Tag Archives: romance

#BookReview ‘The Love Letter’ by Lucinda Riley #romance #suspense

The Love Letter by Lucinda Riley is a tightly written combination of mystery and romance unravelling the truths of a long ago love affair. Nothing and no one are as they first seem. As one secret is unveiled, so is another mystery. When 95-year old actor Sir James Harrison dies, journalist Joanna Haslam attends the memorial service where an incident with a frail elderly lady sets this story in motion. When a few days later Joanna receives a package from the lady, Rose, she visits her to ask questions only to find Rose has died. Is there a story here to write which will win her promotion on her tabloid newspaper? Untangling the truth from the lies turns out to be much more complicated and dangerous than Jo could ever have imagined.
Meanwhile Zoe Harrison, the actor’s grand-daughter, carer, and now facing life as a single mother with her son Jamie, receives a call from the former love of her life, Art. It is a while before the storylines of Jo and Zoe combine. The real identity of Art remains secret for quite a while though I had guessed before the reveal. Jo meanwhile has little luck in love and, after past betrayals, has difficulty trusting. There is a fully coloured-in cast of supporting characters – just enough, not too many – including Jo’s editor Alec and childhood friend Simon. Needless to say, everyone is pulled into the plot by the end.
About two-thirds of the way through what I thought was the plot solution turned out to be wrong and there was still a way to go. Although a bit confusing in parts as the intricate story flits from London to Ireland and France, I thoroughly enjoyed the spy element and the theatrical musical background of Sir James plus two good female leads in Jo and Zoe. More than just a romance, even if the plot gets slightly silly by the end. Definitely a page turner, I read it in two days on holiday.

Read my reviews of the novels in Lucinda Riley’s ‘Seven Sisters’ series:-
THE SEVEN SISTERS #1SEVENSISTERS
THE STORM SISTER #2SEVENSISTERS
THE SHADOW SISTER #3SEVENSISTERS
THE PEARL SISTER #4SEVENSISTERS
THE MOON SISTER #5SEVENSISTERS
THE SUN SISTER #6SEVENSISTERS
THE MISSING SISTER #7SEVENSISTERS
ATLAS: THE STORY OF PA SALT #8SEVENSISTERS

… plus my reviews of these standalone novels, also by Lucinda Riley:-
THE BUTTERFLY ROOM
THE GIRL ON THE CLIFF

… and by Lucinda Riley & Harry Whittaker:-
THE HIDDEN GIRL

If you like this, try:-
‘Vanishing Acts’ by Jodi Picoult
‘The House at the Edge of the World’ by Julia Rochester
‘Angel’ by Elizabeth Taylor

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#BookReview ‘Our Friends in Berlin’ by Anthony Quinn #WW2

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Our Friends in Berlin by Anthony Quinn tells a story of London in World War Two seldom told. It is a spy novel but not a thriller. It focuses on the individuals concerned and has a deceptive pace which means the threats, when they come, are more startling. Jack Hoste is not who he seems to be. He is not a tax inspector; he is not looking for a wife. He is a special agent who tracks down Nazi spies. And at night he is an ARP warden. The juxtaposition of Hoste’s life of secrets is set nicely against that of Amy Strallen who works at the Quartermaine Marriage Bureau. Ordinary life does go on in London during the Luftwaffe bombing and Amy must match clients together, a matter of instinct rather than calculation. In order to be matched with the right person, clients are asked to tell the truth about what they are seeking, truths which may have been disguised or hidden until now. Client requests include ‘a lady with capital preferred’ and ‘not American’. Then one day she meets a new client who seems oddly reluctant to explain what he is looking for. The client is Jack Hoste and he doesn’t want a wife, he is searching for Marita Pardoe, a suspected Nazi sympathiser and friend of Amy in the Thirties. What unfolds is a story of spying, gentle romance, betrayal, fanaticism and the life of living in a bombed city.
Jack and Amy seem to run on parallel tracks, veering towards and then away from each other, both romantically unsure, both allow the real world to get in the way. And get in the way it does, in the shape of Marita. Quinn is excellent at building characters, he makes you care for them and that’s what keeps you reading. In a time of war, decisions are often made recklessly but Jack and Amy draw back from doing this. Both are people of honour, making the secrets they must keep and the lies they must tell all the more pertinent. The nature of truth is a theme wriggling its way through every page.
Anthony Quinn is a favourite author of mine, his novels are each quite different and I will read everything he writes. I read this one quickly.

