My Summer of Love and Limoncello by Sue Roberts

My Summer of Love and Limoncello

Sue Roberts

Rating: 4 stars

Amazon UK

Three best friends, Italian sunshine and a handsome stranger can fix just about anything... Can't it?

Maisie Knight had it all. A gorgeous husband. A successful business. A beautiful home. Until one day, after walking into the storeroom of their shop, she loses it all at one - catching her husband cheating on her with the girl from Checkout 3. So when she wins a holiday to Italy, a week under the Tuscan sun couldn't come sooner.

Treating best friends Cheryl and Emma to a girl's trip, the terracotta-roofed Villa Marisa on a rustic farm awaits them. The fields of golden sunflowers could be the perfect cure for Maisie's broken heart - and local farmer, suspiciously perfect Gianni, with his thick black hair and twinkling brown eyes is a welcome distraction from her broken heart.

Mornings waking up to freshly brewed coffee and views of the rolling hills, moped rides with cheeky Italians, and feasts of prosecco and pasta help Maisie forget her troubles. After all her heartache, she's surprised when she starts opening up to Gianni - she's even more surprised when the temperature rises and it's not just the rays of the Italian sunshine...

Maisie could get used to the good life. But just as she's getting her spark back, disaster strikes. The next thing she knows, her past is catching up with her, reopening old wounds and Maisie has a life-changing decision to make. Should she say ciao to her summer of love and limoncello?

A laugh-out-loud page turner about second chances, finding happiness when you least expect it and restorative power of Italian food! Fans of Carole Matthews and Sophie Kinsella will be totally hooked by.

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I love seeing a new Sue Roberts novel pop up, they're lighthearted, enjoyable and make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. This cover was just as beautiful as her others. It really catches the eye and makes you want to read it. The bright colours certainly drew me in, I love the open green fields, the colourful blue sky and the pretty flowers and houses dotted around. The title is also another thing that just sounds to summery! I was wishing for warmer weather when I was reading this!

I will say that this novel starts off a bit slow and to be honest, a little bit all over the place. One minute Maisie is with her husband and the next she's talking about going to a different job and you're sat there thinking - when did she get that? However, after the first few chapters this levelled out and I ended up really enjoying it. Although, I did feel that it was a slightly different style of writing than the usual Sue Roberts' novels I've read. This one felt slightly more serious than her usual really easy and lighthearted reads. As I say though, once I got through the first few chapters it got a bit better to read and I started warming to the characters more.

With main character Maisie, I felt that she was way too serious at first. When her bag got mixed up at the airport, she seemed to think that she had got some really important bag and when I first read it I was kinda thinking that she was being a bit over the top but as I keep saying, the more I read the more I enjoyed. I did really feel for Maisie, she had been through a lot in her life and I could completely understand why she was the way she was. It must have been awful to have been through those two horrible experiences and I really found myself connecting with her as the story went on. I loved the secondary characters such as Emma, Cheryl and even Gianni and I enjoyed reading about their idyllic sounding holiday and loved the setting.

Tuscany sounds beautiful and now I really want to visit! The food all sounded absolutely delicious and I'm warning you now that once you read this, it will make you hungry - constantly! The second half of this novel had all of Sue Roberts' usual banter and warmth and I was soon dreaming of being in Italy and wishing for summer to come! Another great novel by this talented author. A perfect summer read. Thank you to the publisher for a chance to read this novel via Netgalley, which I have reviewed honestly.

What's On My Netgalley To-Be-Read Pile 2019...

With summer fast approaching (heres hoping) I thought I'd devise a little blog post on what I've got on my Netgalley TBR pile for this year. It's a fabulous year for novels. The books I have got on Netgalley at the moment all have stunning covers and heartwarming sounding descriptions!

I feel like this year there's a lot of novels set in Tuscany, I've read 2 set there so far and I have another one to read shortly! Let's just say it's the place of the moment! And I can honestly see why, the setting, food and men all sound idyllic!

So here's what I've got planned to read. I can't wait to dive into them...

