For a reader who is not that into Jane Austen I seem to have read or plan to read ones by authors who obviously have a fondness for Jane that I have not been able to engender within myself.
This one I have in audiobook and I plan to listen to it next. I’ve never read anything before by Natalie Jenner but have seen some good reviews for this book.
I listened to Recipe for Persuasion a little while ago and really enjoyed it.
Unmarriageable is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice. Another audiobook in my play list all ready to go.
I read Ayesha at Last in 2019 and really enjoyed it as well. Another Pride and Prejudice retelling.
I read Pride Prejudice and Other Flavours last year as well and really enjoyed it. It follows up the other book I mentioned above by Sonali Dev.
It looks like Pride and Prejudice is the favourite book authors pick.
It’s no secret I love this series and this book was filled with the beauty and compassion Nalini Singh brings to this pay/changeling series.
Such an inspiring memoir and narrated so well by herself.
Loved the characters, the garden, the writing.
A Week in Winter. 11hrs 34 min. Narrated by Caroline Lennon. Added to my library 2019. The Sheedy sisters had lived in Stone House for as long as anyone could remember. Set high on the cliffs on the west coast of Ireland, overlooking the windswept Atlantic ocean, it was falling into disrepair – until one woman, with a past she needed to forget, breathed new life into the place. Now a hotel, with a big, warm kitchen and log fires, it provides a welcome few can resist.
The Idea of You. 10hrs. Narrated by the author. Added to my library in 2017. With her 40th birthday approaching, Lucy Carpenter dares to hope that she finally has it all: a wonderful new husband, Jonah, a successful career and the chance of a precious baby of her own. Life couldn’t be more perfect.
The Sun Sister. 26 hrs 14 min. Narrated by Weruche Opia, Sophie Roberts. Added 2020. To the outside world, Electra D’Aplièse seems to be the woman with everything: as one of the world’s top models, she is beautiful, rich and famous.
Code Name Hélène: The White Mouse. 17hrs 17min. Narrated by Barrie Kreinik and Peter Ganim. Added 2020. In 1936 Nancy Wake is living in Paris after bluffing her way into a job as a foreign correspondent and witnessing firsthand the terror of Hitler’s rise in Europe, firing her determination to do anything she could to fight the Nazis. When Nancy falls unexpectedly in love with handsome French industrialist and playboy Henri Fiocca in Marseilles, no sooner has she agreed to become Mrs Fiocca than the Germans invade France and Nancy takes yet another name, a code name – the first of many.
The Hideaway. 15hrs 45 min. Narrated by January LaVoy. Added 2020. Caitlyn Sullivan is just nine years old when a game of hide-and-seek at a family party will change her life forever.
At present I am reading and really enjoying this first one at the moment. Almost finished. The heroine lost her mother when she was very young and was brought up by a very ungracious aunt. Her heart is hungry for family. Jack is the Dad of two girls who lost their mother a year ago. One of the girls takes to Flora but Izzy, the other daughter, has huge issues and there is tension. The author’s intention I would hazard a guess at is to model really good openness and discussion within relationships.
This one explores what happens when a young aunt takes on the care of two nieces while there Dad is in a submarine and their mother is missing. And within the book there is mystery, shocks and an absorbing family story.
A single mother and her son and three children wo have been abandoned by their mother and their father is a wreck. Can a new blended family form?
For the Guinness family a happy ending looks out of reach. Olly and Mae’s marriage is crumbling, their teenage daughter Evie is on a mission to self-destruct and their beloved Pops is dying of cancer. Their once strong family unit is slowly falling apart. Yes that is the opening and it sure just is a wonderful journey of family.
It is complicated family relationships at its best. It made me waver back and forth about all the characters – did I like them, did I agree with them, could I accept them for all their flaws? Final verdict is that I did hold them in my heart – wept at times and smiled at times. Cheered them on.
This series started out in the 1980’s and they were in our shops and so accessible to me. I read them all except for the last one which didn’t seem to be that successful. I don’t have this book any longer but three of the later ones I do.
I read a number of books by this author, not sure how I came to find out about them. Usually romance and mystery with a Catholic/religious flavour. Haven’t read one for years, should try one to see how I go with them these days.
We watch the unlikely friendship of a ninety two year old woman – Mrs G, and Raymond a seventeen year old, develop. And its a meaty friendship – genuine and full of caring. I loved both these characters and how they related to each other. Mrs G is blind, she has lived a full life and has a lot of wisdom. But she is in need of help big time. Raymond is a lonely seventeen year old – one who feels he has never been “seen” or understood. Mrs G really sees him! Loved this relationship.
In One Summer in Paris we see the friendship between Grace – in her forties and a teen Audrey. Grace has come to Paris to escape the fact her husband has left her for a “new version” about the same age as their daughter! Audrey has come to escape the alcoholism disease that her mother has. Due to various circumstances they form a great friendship that helps both of them move forwards in their lives. Loved the two of them, loved the book.
The beautiful friendship that develops between Arthur and Maddy. An old man who visits his wife at the cemetery every day, and Maddy an eighteen year old teen who really is very alone.
There’s more than friendship in this book, but.. there is some examples of wonderful, positive friendship. Especially the one that develops between Gray and Diana. Gray is divorced and 34. Diana is about 40 and is really down on her luck. Diana ends up working for Gray who is a reasonably wealthy woman who needs some good organisation and Diana is your one. They both have big challenges in life but the bond that forms between them, moves each of them forwards and into what is likely to be a life long friendship.
I’ve mentioned this book before in terms of an author I now want to read everything he writes. But here I want to mention the theme of friendship where it makes a huge difference in some lives. It’s between an old woman and a young child and the old woman and the little girls parents. I really loved seeing how it all developed.
Well mainly because I picked it up at NetGalley so I now have it to read and review. It’s a complicated family story and I enjoy those.
This was already on my TBR. Yes its another WW2 book. But I’ve already read a brief short story of this woman who was a spy in France. She was born in New Zealand and grew up in Australia. So that’s all the read on I need.
This is another historical fiction book. It’s set in England just after WW2. A group of disparate people come together to save Jane Austen’s home and legacy. Sounds interesting.
A romance writer who no longer believes in love. And a literary writer who happily kill of his cast. Hmm they meet and what happens next?
I read a book review of this on Mary’s blog 
My niece Amanda recommended this book to me as it was one of Jojo Moyes books she really liked. It is historical fiction and tells the story of a group of women travelling from Australia to England to join the men they had married from Britain during the war years. All I can say is they were very courageous and the trip was not easy. Some got telegrams mid sail saying they were not wanted and they were put off the ship to be returned home at the next port. At times I found It dragged for me, but on the whole I found it insightful and well worth the read. I am already a Jojo Moyes fan but only picked this book up because Amanda had enjoyed it.
This book was first recommended by Elizabeth at 
At first I passed this by on NetGalley but then I read Katherine’s review over at
Alix E. Harrow.
Sofie Ryan.
Emma Hannigan.
