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Blog Tour The Theatre of Dreams - Rosie Travers Today I've hopped on the Blog Tour for The Theatre of dreams by Rosie Travers as invited by @rararesources This colourful and fascinating debut romantic novel sounds wonderful and I'd like to be one of the first to wish the Author great success with her new book set in the world of theatre. Purchase a copy from Amazon UK Here's what it's about to whet your appetite: The Blurb Musical theatre actress Tara is down on her luck and in desperate need of a job.  When terminally-ill octogenarian Kitty invites her to take over the running of her former dance academy in the old-fashioned resort of Hookes Bay, Tara thinks she’s found her guardian angel.  But it soon becomes very clear Kitty is being far from benevolent.  Too late, Tara realises helping Kitty will signal the end of an already tarnished career, unless she can pull off the performance of a life-time... The Author: Rosie Travers Find her website here Join her on Faceboo...

Still Me - Jojo Moyes - My review: I was lucky enough to win a copy in advance of publication from Penguin books and here are my thoughts after diving in. I'm a die-hard Jojo Moyes enthusiast, she writes such readable, fully immersive books and even though I usually prefer stand alone books rather than series, I loved Me before You so very much that not reading Still me just wasn't an option. Yet like many readers I knew in my heart it was never going to better the first book in this series. "Do I need to read book 2 before reading this?" seems to be a common thread regarding this book, and I will say "Hell Yeah - why on earth wouldn't you?" The 3 books ARE a trilogy, written in chronological order and You'll make a better connection with Lou's adventures in this book, if you have followed her story from the start. I loved meeting up with Lou Clark yet again and following her to New York where she puts her caring nature to work and follows the ad...

Tall Chimneys by Allie Cresswell Once in a while a book comes along whose description ticks all my boxes and Tall Chimneys is one such novel, so I was delighted to be offered the chance to take part in the blog tour organized by Rachels Random Resources Read on to read my review and an extract. Please join me by reading an enticing extract and please visit some of my fellow bloggers on this tour too. My Review Tall Chimneys is an engaging literary historical novel set in a rambling tumbledown old country house set in a remote dip in a brooding moorland setting which sets the perfect bucolic scene for this nostalgic tale with a dual time twist. With plenty of characters to dislike and the antiquity of the location it sets out to draw us into the baleful world of Tall Chimneys, a book about a house and the people who lived there. Almost as soon as I began reading this book I was reminded of The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. It has the same sombre, brooding, feel of time passing by beh...

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine - Gail Honeyman My thoughts This is one of those books which is pretty hard to categorize. It turned out to be not quite what I was expecting - but in a good way. I read a description which called it a laugh out loud comedy and this very nearly put me off! Yes it has some hilarious moments but mainly it is deeply emotional, with some quite dark moments and I was unable to completely put aside the fact that Eleanor is the way she is, as a survivor of something quite dreadful which is a very dark layer to the book. Eleanor is a wonderful quirky character, she never quite fits in, she won't conform, she sees the world differently to most people and behaves in unusual ways, reacting to everyday occurrences with bewilderment and inappropriate attitudes, she is lonely and isolated and in some ways is like an elderly woman in others like a newborn, very innocent and childlike. Her social graces aren't just lacking they are practically non existent. ...

Midnight Blue by Simone Van Der Vlugt Blog tour and review. Description: Amsterdam, 1654: following the sudden death of her husband, twenty-five year old Catrin leaves her small village and takes a job as housekeeper to the successful Van Nulandt merchant family. Her new life is vibrant and exciting in a city at the peak of its powers: commerce, science and art are flourishing and the ships leaving Amsterdam bring back exotic riches from the Far East. When an unwelcome figure from her past threatens her new life, Catrin flees to Delft. There, her painting talent earns her a chance to try out as a pottery painter. Slowly, the workshop begins to develop a new type of pottery to rival the coveted Chinese porcelain – and Delft Blue is born. But when tragedy strikes, Catrin has a hard choice to make. Rich and engrossing, Midnight Blue is perfect for fans of Tulip Fever and Girl with a Pearl Earring My Review: Every now and again a novel comes along that so clearly calls out to me it might b...

My review Secrets We Keep - Faith Hogan I wasn’t sure whether I’d love this book, described as romantic contemporary women’s fiction. Of late I find I’m not always enjoying this genre nearly as much as I did, once upon a time. But I needn’t have worried. Secrets we keep has completely renewed my faith in books written by women, for women, with a lot of heart and a good few twists along the way. This is so much more than Chick-lit it’s a very competent and compelling dual timeline of love and loss and heartache spanning the generations, set in a small seaside town in Ireland called Ballytokeep. It is in Ballytokeep that Kate arrives, world weary, tired after years in her successful job as a top London lawyer, looking for a change of pace, a place to calm her soul and put down roots, a place like Ballytokeep. She comes to stay with elderly distant relative Aunt Iris who, with husband Archie, runs a charming, if slightly faded, guesthouse in this seaside village which charms so many folk ...

Blog tour and Book Giveaway Before the Rains – Dinah Jefferies It would be hard to find a more richly descriptive and lavishly depicted book than Before the Rains. Every page bursts with opulent, evocative imagery, colour and vibrancy, including the beautiful cover and it is astonishingly, heart-warmingly, romantic. Dinah Jefferies is rapidly becoming my go-to author for vivid, plausible escapism. With her words she paints stunning exotic landscapes of epic proportions, which immerse the reader in past cultures, gently educating us about historic events, breaking our hearts a little, before wrapping us in the warmth of a passionate relationship. In Before the Rains, I was transported to India in the 1930s in the final days of the crumbling British Raj and instantly immersed in the spice laden, colourful, Indian culture, where I met Eliza, a recently widowed British woman of 28. Wanting to carve out her name as a photographer she accepts a position, through the British Government, to wo...