Review - Too Much Trouble in Paradise by Michelle Betham

A fabulous comedy romance in the sun.  What more can you ask for?

Molly lives and works in Tenerife and is engaged to be married to gorgeous, generous and loving spaniard Antonio.  Her best mate Fran, also divorced, lives nearby and they have a pretty damn good life.  Molly used to be a DWAG (darts wife and girlfriend) to Paul  a darts professional, out of whose backside she used to think the sun shone until she divorced him when she found out that he was unfaithful to her.  

When her ex-husband turns up in Tenerife, declaring his undying love for her, asking her to go back to the UK with him to try to make it work all over again, she's confused and really doesn't know what to do.  Should she stay with Antonio, who makes her happy and adores her or should she try again with Paul, who, deep down, she has always been madly in love with.  But can she ever trust him again?

The trials and tribulations of should she, shouldn't she, make this a fabulous book to read, one that will take you away from anything you are currently doing and transporting you right into a starring role in the story in this sunny little bit of paradise.   

The way that Michelle describes the life that Molly and Fran live in Tenerife made me want to book a flight, pack my bags and go and join these wonderfully colourful characters in Paco's bar and watch the world go by. I'd quite like a job at Sunset Heights as well - sounds like a blast!

I really enjoyed the vivid and colourful descriptions of the places in Tenerife that they visited and it reminded me very much of a holiday I once had there, the only time I have ever been, but I think that Michelle has painted some very lovely pictures in my mind which I'll definitely be looking out for if I ever go there again! In fact after reading this book, I want to go RIGHT NOW!

The character descriptions of both Spanish Antonio and Geordie Paul were fabulous, conjuring up two very handsome but very different men and I could understand why Molly found it so difficult to choose between them.  The electric current which ran between Molly and Paul was described so well, that you could almost feel it yourself. 

I loved the character of Fran, someone you would definitely want on your side, routing for you, and the storyline was one that had you guessing what was going to happen right till the very end. 

I read this book in two sittings, because I couldn't wait to find out who she was going to choose - I'm so impatient!  And Michelle's writing left me wanting more and more of this great and funny romantic story.  And I loved all the references to Take That! Made me giggle as I was and am a massive fan!

A thoroughly enjoyable book which certainly took me to an island of sun and laughter, on this miserable, rainy, dark and dismal August Bank Holiday Monday. 

Michelle Betham was born and bred in the North East of England, although did live in Tenerife for a couple of years.  She loves darts (especially Paul Nicholson), Take That, Keanu Reeves and wine.  Sounds like a lady after my own heart.  She admits to being addicted to reality TV and loves reading books of all types of genre.  

You can follow Michelle on Twitter
Follow her blog at michellebethamwriter.blogspot.co.uk

Buy this book via Amazon UK

Review - The Bad Boyfriends Bootcamp by Poppy Dolan

Hilariously funny, worryingly true!

Molly lives with and loves her brother Sam dearly, but Sam is desperately unlucky at keeping the ladies in his life happy.  So she decides that she's going to help him by pointing out to him all the things that he does wrong and with the help of her friend Rachael who works in a clothes store, help him to find the love of his life, which he does very quickly!  He decides to take off to tour the world with this lovely lady and will come back to get married leaving his mom, who is a very organised business woman called Cleo, to organise the wedding.  

With Sam's room going spare, Sam's mate John who has recently split up with his girlfriend moves in and Molly feels that he needs to make a number of changes to himself and is also asked by a lot of Sam's mates to give them the same makeover treatment that she gave Sam.  With the help of Rachael who can help them in the clothes department, and their friend Josie who is a fitness instructor, they set up the Bad Boyfriends Bootcamp where people pay a subscription and they sign up for and are put through their paces for the makeover of a lifetime.  If only she could do the same for herself!

What a concept!  What a gread idea!  If only such things existed.  I'm sure there are loads of women out there in the world that would definitely consider signing their men up to this. 

This is a hilarious book, about love, family and friendship, and it was extremely entertaining.  I really laughed at many parts, and felt quite sad in others.  There was lots of emotion written into the story in all sorts of ways described really well.

Poppy created a lovely character in Molly, she's the sort of person that you would want as your best mate! And the wonderful friends Rachael and Josie, that she had around her, were great girls, really supportive to her even when her behaviour started to get a little out of hand.   I loved the way that Poppy wrote this strong friendship into the story line.  I also loved the relationship that Molly had with her brother and her mom, a really powerful family bond. All the characters were a delight to know, warm, realistic and perfectly formed. 

Her descriptions were also wonderful, making you able to picture the scenes as you were reading so that you felt part of the story and actually wanted to join in. 

Massively entertaining, this was a fabulous read and a great debut novel for author Poppy Dolan and I really wish her lots of luck for the future. 