Read my reviews of these other novels also by Anthony Quinn:-
CURTAIN CALL
FREYA
HALF OF THE HUMAN RACE
MOLLY & THE CAPTAIN
THE MILLIONAIRE WALTZ
THE RESCUE MAN
THE STREETS

If you like this, try:-
‘Mrs Sinclair’s Suitcase’ by Louise Walters
‘The Paying Guests’ by Sarah Waters
‘The Heat of the Day’ by Elizabeth Bowen

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#BookReview ‘The Lost Letters of William Woolf’ by Helen Cullen @wordsofhelen #romance

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I admit to loving the premise of this book when I first heard about it. A Dead Letter Depot where researchers reunite lost letters with senders and recipients. The Lost Letters of William Woolf by Helen Cullen left me wishing for more. It promised to be a novel about letters and mystery and turned into one focussed on a struggling marriage, which was not what I expected. William’s marriage to Clare has gone stale and to avoid confronting what must change, he becomes obsessed by his work at the Dead Letter Depot and in particular the letters from someone called Winter addressed to ‘My Great Love’. In his vulnerable state, William begins to imagine that he may be that person and sets out to find her. Interspersed with this task we see William correctly fulfil his role, taking a lost fossil to the correct museum for example.
I switched between liking the character of William with being frustrated at his unrealistic romanticism, and could understand Clare’s frustrations. Ditto, she seemed impatient and too inclined to throw stones in a glasshouse. Clearly they were not communicating, ironic in a book about writing letters, and neither completely held my sympathy.
So what kept me reading? The lost letters, the mystery of Winter’s identity and to whom she was writing. And there lies one disappointment: the solution to Winter’s was such an anti-climax I had to flick back through the book to find an earlier reference in order to appreciate the revelation. I had two other disappointments. As much as I loved the concept of the Dead Letter Depot, a small voice in my head kept saying: it isn’t real, it wouldn’t get funding, it should be one man at a desk not a department with enough staff or budget for a Fancy Dress Fundraiser, and shouldn’t the lost letters be old not recently posted. I was also unclear of the timeline of the story. William and Clare feel like a 21^st century couple living in the 1980s, pre-mobiles, pre-tablets. Something jarred and it would not go away.
This novel could have been so much more if there was less about the fragile relationship between William and Clare and more about the Dead Letter Depot, William’s fellow workers and the cases they worked on. But it is nicely written and if you are looking for an easy-to-read romance for your holiday, you will probably love it.

If you like this, try:-
‘Butterfly Barn’ by Karen Power
‘Forever Fredless’ by Suzy Turner
‘Girl in Trouble’ by Rhoda Baxter

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE LOST LETTERS OF WILLIAM WOOLF by Helen Cullen @wordsofhelen https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3oH via @SandraDanby

A poem to read in the bath… ‘Along the field as we came by’

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Best known for A Shropshire Lad, the poems of AE Housman reflect the dooms and disappointments of youth in the English countryside. Popular throughout the Victorian and Edwardian periods running up to the Great War, this two stanza poem by Housman transitions from first romantic love to death and grief, followed by hope and new love. It was his simplicity of style that appealed, and his nostalgic nature settings.

Here is the first verse.

‘Along the field as we came by
A year ago, my love and I,
The aspen over stile and stone
Was talking to itself alone.
‘Oh, who are these that kiss and pass?
A country lover and his lass;
Two lovers looking to be wed;
And time shall put them both to bed,
But she shall lie with earth above,
And he beside another love.’

‘The Picador Book of Funeral Poems’ ed. by Don Paterson [UK: Picador]

Read these other excerpts, and perhaps find a new poet to love:-
‘Cloughton Wyke I’ by John Wedgwood Clarke
‘Elegy’ by Carol Ann Duffy
‘Sometimes and After’ by Hilda Doolittle

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#BookReview ‘The Tea Planter’s Wife’ by Dinah Jefferies @DinahJefferies #romance

