Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of False Witness by Karin Slaughter. I haven’t read many thrillers before now and this is the first Karin Slaughter novel I have read, however, it won’t be the last. I was hooked from beginning to end! Leigh Collier works as a defence attorney in Atlanta, Georgia and is called on by her boss to defend Andrew Tenant in court. Accused of violent rape, Andrew isn’t a stranger to Leigh and very quickly she is thrown into the past as she remembers what happened while she was growing up. Leigh has a younger sister, Callie, and the story is told throughout from both their viewpoints. Leigh has made a success of her life, married with a teenage daughter and has a rewarding career. However, Callie takes drugs, is living in sleazy motels, and takes what she can from wherever she can. I don’t want to give too much away in my description of the book, as for me, that spoils it and a lot of reviews...

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of The Guilty Wife by Alison James. Pippa calls off her wedding to Alistair just hours before they were due at the Registry Office, and not wanting to face the music, she goes on their honeymoon to Mauritius, on her own, just to escape. She realises that there is another person on their own and she makes the acquaintance of Jim Cardle. Meanwhile, Tansy and Dan and Nikki and Arne are also on their honeymoon at the same resort, and over the next few days, their lives become mysteriously intertwined. Alison James takes the reader all around the world, travelling from London to Australia, Mauritius and Thailand, describing all these locations in such great detail that I almost believed I was there. The story briefly covers the Tsunami in Thailand on Boxing Day 2004 and, knowing someone that was caught up in the disaster (but thankfully survived), it was quite harrowing to read those parts. I found the...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of The English Girl by Sarah Mitchell. The English Girl begins at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin in 1989, as the wall is coming down.  Tiffany travels from West to East with a letter in her hand and only an address to begin her search for someone important. Most of the book takes place in 1946/47 in Norfolk, at the end of the Second World War.  German soldiers in a Prisoner of War camp are being used to clear mines and make the beaches safe and the book centres around the camp and the people who are helping to run it.  Fran begins work in the office in the camp and quickly meets and falls for Thomas, one of the German prisoners.   Fraternising with a German is strictly against the law, and so Fran and Thomas have to hide their love for each other from everyone else but continue to see each other at any snatched opportunity they can.  Only time will tell whether there i...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐When the weather is sunny and I’m pottering around the garden, and if the story is addictive I can get through an 11-hour Audiobook in a couple of days and The Bird in the Bamboo Cage by Hazel Gaynor (read by Imogen Church and Rosie Jones) was one of these.   Set in China during the Second World War,  just as the Japanese declared war on the Allies, The Bird in the Bamboo Cage is primarily told from the points of view of two characters, ten-year-old Nancy Plummer and her teacher, Elspeth Kent.  The story begins at Chefoo school, an international missionary school, where the children are happy and well cared for, but as war is declared they are first invaded by Japanese soldiers who watch their every move, and they are then uprooted from what they know and feel safe with and moved to an internment camp, where punishment is high, and the Japanese soldiers enjoy making people suffer. The story follows the teachers and children of Chefoo school as they embark on a tortur...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of Secrets of Magpie Cove by Kennedy Kerr. Lila leaves London and her ex-boyfriend behind to begin a new life and a new career in Cornwall. Whilst undertaking a college course to become a patissier, Lila works part-time in Serafina’s cafe in Magpie Cove and is enjoying getting to know the locals and spending time with Oliver - her new friend at college. However, after Serafina sadly passes away, her son Nathan inherits the cafe and some decisions that he is making just don’t sit well with Lila. I loved Secrets of Magpie Cove and although I haven’t read the first book in the series, this really didn’t matter. I will definitely put it on my TBR list though. Kennedy Kerr reminds me of Liz Fenwick in her writings and transports you into the lives of the characters from the outset. With her descriptions of the pastries that Lila is learning to cook, she made my mouth water many times! Serafina helped s...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I bought ‘This is Going to Hurt’ during lockdown 1.0 in 2020 but I’ve only just got around to reading it (the dilemma of having too many books to choose from)!  Having worked in the NHS for 25 years as a Receptionist/Secretary and Personal Assistant, I thought it would be interesting to see what Adam Kay went through as a junior doctor.   Adam Kay wrote snatched entries into his secret diaries whenever he had a chance, ‘after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends.  Beginning when he got his first post as a House Officer through to when he quit medicine as a Senior Registrar.  Throughout his stories, he holds nothing back, being totally honest about what he thinks of the NHS, his colleagues and his patients.  For anyone who thinks a doctor has things easy and gets paid a lot, and for anyone who doesn’t work in the NHS (and those who do) - read this book - I think you will be surprised. I loved the honesty Adam brings to his diaries and I’m gues...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. When the opportunity came my way to read and review an ARC of the first in a paranormal series, I jumped at the chance.  Give Me Books Promotions sent me a copy of Beta's Bane by Liv James and it is absolutely outstanding, as the author's debut novel I am only hoping she continues to write more! Cam and Brodie are brothers, born to Cecily, who was the Alpha of the Ridgeway pack.  Cam steps into his mother's shoes and becomes the new pack Alpha, with Brodie as his Beta.  The Pathway is the route that Wolf Shifters take when their souls pass from one world into the next and must be protected.   Liv James's story follows Brodie as he attempts to claim his fated mate, Iris, but will his brother's new law prevent them from being together? Different squads form the Ridegway pack, with Squad Leaders in charge of their own team.  They work together, training with other warriors from around the world, to protect the Pathway.  Once I became familiar with...