Poppy's Recipe for Life

Heidi Swain

Pre-order here...

The Little Guesthouse of New Beginnings

Donna Ashcroft

Pre-order here

Escape to the Little French Cafe

Karen Clarke

Pre-order here..

The House at Greenarcres

Darcie Boleyn

Pre-order here

A Perfect Cornish Summer

Phillipa Ashley

Pre-order here!

A Vintage Summer

Cathy Bramley

Pre-order here..

Quite a varied list, but one I can't wait to get through none the less! I've had Cathy Bramley's new one sitting by for quite a while but it keeps on getting pushed back as I try to read books in the order that they are going to be released! I've just come to an end of Sue Robert's new novel called My Summer of Love and Limoncello and next on my list is Daisy James' new one called Wedding Bells at Villa Limoncello - which were both set in Tuscany (the other Tuscan read was Dreaming of Tuscany by T.A. Wiliams which I would highly recommend you give a read!). All making me long for summer and heat!

Other ones I can't wait to read is Phillipa Ashley's A Perfect Cornish Summer and Heidi Swain's Poppy's Recipe for Life. I've always loved Heidi's novels so know this one is going to be just as amazing! And I've recently started loving Phillipa's style of writing so am looking forward to delving into that too.

So that's my current TBR pile, I also have about 50+ paperbacks that I need to get through but that's a blog post for another day! What books have you got on your TBR pile?

Happiness for Beginners by Carole Matthews

Happiness for Beginners

Carole Matthews

Rating: 5 stars

Amazon UK

Molly Baker is living her best life.

Thirty-eight years old, she lives on the twenty-five-acre Hope Farm in Buckinghamshire, surrounded by (mostly) four-legged friends and rolling hills. There's Anthony the anti-social sheep, Tina Turner the alpaca with attitude, and the definitely-not-miniature pig, Teacup.

Molly runs the farm as an alternative school for kids who haven't thrived in mainstream education. It's full on, but she wouldn't have it any other way. So when the well-groomed Shelby Dacre turns up at Hope Farm asking to enrol his son Lucas, Molly isn't fazed.

But Lucas is distant and soon Molly realises he might be more of a handful than anticipated. And then there's the added problem that his dad is distractingly handsome. Molly has her beloved farm to think of - could letting Lucas and Shelby in be a terrible mistake, or the start of something wonderful?

Feel-good, funny and an absolute must-read from the queen of romance Carole Matthews, Molly's story will make your heart sing. New starts and second chances abound in Happiness for Beginners.

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I really enjoy Carole Matthews novels, I haven't read many but the ones in which I have read have been really enjoyable and easy to read. This one really stuck out for me and I was so eager to read more about Molly and of course about Shelby and Lucas. I absolutely loved the idea of Molly working at a farm where they've all been rescued, that made my heart sing and my eyes water but it was really very lovely to read.

The cover is so beautiful and very Spring-like. It certainly catches your eye with the bright yellow background and I just adore the little flowers dotted around the cover, and the writing is really pretty! I also love Molly's little caravan, it's so quaint and cute! Overall, it makes for a really stunningly beautiful cover and I really, really like it.

What I enjoy with Carole Matthews, is that she gives a brilliant back story and I feel like by the time the third chapter comes around, we know so much about the main character and we know quite a bit about the secondary characters too. So already, right at the start of the novel we can really relate to those characters and I find that that works really well and helps you settle into the book easier and quicker as well. The setting of this novel also sounded so idyllic, I'd love to live somewhere where you never tire of the view and have all the animals and fields.

The whole book went so quickly for me, even though it took me a while to read it, I loved every page, not wanting it to stop. I loved Molly's character, she was so easy to relate to and I loved her chilled out vibes. Bev was also a funny one for me, I found myself laughing out loud at some of her quips about Shelby Dacre - and then of course what happens at the Hope Farm Festival with Alan had me laughing too! I also really felt for Lucas, he seemed so lost and misunderstood. I loved reading about the animals, such as Tina Turner the alpaca, I absolutely adored Anthony the Sheep and of course Little Dog (I also loved how they were called Little Dog and Big Dog!).

