary and the celebrity interviews.

But the snippets of information in the glossy pages never felt quite enough for me. I wanted to know more. What was it really like being a famous person? What were they like, and what was the reality behind the headlines?

I have never been famous and I don’t know anyone famous so my guess is as good as yours. But my overactive imagination, coupled with my love of all things romance, led to my Spotlight Series – a series of standalone contemporary romances about love and fame.

All those years spent reading gossip magazines and watching reality TV fed in to the dramatic, thrilling stories I wanted to write. So far I’ve taken inspiration from Dancing on Ice, I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, and Strictly Come Dancing to create my Spotlight Series.

Ironically, the time I now spend writing means I barely have time to watch any reality TV, but I try to keep up when I can and often you’ll find me commenting about various aspects of reality TV shows on my blog at buckleybooks.org

Some people might think it strange, to take inspiration from TV shows to write books. But these TV shows bring joy to millions of people every week. I’m just trying to capture a little bit of their magic, drama, and excitement, and put it into book form, with my own unique twist and characters (always fictional!) to root for.

I hope that people will enjoy the stories I write as much as the shows they love to watch on telly.

             Helen’s latest ‘Spotlight’ series book, Strictly Christmas Spirit, is out now!

🎄🎄🎄

About the book:

From disco balls to Christmas baubles …

Ex-dancer Emily Williams turned her back on the sparkle of popular dancing show Strictly Dancing with Celebs to help those in need. Now the only dancing she does is teaching lonely pensioners to waltz, and the closest she gets to disco balls is making baubles with the homeless people in her Christmas crafts class.

She’s certainly not star-struck when Hollywood heart-throb Blake Harris is sent to her at short notice for community service, and has no desire to babysit the arrogant actor with his bad boy antics and selfish ways. Christmas might be a time for miracles, but Blake seems to be a lost cause.

But Emily’s reasons for abandoning her dancing passion means she understands the Hollywood wild child more than she’d like to admit. Could their time together, coupled with a dash of Christmas spirit, lead to a miracle change of heart for them both?

Book 3 in Helen’s Spotlight series but they can all be read as standalone stories.

Buying links: 

Kindle: https://amzn.to/3jqLu3O 

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3m0ukvI 

Apple Books: https://apple.co/3nh3AGP

About the Author: 

Helen Buckley lives in Bedfordshire with her husband and two sons. After working in the charity sector in the UK and abroad, she turned her hand to writing and her first novel, Star in the Shadows, was published in 2019. She writes any moment that she can, enthralled by stories of fame, romance and happy ever afters. Apart from being addicted to writing and enjoying soft play with her sons, she’s an avid reader, action-movie fan and chocolate addict.

🎄🎄🎄

My Bookish Weekly Wrap Up – 23rd October 2021

Hello! Happy Saturday! October is flying by in a blink of an eye … again! I think I say that with every month now! Where’s the pause button?!
On to books – where there is never enough time for all the books we want to read! Another decent week here of bookish action! Managed to finish 4 books, bought myself 2 books (very fast delivery from www.hive.co.uk and free delivery!), 1 book in the post to review and just 1 new NG addition!
Here’s my look back..

BOOKS FINISHED

UNDERNEATH THE CHRISTMAS TREE by HEIDI SWAIN – 5 STARS

THE VIEW FROM FEDERAL TWIST by JAMES GOLDEN – 5 STARS

THE HANDBOOK FOR HIGHLY SENSITIVE PEOPLE by MEL COLLINS(audiobook) – 5 STARS

THE BORROW A BOOKSHOP HOLIDAY by KILEY DUNBAR – 5 STARS

BOOKHAUL

Starting at Netgalley..

A TERRIBLE KINDNESS by JO BROWNING WROE

publication date – January 2022

Tonight nineteen-year-old William Lavery is dressed for success, his first black-tie do. It’s the Midlands Chapter of the Institute of Embalmers Ladies’ Night Dinner Dance, and William is taking Gloria in her sequined evening gown. He can barely believe his luck. But as the guests sip their drinks and smoke their post-dinner cigarettes a telegram delivers news of a tragedy. An event so terrible it will shake the nation.

It is October 1966 and a landslide at a coal mine has buried a school: Aberfan. William decides he must act, so he stands and volunteers to attend. It will be his first job, and will be – although he’s yet to know it – a choice that threatens to sacrifice his own happiness. His work that night will force him to think about the little boy he was, and the losses he has worked so hard to bury. But compassion can have surprising consequences, because – as William discovers – giving so much to others can sometimes help us heal ourselves.

And I treated myself to these two…..

PIRANESI by SUSANNA CLARKE

Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.

There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known

THE HAUNTING SEASON by Various

Winter, with its unsettling blend of the cosy and the sinister, has long been a popular time for gathering by the bright flame of a candle, or the warm crackling of a fire, and swapping stories of ghosts and strange happenings.

Now eight bestselling, award-winning authors – master storytellers of the sinister and the macabre – bring this time-honoured tradition to vivid life in a spellbinding collection of new and original haunted tales.

From a bustling Covent Garden Christmas market to the frosty moors of Yorkshire, from a country estate with a dreadful secret, to a London mansion where a beautiful girl lies frozen in death, these are stories to make your hair stand on end, send shivers down your spine and to serve as your indispensable companion to the long nights of winter.