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In Ceylon, between the First and Second World Wars, pre-Independence, a young wife arrives from England to join her new husband on his tea plantation. The Tea Planter’s Wife by Dinah Jefferies is a portrayal of an island riven by racial differences, a marriage riven by an inability to be honest, concluding that in the end skin colour should not matter. As her ship from England docks in Colombo, Gwen Hooper feels faint and is helped by a charming dark-skinned man. This is our introduction to Savi Ravasinghe, a pivotal character, a Sinhalese portrait painter who paints the rich in Ceylon, England and America. At this first meeting, Gwen demonstrates her naivety of racial tensions between Ceylon’s native Sinhalese population and the Tamil workers brought to the island by the British tea planters to work on the plantations. Soon after, trying to help an injured worker, she tramples over old sensitivities and the Raj way of doing things. I found Gwen both fascinating and a little irritating. The story is told totally from her viewpoint and, for me, her husband Laurence is rather remote. When Gwen gives birth to twins, the first, a boy, is christened Hugh. The second is a dark-skinned girl. In fear of accusations of infidelity with Savi, and rejection by her husband, Gwen panics. Her ayah Naveena takes the child to be cared for in a nearby village. Conveniently, the birth took place with only the ayah present so secrecy is assured. But Gwen lives on, haunted by her lies to her husband and her failings to her daughter.
This story hangs on the premise that Gwen feels unable to question her husband about the death of his first wife and child. When we finally get the answer in the last few pages, it seems obvious. Except of course the book is set in the late 1920s early 1930s so though obvious to a modern reader, it would not be widely known or understood at that time. To say more would give away the plot. This aside, I enjoyed this fragrant tale of the Hooper tea plantation, the difficulties faced after the Wall Street Crash, the changing times, the fashions and foods. There is a particularly unlikeable sister-in-law Verity, American vamp Christina, and bright and charming cousin-from-home Fran. The story felt alive in Ceylon. Jefferies cultivates a believable world from another time w ith the scents of cinnamon, sandalwood and jasmine combined with bullock dung, grease and rotting fish, servants dressed in white, and glamorous balls danced to the music of jazz. In contrast the short section in New York when Laurence and Gwen meet bankers and advertising men to launch the Hoopers Tea brand, seems remote and it was a relief to return to the lushness and complications of Ceylon.

And here are my reviews of some of Dinah Jefferies’ other novels:-
DAUGHTERS OF WAR #1DAUGHTERSOFWAR
THE HIDDEN PALACE #2DAUGHTERSOFWAR
NIGHT TRAIN TO MARRAKECH #3DAUGHTERSOFWAR
THE SAPPHIRE WIDOW
THE TUSCAN CONTESSA

If you like this, try these:-
‘The Gift of Rain’ by Tan Twan Eng
‘A Mother’s Secret’ by Renita d’Silva
‘The Garden of Evening Mists’ by Tan Twan Eng

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My Porridge & Cream read: Julie Stock

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Today I’m delighted to welcome romance author Julie Stock. Her ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

“My ‘Porridge and Cream’ book is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. The first time I read it was at secondary school, when I was about 14 years old, in the late 1970s. I went to a girls’ school and romantic love seemed very elusive and also illusory. What captivated me about the story was that it seemed so real. My school was nothing like Jane’s experience, thank goodness, although I might have felt like it was at the time but I appreciated the truth of the story, like the author was treating the reader with respect by drawing characters to whom life had not been kind, who were quite ordinary in their way, but had the potential to be extraordinary by their actions.

Julie’s copy of ‘Jane Eyre’

It was many years before I picked the book up again but I find myself moved to reread it regularly these days, especially when the real world becomes a bit too superficial and I need an escape to a world where people rose above their suffering and survived despite it because of the power of love. I love Jane most of all. I feel sorry for her, but I also admire her for surviving all the awful things life throws at her. And even at the last, when anyone else would be weeping with despair, she is happy to find Mr. Rochester again. What a woman!

The plot: Jane Eyre – an average woman of low means, destined to live her life alone but with a determination to make something of her situation.

Edward Rochester – a bitter man, whose wealth has brought him no advantages. Can he be saved by the love of a good woman?

This is an epic love story that will show you how love can overcome all obstacles, and save even the most desperate souls.”

Julie Stock’s Bio
Julie Stock is an author of contemporary romance from around the world: novels, novellas and short stories.She indie published her debut novel, From Here to Nashville [above], in February 2015 and published her second novel, The Vineyard in Alsace in March 2017. A follow-up novella to From Here to Nashville is also in progress, as well as the next novel. Julie is a proud member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, The Society of Authors and The Alliance of Independent Authors.