Overall, this was amazingly written and I'll go as far as to say that this was possibly my favourite Carole Matthews' novels to date. It was fun, heart-warming and overall just an easy read. Thank you to the publisher for a chance to read this novel via Netgalley, which I have read and reviewed honestly.

Book Birthday Blitz: The Secret to Falling in Love by Victoria Cooke

The Secret to Falling in Love

Victoria Cooke

Rating: 5 stars

Amazon UK

Status Update: I'm going offline for a while... Wish me luck! xx

Lifestyle journalist and thirty-something singleton Melissa hashtags, Insta's and Snapchats her supposedly fabulous life on every social media platform there is.

That is until she wakes up on her birthday, another year older and still alone, wondering if for all her internet dates, love really can be found online? The challenge: go technology free for a whole month!

Forced to confront the reality of her life without its perfect filters, Melissa knows she needs to make some changes. But when she bumps into not one, but two gorgeous men, without the use of an app, she believes there could be hope for love offline.

If only there was a way to choose the right guy for her...

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Victoria Cooke grew up in the city of Manchester before crossing the Pennines in pursuit of a career in education. She now lives in Huddersfield with her husband and two young daughters and when she's not at home writing by the fire with a cup of coffee in hand, she loves working out in the gym and travelling. Victoria was first published at the tender age of eight by her classroom teacher who saw potential in a six-page story about an invisible man. Since then she's always had a passion for reading and writing, undertaking several writers' courses before completing her first novel, 'The Secret to Falling in Love', in 2016.

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I do really enjoy Victoria Cooke's novels and I'll be honest and say this was possibly one of my favourites of hers! Her novels are upbeat, funny, entertaining and just draws you in to the storyline and makes you want to continuously read on. I adore the simplistic and colourful cover, the font is pretty and I love that it doesn't give much away but at the same time gives you a bit of an indication as to what the story is about.

At first, I wasn't too sure if I'd enjoy a novel based around social media but it gives off a great message. It really made me think about how much time I spend on my phone and it really struck a cord with me. Do I really want to spend this much time on my phone? And miss out on the events that's going on around me? It was a great read, and one that I really enjoyed.

The novel follows Melissa who, after writing a fab article on todays society and mobile phones, gets everything electronic taken away from her from her boss Dee in order to force Melissa to write an even better follow up piece to work out how she got on without technology. As Melissa comes to terms with not being reliant with her phone, she realises how much of life she's missing out on and starts to enjoy her time without her phone.

She visits her sister (whom she normally only contacts via Skype) and goes to visit her mum as well, and also starts to meet new people as well as two new men, Scott and Joseph. Her date with Joseph was out of this world, a limo driving her around, a beautifully cooked meal in a penthouse apartment overlooking the city, but all wasn't how it appeared! Melissa finds out someone was behind her date and as an apology they sent her up to Scotland for an all-expenses-paid holiday. However, Melissa wasn't alone on this trip. When she arrives, she bumps into Scott, whom she has quite a crush on despite the divorce he is currently going through. The pair hit it off, but when Joseph shows up at the house Melissa is thrown. What will she do now that Joseph has arrived? Will she get to know Scott some more? Or will she go back to Joseph?

It's a great novel, very entertaining and overall a fab read. Thank you to Rachel from Rachel's Random Resources for allowing me to be a part of this amazing Blog Tour.

New Starts and Cherry Tarts at the Cosy Kettle by Liz Eeles

New Starts and Cherry Tarts at the Cosy Kettle

Liz Eeles

Rating: 5 stars

Amazon UK

Fans of Cathy Bramley, Debbie Johnson and Jenny Colgan will fall in love with the Cosy Kettle cafe, where slices of lemon meringue pie are served in the sun-dappled garden - and where Callie's new beginning collides with an old flame...