Poppy Dolan lives in South London with her husband and what she describes as a dodgy laptop.  She enjoys cooking, eating and again in her words, mucking about on her sewing machine.  She is currently writing her second novel.

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Review - Yours Truly by Kirsty Greenwood

Wow!!!  What an amazing, brilliant debut novel from this wonderful author.

Natalie is the daughter of a neurotic mother who doesn't like being left alone, sister of Dionne who is a very attention seeking young lady who loves diamantes and bling and fiancee of handsome and prim and proper Olly who says she is almost perfect.  Need I say more!

Natalie's dream has always been to run a restaurant, but she had to cut short her catering classes to look after her mother.  The wedding has been booked rather quickly so mom and Dionne take charge and book all the things that she would never have chosen herself.  However, because she is so worried about hurting people's feelings she goes through her whole life putting up with things.  

That is until she is dragged along to a night out with her friend Meg, to see Amazing Brian the hypnotist and Meg is really keen to be chosen yet Brian has different plans and actually hypnotises Natalie instead to always tell the truth. 

Now this doesn't sound like it would be a massive problem, but I can assure you it is!  This new way of life of being really honest is causing havoc in her life so she traipses off with Meg to Little Trooley in search of Amazing Brian to get him to stop this charade and return her life to normal.  What she doesn't bargain for is that Brian isn't at home and also the new friends she makes at the village pub and one in particular - a big handsome hunk called Riley! 

I can honestly say that this book was a complete and utter pleasure to read.  Hilarious throughout with moments where I laughed out really loud and snorted at the same time.  Not a pretty picture I can tell you but some bits still make me laugh even later in the day.  Kirsty Greenwood appears to have the same sense of humour as I have, so it fitted really well with me and I read the whole book with a great big smile on my face. 

The character of Natalie was brilliant, really likeable and genuine, and she really didn't want to hurt people's feelings but just couldn't help it!  The chemistry between her and Riley was excellent and sizzled between the pages and they also had such fantastic fun. All the other characters were also wonderfully created, and I found the story line hilarious when she had to tell people the utmost truth when they asked her questions, which became even funnier the more personal the question, so it was a seriously funny plot. The places were fabulously described so that your imagination conjured up vivid pictures of the actual places that were written about.

It ended exactly as I wanted it to and I was really sad not to follow these wonderful characters for longer and would be ecstatic to read a sequel.  It was a book that finished far too soon for my liking as I really could have continued to read it for many more hours and I read it in one sitting because I could not bear to put it down.

I found it incredible that this is Kirsty's first book and I'm sure that in the not too distant future, she will be up at the top of the book charts with people such as Milly Johnson and Carole Matthews.   Wow, what a debut novel to create.  I cannot wait to read more of Kirsty's work and am delighted to hear that she's working on book number two. 

Kirsty Greenwood is a 30 year old writer from Greater Manchester. She's the founding editor of Female Fiction website NOVELICIOUS.COM and drinks far too much tea.

Likes: American telly, flittery book covers, green clothes, roasting potatoes, typography, 60s R&B, singing, Sunday afternoon baths, wine, Beat Sheets, reading in bed, whimsical jewellery and smiley people.

Could Do Without: The Ironside theme tune, the word Drinkie-Poos, things that are frilly, bad coffee.

Kirsty is represented by Hannah Ferguson at The Marsh Agency and is working on her second novel. 

You can like and find out more about Kirsty on facebook

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Her website can be found at www.kirstygreenwood.com
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Review - The Darling Girls by Emma Burstall

What a book!

This fabulous story starts in war torn Austria when a very young Leo is devastatingly taken from his family home by his mother to go to live a better life in England, but is very distressed that they are leaving his poorly young sister behind.

The story then goes to a young girl called Cat who is attending her lover Leo's funeral, trying to catch a glimpse of his wife of twenty years Victoria and their children and also wondering whether his lover Maddie is there with her daughter.

When the funeral is over and she hides out in the churchyard clearly distraught about what has happened to the man she thought that the love of her life, when Victoria appears beside her, treating her with kindness and concern and wondering whether she was okay. Maddie at this point also materialises and Victoria turns on Maddie asking whether she knew that Cat was also Leo's lover when she clearly didn't. 

Each woman thought that they were Leo's real true love. Each one led a very different life with him, and things that they thought he disliked, he liked with one of the others.  They meet up when Victoria finds things out other things about Leo's life and what he has and hasn't left behind and feels it only fair to these other two women who are connected with her in some way, to share that knowledge.

This deep and dramatic story is about how these women cope in this situation, how they have to continue with their lives although that very important person that used to be in it, isn't around any more and how they pick themselves up, dust themselves down and get on with it because they have to. 