Julie Stock’s links
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest

Julie Stock’s latest book
The Vineyard in Alsace is a contemporary romance, telling the story of Fran and Didier who have a second chance at love when she goes for a job on his vineyard. When fate throws them together again, will they be able to put the past behind them and forgive each other enough to build a new life together?
‘The Vineyard in Alsace’ by Julie Stock [UK: Clued Up Publishing]

What is a ‘Porridge & Cream’ book? It’s the book you turn to when you need a familiar read, when you are tired, ill, or out-of-sorts, where you know the story and love it. Where reading it is like slipping on your oldest, scruffiest slippers after walking for miles. Where does the name ‘Porridge & Cream’ come from? Cat Deerborn is a character in Susan Hill’s ‘Simon Serrailler’ detective series. Cat is a hard-worked GP, a widow with two children and she struggles from day-to-day. One night, after a particularly difficult day, she needs something familiar to read. From her bookshelf she selects ‘Love in A Cold Climate’ by Nancy Mitford. Do you have a favourite read which you return to again and again? If so, please send me a message here.

‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Bronte [UK: Penguin Classics]

Discover the ‘Porridge & Cream’ books of these authors:-
Tracey Sinclair
Laura Wilkinson
Rachel Dove

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Why does #romance author @wood_beez48 re-read JANE EYRE? https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3d2 via @SandraDanby #books

#BookReview ‘Girl in Trouble’ by Rhoda Baxter @RhodaBaxter #romance

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Funny, sad and believable: Girl in Trouble by Rhoda Baxter is the third in her Smart Girls series and, though some of the characters have cameo appearances throughout the series, can be read alone. Which is what I did, quickly, particularly enjoying the second half of the story. I was worried that the first chapter, in which we meet Olivia at a stag night, meant the book would be too chick lit for me but as the story progresses the themes become darker and complex. Olivia is thirty, relationship-phobic and surrounded by friends. She is quite independent, thank you very much and does not need a man to look after her. She has never been in love, never allowed herself to be in love and knows this dislike/distrust of men can be traced back to her father who left her and her mother when she was a child. She also has a health issue that makes pregnancy a big risk, though to be honest I was a little in the dark about the specifics of this. Instead she is a serial one-night girlfriend. When she falls accidentally pregnant, Olivia thinks the decision to have an abortion is straightforward and sensible. Of course life gets in the way, in two ways. Firstly her absent landlord Walter, who lives in the upstairs flat, returns home and is hot and funny and makes her feel comfortable in a cosy sexy way; a first for Olivia. And then her absent father arrives on her doorstep.
This is a fast-paced well-written novel which runs the gamut of emotions from chuckles to tears to pain. Relationships within broken families, as the years pass, are not simple and Baxter explores the unresolved tension and anger of Olivia and her mother Liz towards her father Trevor. Graham, her stepfather, has been a calm and loving influence on Olivia since her teens, but she only starts to appreciate this once Trevor returns to the scene. The father/daughter theme is echoed also in Walter’s storyline. His divorced wife Charlotte is to remarry and take their daughter, Emily, to live in America. Walter, absent because of work through many of Emily’s baby years, realises what he has missed just as he is about to lose it.
If you like your girls to be girly then Olivia does not fit that profile. She keeps her thoughts to herself and is quite complex in her behaviour. She does not want children and, in discussions with her friend Ruchi, the for/against options for abortion are explored with Ruchi, at first, unhappy at her friend’s viewpoint. So although the cover design is bright and cheerful, Girl in Trouble touches on some serious topics in a balanced and thoughtful manner. I would have liked to know more about Olivia’s work life as a solicitor though, in fact Walter’s career as a marine biologist is explained in much more detail.
If you’re going on holiday, or a long train journey, you will devour this.

Read my review of PLEASE RELEASE ME, also by Rhoda Baxter.

If you like this, try:-
‘Butterfly Barn’ by Karen Power
‘One Step Too Far’ by Tina Seskis
‘Stormy Summer’ by Suzy Turner

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview GIRL IN TROUBLE by Rhoda Baxter @RhodaBaxter http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2Wf via @SandraDanby

My Porridge & Cream read: Caroline James

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Today I’m delighted to welcome romance novelist Caroline James. Her ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is The Old Wives’ Tale by Arnold Bennett.

