New Release Book Review: Aria’s Travelling Book Shop by Rebecca Raisin

Oh, I simply loved this book, last year Rebecca Raisin released Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop which I absolutely loved too and it made me want to up and travel in my own van. In Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop we met Aria who became Rosie’s best friend and who has a travelling book shop called the Little Bookshop of Happy Ever After, which I absolutely love, isn’t that a fabulous name! Aria’s bookshop van is one of my dreams. We also met Max who has a green food van and is in love with Rosie (the feeling is quite mutual).

This time Aria, Rosie and Max are off to France to travel to the many different fairs and events. I absolutely adored my time travelling with these three and even though I haven’t been to the places they visit, Rebecca Raisin does such a good job of describing them, I could see myself there.

Aria is a widow and has sworn off love, she promised her husband TJ that she would never fall in love again. Aria has a connection with a man she met briefly the summer before, Jonathan, who pops back into her life just as she is leaving the UK. This sets Aria off on an emotional journey of discovering what it is she wants and needs in her life and is a promise she made to her dying husband one she should keep or does she need to move on to be happy. I could really feel how torn Aria was about her feelings towards TJ and towards Jonathan, add to that unresolved issues with her mother-in-law and Aria’s confusion is palpable.

I loved the character of Jonathan who keeps popping up in Aria’s life on her travels through France and I was so hoping Aria could come to terms with her situation and allow herself to fall in love again. There are several scenes between Jonathan and Aria that provided me with a good giggle, Aria’s character can be hilarious at times.

I kept saying I was going to put this book down as the clock ticked closer to 11pm, but in the end, I had to keep reading and discover how it all turned out.

There was of course, the unlikeable character, Tori, who I don’t remember from the first book, but I’m pretty sure if I did I would have disliked her just as much as I did in this book. She’s one of those people out to cause trouble for anyone who might have something she doesn’t.

It was wonderful to reconnect with Rosie and Max again, I simply love their characters and I love the friendship they both have with Aria, they are each other’s family as well as best friends. The support they give each other throughout the story is completely real and their friendship provided me with lots of laughs, they are all such different kinds of characters but they work so well together.

I absolutely invite you to take a journey with Aria and her friends and I really hope there is more to come from this group of van-lifers.

Thanks to NetGalley and HQ Digital for a digital copy of this novel in return for an honest review.

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#AWW2020 24/50

New Release Book Review & Release Blitz: The Rich Boy by Kylie Scott

I’m a fan of Kylie Scott’s romance novels, they are all very different and you never know what you are going to get with each new book. This time she gives us a leading man, Beck who is a very likable busboy when we meet him, only he isn’t quite who he is pretending to be. He expresses an interest in Alice, a waitress at the bar where he is working. She’s a very down to earth girl who is exactly who she seems to be, and I think that is a big part of Beck’s attraction to her.

I’m not a big fan of the billionaire trope, but this is different from some of the other books I’ve read.

Alice, after going against her initial doubt about trusting Beck, falls hard and is drawn into the world he has been running from, knowing nothing about what she is about to encounter. It turns out Beck is rich, very rich, and now Alice is under the microscope of Beck’s family members.

I thought that Alice, despite initially thinking she wasn’t the right kind of girl for Beck, shows how strong she really is and how she believes in who she is and is unwilling to change too much because of this rich family’s expectations. I really liked the way she stood up to Beck when different things came to light throughout the story, I liked that she stood her ground and made him reassess what it was he wanted and who he wanted to be.

Beck was lovely, but growing up in his messed up family has left him emotionally stunted and he has no real idea what will make someone like Alice happy. If you’ve always seen money as a way of buying the people around you, you would find it hard to understand what drives a normal everyday person.

I enjoyed watching all the family relationships change, mainly due to Alice’s influence on those around her. I especially liked how she got the better of Beck’s evil old grandmother. While Alice and Beck’s relationship wasn’t an easy ride, it was an enjoyable one, there were moments I thought, she should let him loose, but was glad that she didn’t in the end.

