lisa /

Title: Love, Lies and Lemon Cake

Author: Sue Watson

Pages: 290 Pages

Publisher: Bookouture

The Blurb

Faye Dobson has lost her sparkle. Living on film star fantasies and vague memories of a marriage that once was, she can’t help feeling that life is passing her by. She dreams of being whisked to Paris for dinner, making three wishes at the Trevi fountain and having sex under the stars. But the wrinkles are multiplying, her husband’s passion is for plumbing, and the nearest she’ll get to Rome is a take-away pizza. 

So when Faye meets Dan the gorgeous Australian surfer guy working in the local deli she can’t help but wonder what it would be like to see the world. He is blonde, tanned, ten years younger and bakes the most amazing lemon cake. Unlike her husband Dan actually listens to Faye, his smile makes her feel fizzy inside, and when he smiles… Oh. My. God. 

But is Faye being silly? What would Dan see in someone like her? Even if he did have feelings for her, could she give everything up to be with him? 

A laugh-out-loud, bittersweet comedy about taking your life back before it’s too late.

The Review

Sometimes you need a little bit of light relief and admittedly I have been reading some heavier texts lately. So when I picked up Sue Watson’s Love, Lies and Lemon Cake I was hoping for a sprinkle of sweetness and a book that I could completely escape into and one that I could put down without stressing out. Sue Watson delivered.

It is the story of Faye, a woman old before her time who finds a new lease of life and starts living it to the max. This is book full of hope, joy and at times was a little bit spicy.

Romantic comedies are not my usual cup of tea but Love, Lies and Lemon Cake really did have me giggling aloud. A brilliant beach read for the summer.

Love, Lies and Lemon Cake by Sue Watson is available now.

For more information regarding Sue Watson (@suewatsonwriter) please visit www.suewatsonbooks.com.

For more information regarding Bookouture (@bookouture) please visit www.bookouture.com.

lisa /

Title: Anything Could Happen

Author: Lucy Diamond

Pages: 400 Pages

Publisher: Quercus

The Blurb

Your big secret is out. What next?

For Lara and her daughter Eliza, it has always been just the two of them. But when Eliza turns eighteen and wants to connect with her father, Lara is forced to admit a secret that she has been keeping from her daughter her whole life.

Eliza needs answers – and so does Lara. Their journey to the truth will take them on a road trip across England and eventually to New York, where it all began. Dreams might have been broken and opportunities missed, but there are still surprises in store… 

Anything Could Happen is a warm, wise, funny and uplifting novel about love, second chances and the unexpected and extraordinary paths life can take us down.

The Review

Lately I have DNF’d several books. I have said that I am Marie Kondo-ing my reading. If it isn’t bringing me joy then I am giving up. After several duds I was feeling a bit desperate. I went to a trusted author on my TBR. Lucy Diamond. And oh, how Marie Kondo should shake in her joy feeling boots because I felt it. I felt the joy. Anything Could Happen is chock full of it. It is the cosiest of jumpers on the coldest of days.

In Anything Could Happen we follow the developing story of Lara and her daughter Eliza. In a spurt of impulsivity Eliza goes on the hunt for her father. She has some questions for that man. The only problem is he doesn’t know she exists.

We watch as Lara and Eliza find new footing in their relationship after so much has been kept secret and we see Eliza’s world expand with new family in it. It was everything that it should be – difficult, uncomfortable, funny, sad, poignant and a plethora of other words but overall it was quintessentially Lucy Diamond – a lovely read.

Can I please recommend reading it alongside the audiobook. It is read by Sally Phillips and she does an excellent job.

Anything Could Happen by Lucy Diamond is available now.

For more information regarding Lucy Diamond (@LDiamondAuthor) please visit www.lucydiamond.co.uk.

For more information regarding Sally Phillips (@sallyephillips) please visit her Twitter account.

For more information regarding Quercus (@QuercusBooks) please visit www.quercusbooks.co.uk.

lisa /

Title: Call Me, Maybe

Author: Stephie Chapman

Pages: 388 Pages

Publisher: Hera Books

The Blurb

What if you got a second chance with your first love? What happens when you meet your teenage heart-throb – when you’re both all grown up?

When Cassie was fifteen, all she wanted was to marry Jesse Franklin, the bassist from her favourite band, Franko. Now she’s single, in her late twenties and wondering what happened to that teenage dream. A chance encounter on Facebook soon leads to a transatlantic hook up, and soon, Jesse and Cassie are having a long-distance love affair spanning five thousand miles. Cassie is on cloud nine – until she hears something that makes her think that Jesse might not be all that he seems.

They say never meet your heroes – but what happens when you fall in love with them…? Are Cassie and Jesse star crossed lovers, destined to be together? Or should Cassie have left her crush in the box marked ‘teenage memories’?

Previously published as Getting Over Jesse Franklin, this brand new edition has had extensive editorial changes.

The Review

Okay, so Call Me, Maybe by Stephie Chapman is literally my 20-something dream of how I wanted my life to turn out…kind of.