“First published in 1908 and set in the fictional town of Bursley in the Potteries, it traces the lives of two sisters, shy Constance and romantic Sophia, who are born into a secure world, supported by their parent’s drapery business.
Caroline James “I first discovered this book when I was a young girl working in London. My flat mates were into Jilly Cooper novels and couldn’t understand why I was reading such ‘an old book’. I was born close to the area where the narrative takes place and grew up on the borders of the five towns that comprise Stoke-on-Trent. As I read, I remember feeling that I was in a time warp, fantasising that I had walked the same streets as the sisters.

“I have always been in awe of Bennett’s writing. A male author who writes with such knowledge and clarity from a female perspective. The prose is exquisite and he makes every word count. Over the years, when far away from home, I re-read The Old Wives’ Tale. Despite being a period setting, written over a century ago, I am fondly reminded of the warmth and ways of Pottery folk, still retained today. Drawn to the book repeatedly, it feels like a hug from my mum. Bennett says, “No life is ever small to the person living it.” A phrase my mum might have said. The older I get the more this book speaks to me and reminds me to be respectful. Everyone was young once. Arnold Bennett is commemorated in the Stoke museum and I’ve studied his personal artefacts on many occasions, in awe of his brilliance and grateful that such an author is accessible to this day.”

Caroline James’ Bio
Caroline James has owned and run businesses encompassing all aspects of the hospitality industry – a subject that features in her novels. She is based in the UK and spends her time writing, climbing mountains and running a consultancy business. Caroline has a great fondness for the Caribbean and escapes to the islands whenever she can. She is a public speaker, reviewer and food writer and loves cooking and baking, especially cake.

Caroline James’ links
Twitter
Facebook
Website

Caroline James’ books
Set in Cumbria and Barbados, Coffee, Tea, The Caribbean & Me follows the lives of Jo and Hattie who are flying solo in their middle years. Is there hope for the newly single baby boomers and can romance happen? Join the pair as they romp into their future and prove that anything is possible. Coffee, Tea, The Caribbean & Me is an Amazon best-seller and a ‘Top Recommended Read’ by Thomson Holidays.
Read how Caroline researched her second novel, So You Think You’re A Celebrity…Chef?

‘Coffee, Tea, The Caribbean & Me’ by Caroline James [UK: Ramjam Publishing]

Discover the ‘Porridge & Cream’ books of these authors:-
Carol Cooper
Claire Dyer
Lev D Lewis

‘The Old Wives’ Tale’ by Arnold Bennett [UK: Churnet Valley Books]

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My Porridge & Cream read: Carol Cooper

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Today I’m delighted to welcome romance novelist Carol Cooper. Her ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is Please Don’t Eat the Daisies by Jean Kerr.

“My ‘Porridge and Cream’ book is Please Don’t Eat the Daisies by American writer Jean Kerr. First published in 1957, it is now out of print but a few copies are still available. I first read it in the 1960s, when I was perhaps about twelve. While I don’t remember the exact circumstances, it was my mother’s paperback copy, costing a princely 35 cents.
Carol Cooper I do recall that my mother and I had recently arrived in the United States and were living in a studio apartment in Washington, DC, while she struggled to make ends meet. The book is a series of articles on Jean Kerr’s life as a playwright and parent, and each of the pieces made me roar with laughter at a time when real life wasn’t that funny. When I first read the book, I found it hugely entertaining on such subjects as diets, doctors, family, fashion, moving house, and the rest of everyday suburban life. It was only decades later that I could identify with Kerr’s situation as a writer working from home, and as the harassed mother of irrepressible boys.

It’s the humour that draws me back to the book again and again. It’s still witty, and it’s amazing how little it has dated in the sixty years since it first appeared. A word of warning, though: the film and the TV series weren’t nearly as good.

I tend to pick up Please Don’t Eat the Daisies when I’m tired and want to shut out the world, but don’t feel up to a challenging read. As it’s a loose collection of essays, I can dip in anywhere in the book. Many passages I don’t even need to read. I can recite them verbatim.”

Carol Cooper’s Bio
Carol Cooper is a doctor, journalist, and author. She contributes to The Sun newspaper, broadcasts on TV and radio, and has a dozen non-fiction books to her name. Her debut novel One Night at the Jacaranda got her hooked on writing contemporary fiction. This year, Hampstead Fever was picked for a prestigious promotion in WH Smith travel bookshops around the UK. More fiction is on the way.