It was a wonderful, if not an unusual, story line, excellently mapped out, with their lives taking very different directions.  Emma's writing was really superb, making the characters and the places come alive in my mind, and making me feel like I was part of the story line.  

I got completely wrapped up in the story and felt the emotions that the characters were feeling as if they were my own.  The three main characters were all extremely strong in their own way and I was totally engrossed with each and every one of them and their lives.  I particularly warmed to Victoria who was a warm, genuine and maternal character although each of them was extremely realistic and believable. 

This was a book that made me not care about what else was going on in my life.  My aim was to read that book and discover how these amazing women battled with their emotions and helped their families to grieve for a person that wasn't the person that they each thought he was and also how they behaved and coped with each other. 

There were lots of twists, turns and surprises along the way and it was a book that I would most definitely recommend and I shall be looking out for Emma's other books. Her writing is definitely a style that I like and can lose myself in. 

I loved this book, as my son says, "to the moon and back again!" I really didn't want it to end.  Although when it did, I have to say I couldn't have wished for a more perfect ending!

Emma joined me as a guest over at my blog quite recently and she grabbed some author's that she knew and asked them some fab questions.  You can read that post by clicking here. 

Emma has extensively for national newspapers and women’s magazines including the Guardian, Independent on Sunday, Red, Good Housekeeping, Woman & Home and Woman.

She read English at Cambridge University and began her career as a cub reporter on the Western Morning News in Plymouth, later becoming features editor of Woman and Family Circle.

She gets by in French and Spanish and works out – occasionally – at her local gym. After walking her youngest to school, you might also spot her jogging in Richmond Park with some friends. Slowly.

Emma lives in South West London with her husband, the political commentator Kevin Maguire, and their three children, aged 25, 20 and 10.

She’s currently working on her fourth novel.

Find out more about Emma and her books at her website www.emmaburstall.com

You can like her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter

You can click here to buy this book

Review - Twelve Months by Steven Manchester

Twelve Months by Steven Manchester, is probably one of the most heart-wrenching, emotional books I've ever read in my entire life.

Don DiMarco has a really good life; a wife Bella that he adores, a wonderful daughter Riley and her husband Mark who he couldn't wish better for and two amazing grandchildren that complete his life.  When he finds himself feeling particularly unwell and one day goes to the doctors, he finds out he has inoperable stage 4 colon cancer and has approximately twelve months to live.

He decides that he's not going to have treatment which could prolong his life, but won't give him any quality of life.  He therefore spends the time that he has left showing his wife just how much he loves her and treats her the way he always should have, spending time with his beautiful grandchildren and showing his daughter and her husband just how much he loves them.  He lays to rest ghosts that have hung about him for too long, makes amends and peace with people he'd lost touch with and makes sure that he is kind to everyone around him trying to help people in similar and worse situations than himself. 

He makes a wish list of five things he would like to do before he dies and along with them, he experiences many beautiful moments throughout this period of his life and meets some amazing people who put his life and his wishes into complete perspective.  When he is finally sure that he has done all he can do and say all that there was to be said and that his time has come, he is taken from his family.

OMG! I think I spent the majority of this book in tears. When I say tears, I don't mean delicate little diamond drops of tears that Cheryl Cole used to do on the X Factor boot camps!  I mean heart-wrenching, shoulder-shaking, chest-heaving, nose-running, spluttering tears that I haven't cried for a very long time.  To be honest, just trying to write this review I'm finding really tough and have at this very moment tears streaming down my cheeks!

It really was the most emotional book I have ever read in my entire life. But beautiful at the same time.

It does make you wonder about your own life and that of your friends and family. About what you could do to help others to cope and to ensure that you do everything you can to make every second count, because to quote what a friend said to me recently "life does have an expiry date!"  It gives you the message to live your life to the full. 

It was probably made far more emotional for me to think that some of the experiences that Don DiMarco went through in his life, my dear mom went through in her battle with cancer and how hard that must have been for her, knowing that she had to say goodbye to us; her family that she loved so much and that she had spent her whole life looking after.  Unfortunately, when we found out just how ill my darling mom was, she was too ill and too weary to be able to do much at all.  And I know that somewhere deep in my heart, I have to forgive the doctor who told her that she had weeks to live, because from the moment she knew that she went rapidly downhill and that my anger towards that doctor beats me up even now!

Some people though, have their loved ones taken suddenly without being able to right all the wrongs they would always want to do.  My Nan - god bless her - always told us that we should tell people we love them, as you never know when you'll get your last chance to say it.  At least I remember my mom's last words to me were that she loved me and would always would!

Whilst I am now a total emotional wreck from reading this book, raking up my past and writing this review, I have to tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and found it extremely cathartic.  I'm glad I was given the opportunity to read this magnificent book which was so beautifully written.  I read 280 pages in one sitting, then finished the last few before work this morning.  You don't want to even begin to imagine how I look today!