After yet another failed romance, twenty-six-year-old Callie Fulbright is giving up on love. She's determined to throw all her efforts into her very own, brand-new cafe: The Cosy Kettle. Serving hot tea, cherry tarts and a welcoming smile to the friendly locals proves to be the perfect distraction, and Callie feels a flush of pride at the fledging business she's built.

But her new-found confidence is soon put to the test when her gorgeous ex reappears in the quaint little village. She'll never forget the heartache Noah caused her years ago, but when they bump into each other on the cobbled streets of Honeyford she can't help but feel a flutter in her chest...

As Callie and Noah share laughter and memories, she starts to wonder if this could be her second chance of happiness. But when Callie discovers that someone is mysteriously trying to ruin the cafe's reputation... she has an awful suspicion that Noah knows who's involved.

Was she wrong to ever trust him again? And can she find out who's behind the lies and rumours, before it's too late for the Cosy Kettle?

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Words cannot describe how much I adored this novel. This was a delightful and easy, fun read and I loved every minute. As soon as I knew that Liz Eeles would be bringing out another novel and then I saw it on Netgalley I was so excited! Her past novels have been absolutely amazing to read and I love her style of writing. I jumped at the chance to download it and began it immediately after I finished the one I was currently reading.

I absolutely adore the cover and the title of Liz's new novel. The cover is one of my favourites from this year actually. Cherry tarts at the Cosy Kettle sounds very inviting indeed! I also love the cakes along the bottom of the cover, the cute cottage at the back of the cover and the bright, inviting colours. Even the name is mouthwatering!

Straight from the start with this novel I knew I was going to love it. I just feel that Liz's style of writing hooks you from the start and I just loved all the characters from the off. I really related and felt for Callie, she was shy but just so lovely and I instantly warmed to her. I also found her granddad Stanley really funny and really enjoyed reading about his crazy antics! As well as this, I loved all of the other secondary characters such as Flora, Becca and Mary! They were all really lovely and I dreamed throughout of living somewhere like Honeyford. The setting sounded absolutely idyllic and I longed to book a trip to the Cotswolds!

This was just an overall really delightful and enjoyable novel. It's lighthearted and the perfect easy read for Spring. It will leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy and I just loved every page. I'm really hoping that we go back to this little story and read more about the other characters - as I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to Honeyford just yet! Liz Eeles has a gift of making you want to be exactly where she's writing - and as with her other novels, this one was no different. It was well-written, engaging and simply brilliant.

Thank you to the publisher for a chance to read this novel via Netgalley, which I have reviewed honestly.

Dreaming of Tuscany by T.A. Williams

Dreaming of Tuscany

T.A. Williams

Rating: 5 stars

Amazon

The glamour of Hollywood. The magic of the Tuscan countryside. One big decision...

Beatrice Kingdom (Bee to her friends) wakes up in hospital in Tuscany. After an accident on a film set leaves her burned and scarred, she feels her whole life has been turned upside down.

Bee is offered the chance of recuperating in a stunning Tuscan villa in the company of a world-famous film star, the irascible Mimi Robertson. Here amid the vines and olive groves, Bee quickly finds there's more to the place than meets the eye, not least a certain Luca (and Romeo the dog).

As she comes to terms with her injuries and her new life takes shape, Bee will have to travel a road of self-discovery. . . and make a huge decision.

A joyous, funny and moving tale, Dreaming of Tuscany is a triumph, perfect for fans of Holly Martin, Tilly Tennant, and Jenny Oliver.

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I can't tell you how much I absolutely fell in love with this book. It was heartwarming, an easy and very enjoyable read. I fell for the cover as soon as I saw it, the picture even looks hot! I love the beautiful flowers, the villa in the background and of course the really cute labrador at the front of the cover. This cover screams summer and will instantly make you want to go on holiday. I absolutely adore it.

For the story, I really loved it. And I mean, really, really loved it. I really enjoyed Bee's character, she seemed sensible but very easy to relate to and I adored her relationship with the famous Mimi by the end of the novel. Another character I found myself warming too was the brilliant Riccardo, I really felt for him - he had been through so much in his life and I was happy with how his life turned out in the end. And of course, I loved Luke (or Luca) and his dog Romeo (who was possibly my favourite character ever), every character was just lovely and I very much enjoyed reading about their blossoming relationships.