So curl up, light a candle, and fall under the spell of The Haunting Season . . .

Featuring new and original tales from:

Bridget Collins
Sunday Times bestselling author of The Binding

Imogen Hermes Gowar
Sunday Times bestselling author of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock

Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Sunday Times bestselling author of The Mercies

Andrew Michael Hurley
Sunday Times bestselling author of The Loney

Jess Kidd
International award-winning author of Things in Jars

Elizabeth Macneal
Sunday Times bestselling author of The Doll Factory

Natasha Pulley
Sunday Times bestselling author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

Laura Purcell
Award-winning author of The Silent Companions 

And received this to review….

BLACK CAKE by CHARMAINE WILKERSON

publication date – February 2022

‘We can’t go to the island, Bryon. We don’t really know what we’re getting into . . .’

Eleanor Bennett won’t let her own death get in the way of the truth. So when her estranged children – Byron and Benny – reunite for her funeral in California, they discover a puzzling inheritance.

First, a voice recording in which everything Byron and Benny ever knew about their family is upended. Their mother narrates a tumultuous story about a headstrong young woman who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder, a story which cuts right to the heart of the rift that’s separated Byron and Benny.

Second, a traditional Caribbean black cake made from a family recipe with a long history that Eleanor hopes will heal the wounds of the past. Can Byron and Benny fulfil their mother’s final request to ‘share the black cake when the time is right’?

Will Eleanor’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?
________

**Soon to be a major drama series for Hulu by Orpah Winfrey, Aaron Kaplan and Marissa Jo Cerar**

CURRENTLY READING

UNDER THE WHISPERING DOOR by T.J KLUNE

HAPPY READING!!!

#BookReview RAMBLE BOOK by ADAM BUXTON #Audiobook

ABOUT THE BOOK

Ramble
/ˈramb(ə)l/

Verb1. walk for pleasure in the countryside.‘Dr Buckles and Rosie the dog love rambling in the countryside.’
2. talk or write at length in a confused or inconsequential way.‘Adam rambles on about lots of consequential, compelling and personal matters in his tender, insightful, hilarious and totally unconfused memoir, Ramble Book.’
Ramble Book is about parenthood, boarding-school trauma, arguing with your partner, bad parties, confrontations on trains, friendship, wanting to fit in, growing up in the ’80s, dead dads, teenage sexual anxiety, failed artistic endeavours, being a David Bowie fan and how everything you read, watch and listen to as a child forms a part of the adult you become.

PUBLISHED BY MUDLARK

PURCHASE LINK

Amazon

MY REVIEW

I listened to the audio version of this book – and I recommend you do the same!!

Just wonderful!! It made me laugh and cry in equal measures and was just a walk down memory lane of the 70’s and 80’s in terms of music, films, and life memories that really struck a chord with me being a very similar age as Adam! He recalls his childhood, schooldays, family life into adulthood and he’s just so honest and endearing you can’t help but love every minute of his ramblings! It is just like listening to an old friend and feels very much like a long podcast episode! He even makes his own jingles to use throughout and then there’s a lovely bonus podcast episode at the end featuring Joe!

And alongside the funny stuff, there’s the emotional tale of his father who moved in with Adam and his family as he became ill, and it’s so touching and made my eyes leak a lot as he shares the reality of seeing a parent pass away.

An utterly brilliant book! Go listen to it… NOW!!

★★★★★

#BookReview AND AWAY by BOB MORTIMER #Audiobook

ABOUT THE BOOK

Bob Mortimer’s life was trundling along happily until suddenly in 2015 he was diagnosed with a heart condition that required immediate surgery and forced him to cancel an upcoming tour. The episode unnerved him, but forced him to reflect on his life so far. This is the framework for his hilarious and moving memoir, And Away…

Although his childhood in Middlesbrough was normal on the surface, it was tinged by the loss of his dad, and his own various misadventures (now infamous from his appearances on Would I Lie to You?), from burning down the family home to starting a short-lived punk band called Dog Dirt. As an adult, he trained as a solicitor and moved to London. Though he was doing pretty well (the South London Press once crowned him ‘The Cockroach King’ after a successful verdict), a chance encounter in a pub in the 1980s with a young comedian going by the name Vic Reeves set his life on a different track. And now, six years on, the heart condition that once threatened his career has instead led to new success on BBC2’s Gone Fishing.

Warm, profound, and irrepressibly funny, And Away… is Bob’s full life story (with a few lies thrown in for good measure).

PUBLISHED BY GALLERY UK

PURCHASE LINK

Amazon

MY REVIEW

I listened to the audio version of this book.

How can you not love Bob Mortimer?! He’s one of those people who comes across as being a blooming nice bloke! And listening to him read his autobiography has been a wonderful delight!

Mixing the happier times with the sad, his life has been one of variety! He mixes the stories of the past in well alongside the time he finds himself in hospital about to undergo a heart bypass. From the shyness he suffered, to trying out a number of jobs along the way, to meeting up with Vic Reeves to set him on the path to TV fame, it was just fascinating to hear him looking back over his life and how it has all panned out!

Lots of laugh, and happy memories from his many TV shows, made for a very enjoyable listen!

★★★★★