⭐⭐⭐⭐  20th Victim is my first James Patterson novel and part of the Women’s Murder Club series.   I listened to it as an Audiobook,  narrated by January LaVoy and borrowed from Borrowbox. I enjoyed it but I think James Patterson is probably better to read as a physical book rather listened to as an Audiobook - it got slightly confusing for me - it doesn’t take much these days though!  Having read other reviews of James Patterson's books it appears that once again I’m late to the party, and, as this is one of his more recent books I am convinced that they can only get better as I go backwards. Predominantly the dominant story is about three victims, in three cities at the same time with Sergeant Lindsay Boxer as the investigating officer.  There are a couple of other subplots which don’t seem to have any relevance to the story but I guess everyone has a life outside of their job, with friends and family who are connected with the protagonist and this is what...

⭐⭐⭐⭐. Thank you to NetGalley, Canongate and Black Thorn for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of The Cursed Girls by Caro Ramsay. What is the Melvick Curse?  It seems that lives begin to deteriorate for anyone who gets involved with the Melvick family.  Melissa is the eldest daughter, and she’s dying, Megan, the youngest, is deaf and people think she’s mad.  Their mother disappeared. And whatever happened to Megan’s best friend? Megan returns to her childhood family home, the Melvick Estate, to say goodbye to her dying sister.  But once there she finds it hard to leave, people around Megan are doing their utmost to make her stay, but why? I found The Cursed Girls slow, to begin with, but it soon became a book I just couldn’t wait to get to the end of - for all the good reasons!  Caro Ramsay is brilliant at keeping you guessing throughout the story and it will keep you guessing as to what will happen next.  There were many times throughout the book w...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. In Septemb er 2021 we have a 5-week road trip booked in America, flying to Atlanta, Georgia and travelling South, then West, then North a bit and finally East, back to Atlanta!  Whether this will happen in September 2021 remains to be seen as currently (June 2021) we still aren’t allowed to travel there from the UK.   Never mind, we will get there eventually, I tell myself!  If you are reading this and there is also a post on this blog for the trip, then we made it at some point!  In the meantime I thought I would get myself in the mood, so we watched BBC1’s ‘Stephen Fry in America’ and I decided to listen to the audiobook too. In his own inimitable style, with wry humour and enthusiasm, Stephen tells us of his journey across the 50 (or 51 - I’m still not sure) states of the United States of America in an English, black taxi cab, collecting fridge magnets as he goes!   Stephen meets and talks to fascinating people, views wondrous landscapes and ...