The storyline was fantastic, Bee woke up in an Italian hospital after she was involved in an accident on the film set she was working on, as compensation the company invited her to spend a few months recuperating in a beautiful Tuscan villa in the middle of nowhere. Bee automatically falls in love with the place and the people who love there, and with one more than the others - Luke the estate manager. As the days get hotter, Bee realises that she doesn't want to get into any sort of relationship, leaving her heart breaking at the prospect of leaving Luke in Italy.

The storyline gets better and better as the pages go on, and whilst nothing huge nor significant happens, it's still just a beautifully written novel and I absolutely loved every minute of it. Thank you to Netgalley for a chance to read this novel, which I have reviewed honestly.

Blog Tour: Love Heart Lane by Christie Barlow

Love Heart Lane

Christie Barlow

Rating: 5 stars

Amazon UK

Welcome to Love Heart Lane...

When Flick Simons returns to the small village of Heartcross she only expected to stay for a few days. The white-washed cottages of Love Heart Lane might be her home, but the place holds too many painful memories, and of one man in particular - Fergus Campbell.

When a winter storm sweeps in, the only bridge connecting the village to the main land is swept away! As the villagers pull together, Flick finds herself welcomed back by the friends she once left behind. And as the snow begins to melt, maybe there is a chance that Fergus's heart will thaw too...

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Oh I do love a Christie Barlow novel! I've read a few others by her and I have really enjoyed them but this one was probably my favourite. The cover is absolutely stunning, I love the colours, they go together so well and the village looks so cute!

The setting of this book just sounds beautiful. The thick snow, the mountains and all other kinds of bad weather makes me feel so cosy when I'm warm and dry wrapped up on the sofa! I also absolutely loved main character Felicity. She pulled on my heartstrings on more than one occasion and I couldn't even begin to feel what she had gone through that made her escape Heartcross for eight years. As well as Felicity (or Flick as some of the characters call her), I really loved the secondary characters as well. I think Flick's mum was adorable and so loveable and I really liked Isla as well, she was so kindhearted!

As well as the characters, the whole novel had a wonderful community spirit, and even though quite a few things kept going wrong (mainly due to the bad weather!), they stuck together and had each others backs. I loved this so much and I wished on more than one occasion that I lived somewhere like Heartcross! Fergus was another one of my favourite characters, I really felt for him in everything he had been through. Not just with Felicity but also with his family. I could feel my heart aching on more than one occasion whilst I was reading this novel!

I feel like there was loads of action throughout this book, straight from the start there were things happening that I just couldn't put it down! I was eagerly awaiting the next time I could pick it up to find out what happens next. It was exciting, heart warming and quite simply unputdownable. This is by far my favourite novel by Christie Barlow right now! It had everything you could possibly want from a story, great community spirit and friendships, drama, romance and some humour too! I really, really enjoyed reading this book and I was sad when it came to an end!

I noticed on Goodreads that this was the 1st in the series (I hope this is true!) so hopefully we hear more about Heartcross in the future! Thank you to the publisher and Rachel from Rachel's Random Resources for a chance to read this novel, which I have reviewed honestly.

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Christie Barlow is the author of A Year in the Life of a Playground Mother, The Misadventures of a Playground Mother, Kitty's Countryside Dream, Lizzie's Christmas Escape, Evie's Year of Taking Chances, The Cosy Canal Boat Dream, A Home at Honeysuckle Farm and Love Heart Lane. Her writing career came as somewhat as a surprise when she decided to write a book to teach her children a valuable life lesson and show them that they are capable of achieving their dreams. The book she wrote to prove a point is now a #1 bestseller in the UK, USA & Australia.

Christie is an ambassador for @ZuriProject raising money/awareness and engaging with impoverished people in Uganda through organisations to improve their well-being as well as Literary Editor for www.mamalifemagazine.co.uk bringing you all the latest news and reviews from the book world.

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