Thank you Steven Manchester for your wonderful, wonderful book.  I feel honoured and privilaged to have shared Don DiMarco's innermost thoughts and feelings and have been truly touched by this book. 

I do think however, that it should come with the warning "Not for the faint-hearted, you will need tissues!"  I'm off now to write a list of things I've always wanted to do and put off for whatever reason and speak to all the people I love in my life.   I'm going to live my life to the full!

Steven Manchester is the author of Pressed Pennies, The Unexpected Storm: The Gulf War Legacy and Jacob Evans, as well as writing several books under the pseudonym, Steven Herberts.  His work has appeard on many USA television and news shows.  Recently, three of Steven's short stories were selected "101 Best" for the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.

www.stevenmanchester.com
www.thestoryplant.com
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Review - Ollie The Octopus by William Banks

A fabulously entertaining and different childrens' book and what a great idea!

This is a childrens' story but not just a childrens' story.  It's also an opportunity for the children to grab their crayons and colouring pencils and join in the fun with Ollie the Octopus by colouring in the story!

You get to meet Ollie, his Mom and the Shark and the book can be whatever colour your child wants it to be.  I think this is a fabulous idea because we all read books differently and if you gave 50 people a book with a main character, and asked everyone to write down what they think the main character looked like, each one of those 50 people would probably come up with something different.  This way Ollie's life and home can be different and can everything your child wants it to be.

In this book Ollie gets into trouble with a shark and you get to find out what the outcome is.   Just the story itself is fun, the fact that you get to colour it in, makes it a double whammy for us. 

Having an Ollie of my own, who is five years old in October, made this book so pleasurable for us to read.  He loves to read books about characters with his name, and this time it's even spelt the same.  We have got some Olly Bear books, but the spelling is slightly different so this one was extra special for us and especially because the author William Banks wrote a wonderfully personal note for my Ollie at the beginning.  When my Ollie knew he could get to colour the book in, as well as read it, he said he thought it was "awesome!"

Ollie (the one that isn't an octopus!) said that this weekend, he wants to sit down with this book and colour all of it in.  Sounds good to me, think he'll be occupied in that case so I might even be able to put my feet up and do some reading of my own! Woohoo!

William Banks was 11 years old when he originally wrote and illustrated Ollie the Octopus for his friends and his classmates.   He grew up in Texas and knew that one day he would become a successful author.  He was a grand-child to a printer and painter and son of a musician and radiologist, he combined the arts and riches and he drew comics and designed books and sold them to his classmates.

He now tweets, socializes on Facebook, edits and publishes books with Safkhet Publishing, and teaches law at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England.

You can like Ollie The Octopus on Facebook

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You can buy this book via Amazon UK

Discover Safkhet Publishing by checking out website http://www.safkhetpublishing.com

Review - The Au Pair by Janey Fraser

Lots of fun and wonderfully entertaining. 

When money starts to get tight, Jilly has the idea of setting up an au pair agency after hearing about some of the disastrous experiences that some of the mother's at school were having.  So she does!  What she hadn't thought about, was that the girl's might have ulterior motives for coming to England. 

The book is based around au pair Marie-France, who is searching for her father, who she knows nothing about apart from his very common name and the fact that he had met her mother when she was an au pair as a young girl herself.

Then there's Matthew, whose wife Sally has died, and whose daughter wants him all to herself and does everything in her power to drive away anyone that Matthews has to look after her. 

There's also a whole host of other young ladies, some that don't even like children, some that leave them on their own, and some that don't really know what they are even thinking of trying to be an au pair.  And then there's the mother's who think having an au pair is like having your own slave!

Janey Fraser must be a complete hoot in real life.  She has a terrific sense of humour which shines through in this story.  Because the au pair's were foreign, the way some of the words were pronounced were just hilarious and I'm still laughing about some of them even now!

It's interesting to see how different people live and also what makes people happy. What looks to be one thing might turn out to be another ! The book covers really significant and sensitive topics such as grief, parenthood, infidelity, managing work and children at the same time!  But manages to cover them all in a wonderfully understanding and in most cases humerous way.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It was a big read at 582 pages but I can honesty say that I enjoyed every single one of them.  Just reading the first page, which was an application later from an au pair made me settle myself down knowing this was going to be a fantastic read.  And it certainly was exactly that!

Janey Fraser is a pen name for Jane Bidder who has been a journalist for over 25 years and contributes regularly to national newspapers and magazines including The Daily Telegraph and Woman. 

This is her second book following The Playgroup, which I shall definitely be looking out for.

She has also published books under the pen name Sophie King.

You can read more about Janey at her website www.janeyfraser.co.uk

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You can buy this book via Amazon UK