Thanks to Social Butterfly Pr for a digital copy of this novel in return for an honest review.

About the book:

“Rich Boy takes you on a literal ride! Funny. Angsty. It’s a definite recommendation from me! – Tijan, New York Times bestselling author

The Rich Boy, an all-new slow-burn standalone with white-hot chemistry and witty banter from New York Times bestselling author Kylie Scott, is out now!

I’m the type of girl who’s given up on fairy tales. So when Beck – the hot new busboy at work – starts flirting with me, I know better than to get my hopes up. Happily ever afters aren’t for the average. I learned that the hard way.

But how can I be expected to resist a man who can quote Austen, loves making me laugh, and seems to be everything hot and good in this world?

Only there’s so much more to him than that.

Billionaire playboy? Check.

Troubled soul? Check.

The owner of my heart, the man I’ve moved halfway across the country to be with, who’s laying the world at my feet in order to convince me to never leave? Check. Check. Check.

But nobody does complicated like the one percent.

This is not your everyday rags-to-riches, knight-in-shining armor whisking the poor girl off her feet kind of story. No, this is much messier.

Download your copy today!

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About Kylie

Kylie is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author. She was voted Australian Romance Writer of the year, 2013, 2014 & 2018, by the Australian Romance Writer’s Association and her books have been translated into eleven different languages. She is a long time fan of romance, rock music, and B-grade horror films. Based in Queensland, Australia with her two children and husband, she reads, writes and never dithers around on the internet.

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#AWW2020 14/50

New Release: The Mistletoe Mistress by Maddison Michaels

Maddison Michaels has written her first novella The Mistletoe Mistress as part of a Christmas compilation Once Upon A Christmas Wedding, it is part of the Saints and Scoundrels series and occurs before book 1. I love the two novels in this series so was eager to be able to read this novella.

While I would have loved for this to be a full-length novel, Maddison has done a good job of letting us get to know the two main characters, Michael and Holly.

I always enjoy the headstrong female characters in Maddison Michaels’ stories and Holly is no exception. Holly has come up with a scheme to keep herself and her sisters safe without the help or need of a man, if society found out there would be a massive scandal. Michael is known as a scoundrel, but underneath there is far more to him than that.

Michael and his scoundrel friends make a bet that has both Michael and Holly questioning what it is they both want and what they will do with the secrets they are both keeping. I really enjoyed the push/pull relationship that they had going, especially since they’d know each other from childhood and both had feelings that neither wanted to admit even all the way back then, this same dynamic rears its head when they meet again as adults.

A really enjoyable short historical romance read.

I’m sure that all the stories in this compilation will be just as enjoyable as this one, so grab a copy today.

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Blog Tour: Faded by Diana Nixon

FADED – the 4th and the FINAL story from Shattered Series by Diana Nixon.

***All the books from the series can be read as standalones.***

Synopsis:

Our love was hopeless. Our future – nonexistent. Still, we let the attraction win.
Two young hearts, too naive to believe that love was just a game. We let it consume us, we let it destroy us…
And then, there was nothing but the pain, endless, burning.
For years, I’ve been trying to forget about Jeffrey Coleman’s existence. The son of my worst enemy… Falling for him was a mistake from the very beginning. I did my best to cross him out of my life. And now, I’m standing at his door, ready to beg him to help me…
“There are only two times that I want to share with you: now and forever…”

PRE-ORDER on Amazon for $0.99!!!

Read Prologue + Chapter One on Wattpad!

About the Author:

Diana Nixon is an International bestselling author of contemporary and fantasy romances. A Master of Law, she never thought she would betray the world of law and dive into fiction. But once her first book – Love Lines – was published, she realized that writing was her true passion. Since then, she has written more than 20 books. She can’t imagine her life without her fictional characters and she never stops thinking about the new storylines that haunt her dreams. She’s married and has two daughters – her biggest source of inspiration. She loves music, traveling, coffee and chocolate. She believes that writing is the best cure for everything that can be healed with words.