Carol Cooper’s books
It’s the sweltering summer of 2013 and the lives of six Londoners get complicated. As the temperature soars, they’re grappling with money worries, whining children, ailing parents, panic attacks, relationship woes, and temptations along the way. Emotions rise to boiling point, forcing decisions they could regret.
Hampstead Fever is a slice of multicultural London life to make you laugh, cry, and nod in recognition.
‘Hampstead Fever’ by Carol Cooper [UK: Hardwick Press]

Carol Cooper’s links
Website
‘Pills & Pillow-Talk’ blog
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram

‘Please Don’t Eat the Daisies’ by Jean Kerr [UK: Fawcett]

Discover the ‘Porridge & Cream’ books of these authors:-
Shelley Weiner
Catherine Hokin
Judith Field

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#BookReview ‘The Distant Hours’ by Kate Morton #contemporary #romance #WW2

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If ever there was a novel in which a house plays the role of a character, this is it. The Distant Hours by Kate Morton is told in two strands, World War Two and the Nineties, involving the three Blythe sisters in Kent at Milderhurst Castle and a South London mother and daughter, Meredith and Edie. They all are connected by the war, the house, and the truth of what really happened when Juniper Blythe was abandoned by her lover in 1941. This is a brick of a book [678 pages], like Morton’s other novels. A little too long for me, the story meanders at times through past and present until it works towards the final mystery. What a mystery, an ingenious storyline and an unpredictable final twist. The story starts when a letter arrives for Edie’s mother, a letter lost for decades, a letter dating from wartime when Meredith was a schoolgirl evacuated to Kent. Edie is fascinated by her mother’s history, but her mother does not talk of it. They are not close, and Edie feels unable to press for information. So she sets off to investigate on her own.
At the centre of the story is the house, and what a house it is: beautiful, crumbling, representative of a time past. When Edie visits the castle in 1992 for the first time, she thinks: ‘Have you ever wondered what the stretch of time smells like? I can’t say I had, not before I set foot inside Milderhurst Castle, but I certainly know now. Mould and ammonia, a pinch of lavender and a fair whack of dust, the mass disintegration of very old sheets of paper. And there’s something else, too, something underlying it all, something verging on rotten or stewed but not. It took me a while to work out what that smell was, but I think I know now. It’s the past.’ Living there, Edie finds the three Blythe sisters, alone after the death of their father.
Morton writes brilliantly about the war years, conjuring up life at this vast castle and in the village of the same name. Running throughout is a mysterious, ghostly, spooky thread based on Raymond Blythe’s best-selling book The True History of the Mud Man. ‘The moat has begun to breathe. Deep, deep, mired in the mud, the buried man’s heart kicks wetly.’
Is the book set at Milderhurst Castle? Is the Mud Man based on a true story? The book is yet another connection between Edie and the castle, she loved it as a child after being given a library copy when ill by her mother. And so the concentric circles tighten.

And here’s my review of another novel by Kate Morton:-
THE CLOCKMAKER’S DAUGHTER

If you like this, try these books with atmospheric houses:-
‘A Sudden Light’ by Garth Stein
‘A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom’ by John Boyne
‘The Other Eden’ by Sarah Bryant

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
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	#BookReview ‘The Sil… on #BookReview ‘The Stolen Heart…
	#BookReview ‘The Sto… on #BookReview ‘Murder at the Gra…
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SANDRA DANBY'S BOOK REVIEWS

Sharing thoughts on the books I read, new authors, favourite authors, classics re-visisted

Tag Archives: romance

#BookReview ‘The Love Letter’ by Lucinda Riley #romance #suspense

#BookReview ‘Our Friends in Berlin’ by Anthony Quinn #WW2

#BookReview ‘The Lost Letters of William Woolf’ by Helen Cullen @wordsofhelen #romance

A poem to read in the bath… ‘Along the field as we came by’

#BookReview ‘The Tea Planter’s Wife’ by Dinah Jefferies @DinahJefferies #romance

My Porridge & Cream read: Julie Stock

#BookReview ‘Girl in Trouble’ by Rhoda Baxter @RhodaBaxter #romance

My Porridge & Cream read: Caroline James

My Porridge & Cream read: Carol Cooper

#BookReview ‘The Distant Hours’ by Kate Morton #contemporary #romance #WW2

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