Call Me, Maybe is the story of Cassie and how she loved a band so much when she was younger and how with the wonders of modern technology she was able to befriend the band member she loved years later and start a relationship with him. Okay. My summary actually sounds pretty creepy but Call Me, Maybe was not. It was a bit predictable at times but there was a comfort in that. Knowing that with any relationship there is going to be bumps in the road and dramas lurking around every corner.

I really, really enjoyed Call Me, Maybe. IT was easy, fun and lighthearted. I really wish that it had happened to me and Matt from Busted and I don’t care who knows it.

Call Me, Maybe by Stephie Chapman is available now.

For more information regarding Stephie Chapman (@StephieChapman) please visit her Twitter page.

For more information regarding Hera Books (@HeraBooks) please visit www.herabooks.com.

lisa /

Title: Very Nearly Normal

Author: Hannah Sutherland

Pages: 400 Pages

Publisher: Avon

The Blurb

From a dazzling new talent in women’s fiction, comes a swimmingly beautiful love story with a little twist in the tail.

Effie’s not perfect. Neither is Theo. But together, they’re pretty close.

Matilda ‘Effie’ Heaton has always felt like she’s swimming against the tide. Everyone around her has life sorted, but Effie’s living with her parents and crying into a wine bottle at night. The only thing she loves is her job at a bookshop, where she can lose herself in other people’s stories.

But then she meets Theo, who knows only too well that life isn’t something to take for granted.

Because Theo has a life-changing secret, and as Effie starts to realise that she’s falling in love instead of falling apart, fate steps in and deals her a new hand. And this time, the stakes are high.

A gorgeous, heart-breaking read for fans of Jojo Moyes and Gail Honeyman.

The Review

I do love a good romantic story, however, as I have gotten older I have found that I need more. I need my romances to have a lot more substance. Enter Very Nearly Normal by Hannah Sutherland – the quirky love story of Effie and Theo.

Effie is, for want of a better phrase, a hot mess. She is the wrong side of her 20s, living at home with her parents, lacks any ambition, has had a handful of previous failures – romantic and career wise – and when we meet her she is on a disastrous Tinder date. She is the antithesis of the person you would want to be.

Enter Theo: A young dude who witnesses the aforementioned date and then starts to ardently pursue Effie. A love story for the ages.

Everything here seems so (very nearly) normal for a romantic comedy check list however Sutherland does make you work for your protagonist and her potential for a happy ending. For the most part, Effie has some really unlikable qualities. She is petulant and whiny, she talks to her mum like she is a piece of dog much that she has stepped in – in fact she is kind of like the living embodiment of the Harry Enfield Kevin character. She is a bit of an arse at times.

However, fall in love with Effie we do. We do this alongside Theo. He breaks through her tough shell and we begin to see the softer side of Effie.

But love is never simple and its course is never smooth. Very Nearly Normal is a bit of a bumpy ride.

I found Very Nearly Normal to be every bit the page turner that you want a novel to be. I fell completely for Effie and Theo and wished all good things for them. They are the kind of characters that you think about long after you have turned the final page and you wonder what happened to them next.

Very Nearly Normal is a brilliant romantic comedy…with a big dollop of substance.

Very Nearly Normal by Hannah Sutherland is available now.

For more information regarding Avon (@AvonBooksUK) please visit www.avonbooks.co.uk.

lisa /

We Were On A BreakTitle: We Were on a Break

Author: Lindsey Kelk

Pages: 416 Pages

Publisher: Harper Collins

The Blurb

‘You’ve just had a holiday,’ I pointed out, trying not to yawn. ‘Wasn’t that enough of a break?’
‘I don’t mean that kind of break.’

There’s nothing worse than the last day of holiday. Oh wait, there is. When what should have been a proposal turns into a break, Liv and Adam find themselves on opposite sides of the life they had mapped out.

Friends and family all think they’re crazy; Liv throws herself into work – animals are so much simpler than humans – and Adam tries to get himself out of the hole he’s dug. But as the short break becomes a chasm, can they find a way back to each other?

More importantly, do they want to?

The Review

I love books by Lindsey Kelk. I am halfway through the I Heart series and she really is one of the authors that I cannot get enough of.

In her latest release We Were on a Break we see the trials and tribulations of a couple who are trying to take the next step but just cnanot seem to get there. Liv and Adam have been together for ages. Liv has been told that Adam is going to propose to her when they are on holiday but it is nearing the end of their luxury trip and Adam still hasn’t popped the question. Liv becomes unbearable and Adam starts questioning whether it is the best idea.

Like most good romantic comedies it is the miscommunication and the interference of third parties that makes We Were on a Break so relatable. Who hasn’t been in a relationship with a he said/she said crowd getting involved.

What is comforting about books by Lindsey Kelk is that you always leave them feeling that the right thing happened. There is a feeling of content that comes with her books and We Were on a Break does not deviate from this.

We Were on a Break by Lindsey Kelk is available now.

For more information regarding Lindsey Kelk (@LindseyKelk) please visit www.lindseykelk.com.

For more information regarding Harper Collins (@HarperCollinsUK) please visit www.harpercollins.co.uk.

35 Stars