Diana Nixon’s books are being translated into Spanish, German, Russian, French, Portuguese and Italian.

Diana Nixon is the founder of Inks and Scratches, a literary magazine intended to help authors of all genres find readers and spread the news about their writing all over the world.

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Release Blitz: Closer by Kylie Scott

When a stalker gets too close to plus-size model Mae Cooper, it’s time to hire some muscle.

Closer, an all-new standalone novella in the fan favorite Stage Dive Series from New York Times bestselling author Kylie Scott and 1001 Dark Nights, is available now!

Enter former military man turned executive protection officer Ziggy Thayer. Having spent years guarding billionaires, royalty, and rock n roll greats, he’s seen it all. From lavish parties through to every kind of excess.

There’s no reason some Instagram stylista should throw him off his game. Even if she does have the most dangerous curves he’s ever seen…

**Every 1001 Dark Nights novella is a standalone story. For new readers, it’s an introduction to an author’s world. And for fans, it’s a bonus book in the author’s series. We hope you’ll enjoy each one as much as we do.**

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Book Bingo Round 18 & Book Review – Spoilt For Love by Monique Mulligan

Book Bingo time came round too fast for me this fortnight, I’m halfway through a nonfiction book I was reading for the Themes of culture square, but I’ve managed to find one for a different square on short notice. Last night I read a novelette by Australian author Monique Mulligan called Spoilt For Love. So I’m using this to mark off a really easy square, since the majority of my reading is indeed Written by an Australian Woman, this square has been waiting for me to use as my wildcard.

This was a very short and sweet read, with characters I really enjoyed meeting. In the town of Heart Springs, Maggie, the owner of a travel agency, sees a guy she missed her chance with 6 years previously in Glasgow, everywhere she turns, until one day she turns around and there he really is. Rafe was a delightful leading man and I was rooting for him and Maggie from the sidelines during this short read. It only took about 45 minutes to read, so it’s bite-sized, but Monique Mulligan has still managed to pack in plenty to make this an enjoyable love story. For those who don’t believe in destiny, this story shows perhaps it really is a thing.

Book Review: Heart of the Grass Tree by Molly Murn

I bought this book, firstly because of the gorgeous cover and then because I loved the sound of the story. After I bought it a friend gave it a bad review and I so hoped that we just had a differing of opinions on this book. I’m happy to say we did!

This is a beautifully written book, the writing is almost poetic and I found myself reading slower than normal to absorb it. It took a while to get used to the writing and the way the author has decided to forgo using speech marks around the dialogue. By the end of the book though, I barely noticed.

This story consists of three timelines, three very different times, all connected through generations. I knew nothing of Kangaroo Island before reading this book, and certainly nothing of the sealers and the way they stole aboriginal women from their families. Interestingly one of the next books to read on my pile is also about the sealers.

It’s not a book in which a great deal of action happens, but a book about feeling, belonging and emotions, about loss and life and death, about family. Its a beautiful but sad story, leaving us with hope and greater understanding at the end.

I had so much empathy for Nell, my heart broke as I read her story, the secrets she’s held close all her life, finally being freed through her writing. Through Nell we learn of the people generations before who have formed the foundation of the island and are part of the land and Nell’s past. Decisions made outside of Nell’s control many years before have had a waterfall effect on her daughter and her granddaughters.

Pearl, one of her granddaughters, I also felt a connection to, she was the closest person to to Nell and when we meet her she is struggling to deal with Nell’s passing as well as inner struggles of her own. So much inner turmoil is conveyed I could physically feel her heart breaking.

Such descriptive language is used throughout this story, that I could see myself there on Kangaroo Island through the ages, I could smell the air and feel the wind and see the plants. I was the women, all the women of the different times.

I am glad I took a chance on this unknown book and debut author and will be looking for Molly Murn’s next book.

