Thursday, 31 December 2020
Review: Confessions of a Forty Something F**k Up by Alexandra Potter
Nell Stevens’ life is a mess.
When her business goes bust and her fiancé with it, Nell’s happy ever after in California falls apart and she moves back to London to start over. But a lot has changed since she’s been gone. All her single friends are now married with children, sky-high rents force her to rent a room in a stranger’s house and in a world of perfect Instagram lives, she feels like a f**k up. Even worse, a forty-something f**k up.
But when she lands a job writing obituaries, Nell meets the fabulous Cricket, an eighty-something widow with challenges of her own, and they strike up an unlikely friendship. Together they begin to help each other heal their aching hearts, cope with the loss of the lives they had planned, and push each other into new adventures and unexpected joys.
Because Nell is determined. Next year things are going to be very different. It’s time to turn her life around.
Review: I may not quite be a forty something yet but this is 100% the book I needed to read right now. I loved the humour and warmth as well as the realness of this book. This book, through main character Nell, shows you that nobody has it all together and that you can be a f**k up but still be living your best life the way you want to live it.
I could just related to Nell from the word go in this book. I could both sympathise and empathise with her and I loved getting to know her over the course of the book. We've all had instances of having to start over in one way or another whether that's just a small thing that you've been working on or a whole big life move and Nell expresses the feelings we have about it but are too scared to share. I love knowing what's going on in side her head and all the rubbish that she has to wade through in order to just carry on living her life.
This book deals with all the FOMO we have from seeing our friends' lives on whatever social media we choose to peruse and the feelings that we haven't quite met the expectations we believe society has placed on us but we've actually kind of placed them on ourselves. I loved the outer London setting of this book and just how ridiculous it is to try and find somewhere to live in the city, even when you're a forty something! I also really love the fact that this book delves apologetically into non traditional media and the power that has. I love when an author bucks the trend and has podcasts and dating apps in their books!
There are a couple of care warnings that come with this book in terms of baby loss and also traffic accidents. I did have to skip a couple of chapters myself but I was able to pick back up in Nell's life where I left off. I laughed out loud several times in this book, had a little cry and just nodded a long the whole way through. I really thought this book was amazing and I am sure you will too.
Wednesday, 30 December 2020
Guest Review: The Lake House by Christie Barlow
Love Heart Lane – where friends are there for you no matter what
There’s a newcomer to the village of Heartcross and she’s never been more in need of a friend.
As the new manager of local bistro, The Lake House, Ella is ready to start afresh ––and that could mean there’s love on the horizon in the form of the gorgeous Roman, the local water taxi driver. Every day Roman is there to ferry Ella to the restaurant on the other side of the lake and every night he makes sure she gets home safe. But Roman has secrets of his own…
Can the Love Heart Lane community offer Ella a chance of a new life? Or will the ghosts of her past catch up with her?
Review: This is the 5th book in the Love Heart Lane series, in which all the stories are set in the Scottish highlands village of Heartcross. In addition to the recurring characters who live and work in the village, each book features newcomers, who discover the charms of the area and usually remain. I have read all the previous books in the series and always look forward to meeting up with familiar and new characters in each story. All books in the series can be read as standalones. I was quickly immersed in this book and all too quickly finished it.
The central character in this story is Ella Jackson, who has been left demoralised and in dire circumstances after being conned by a cunning fraudster. Luckily, her good friend Callie finds her a position in the new exclusive restaurant in Heartcross, where she herself is restaurant manager. Once she settles into the village, Ella quickly makes friends with many of the villagers, including once famous singer Dolores and water taxi operator Roman. To help showcase the new restaurant and boost its reputation, Ella gets involved in organising a concert starring Dolores and some of her contemporaries and finds that she may have a future in events planning. Meanwhile, she becomes closer to Roman and it looks as if romance may be in the air.
I really enjoyed this latest instalment in the continuing Love Heart Lane series and would highly recommend it along with the other books. I liked the new characters introduced in this story; both Ella and Roman showed great strength and determination in the face of great personal challenges. Although a few of the villagers I have come to know from previous books in the series made an appearance here, I would have liked to see a bit more of them, but that did not spoil my enjoyment of the book. I was happy to learn that another book in the series will be out soon, with more in the pipeline; definitely titles to look out for.
Tuesday, 29 December 2020
Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Books of 2020 (29/12/2020)
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
This was such a hard list to put together, I feel like I want to do a top 20 instead... I'll leave links to any reviews I have posted on here and see bottom of the post to see my top ten lists by genre.
Monday, 28 December 2020
Top 10 Adult Fiction I Read in 2020
These lists have already been published on my BookTube channel but if that's not really your thing I'm going to leave the lists here and leave links to any reviews I have already posted. My list of top 10 books of the year will be up next week!
Sunday, 27 December 2020
Saturday, 26 December 2020
Friday, 25 December 2020
Thursday, 24 December 2020
Top 10 Nonfiction Books I Read in 2020
These lists have already been published on my BookTube channel but if that's not really your thing I'm going to leave the lists here and leave links to any reviews I have already posted. My list of top 10 books of the year will be up next week!
And this is a series of short essays that equate to about one book so...
Wednesday, 23 December 2020
Top 10 YA Novels I Read in 2020
These lists have already been published on my BookTube channel but if that's not really your thing I'm going to leave the lists here and leave links to any reviews I have already posted. My list of top 10 books of the year will be up next week!
A couple of these books are not 2020 releases but I feel like I was pickier with my YA choices this year so I have included books I read this year regardless of when they were released.
Tuesday, 22 December 2020
Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Hope Santa Brings 22/12/20
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
I love this top 10 list every year and although I know I don't need more books I somehow manage to find a list of 10 I would love to add to my collection. I wonder if any of these are the same as I added to my list last year...
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