About the book: Pearl remembers Nell’s feet stretched towards the campfires on the beach, her fourth toe curled in and nestled against the middle toe like a small prawn. They all have a curled fourth toe – Diana, Lucy, Pearl.

When Pearl’s grandmother Nell dies unexpectedly, Pearl and her family – mother Diana, sister Lucy – return to Kangaroo Island to mourn and farewell her. Each of them knew Nell intimately but differently, and each woman must reckon with Nell’s passing in her own way. But Nell had secrets, too, and as Pearl, Diana and Lucy interrogate their feelings about the island, Pearl starts to pull together the scraps Nell left behind – her stories, poems, paintings – and unearths a connection to the island’s early history, of the early European sealers and their first contact with the Ngarrindjeri people.
As the three women are in grief pulled apart from each other, Pearl’s deepening connection to their history, the island’s history, grounds her, and will ultimately bring the women back to each other.
Heart of the Grass Tree is an exquisite, searing and hope-filled debut about mothers and daughters and family stories, about country and its living history.

Book Review New Release: Only a Breath Apart by Katie McGarry

This book certainly had me on a roller-coaster of an emotional ride. There were times I didn’t think my heart could take much more and I had to put the book down and take a deep breath before I could go on. I said to my coworker that books based on reality aren’t always fun, but that is why they are also important for us to read. Stories like this one, allow us to walk in other people’s shoes, and allow for empathy and understanding of situations that we would otherwise have no knowledge of ourselves.

Katie McGarry has done a great job of portraying Jesse and Scarlett, two teenagers who are broken, both need to heal and they need each other to do the healing. Both come from physically and emotionally abusive homes. They both have mothers who don’t put themselves or their children first, who blame themselves or their children for the abuse the men in their lives inflict, rather than blaming the person doing the abusing.

In this day and age I believe stories like this are very important in letting teenagers who have been through or who are going through these sorts of things, know that they are not alone, that they can seek help, it’s not their fault that someone in their life is abusive. It’s important that they know they can survive, and they deserve more. They learn that its OK to tell someone about the abuse, that it’s not right and it needs to stop being a secret.

I loved Jesse and Scarlett, they were messed up and afraid, but still strong, especially for the other. This is a book about abuse, but also about love and hope and trust. I loved how their relationship grew once they reconnected, how it taught them both things about themselves as well as each other.

Glory was a favourite character, she was quirky and she was so full of love for these young adults who needed her to give them a helping hand in freeing themselves from their emotional prisons as well as their physical ones. Whether she was psychic or not, she definitely had plenty of insight into what they both needed and her interference in their lives was definitely a catalyst for change.

I thought Pastor Hughes was a great character, he had a wonderful way of dealing with these two broken teens who needed someone on their side. Marshall also turned out to be a character I admired, and he definitely showed Jesse how much he could be counted on.

I definitely recommend this novel 4.5⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan – Tor Teen for a copy of this novel.

About this book: Bestselling author Katie McGarry’s trademark wrong-side-of-the-tracks romance is given a new twist in the gritty YA contemporary novel, Only a Breath Apart.

Jesse Lachlin is cursed.

So the town folklore says, but while Jesse’s had his fair share of tragedy, the only curse he believes is in his grandmother’s will: in order to inherit his family farm he must win the approval of his childhood best friend, the girl he froze out his freshman year, Scarlett Copeland.

Scarlett Copeland is psychic.

Glory Gardner tells Scarlett she has hidden psychic abilities, but Scarlett thinks Glory is delusional. What is real is Scarlett’s father’s irrational fears, controlling attitude, and the dark secrets at home. Scarlett may have a way to escape, but there’s a hitch: she’ll have to rely on the one person she used to trust, the same boy who broke her heart, Jesse Lachlin.

Each midnight meeting pushes Jesse and Scarlett to confront their secrets and their feelings for each other. But as love blooms, the curse rears its ugly head…