Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of The Bookshop Murder by Merryn Allingham. Set in the 1950s, The Bookshop Murder is the first in a new series for Allingham, set in a sleepy Sussex, seaside village and featuring Flora Steele, a bookshop owner, along with her sidekick, Jack Carrington, an antisocial crime writer who seemingly only enjoys his own company. Jack discovers a dead body in Flora’s bookshop and, after the police write the death off as natural causes, they investigate the death together. Along the way, there appear to be many suspects, but Flora and Jack, with the natural inquisitiveness needed, set out to discover what really happened. I found The Bookshop Murder fairly slow, to begin with, but to be honest, I find a lot of cosy mysteries begin this way and gradually become more fast-paced as we move through the story. I guess because of this; I wasn’t as invested quite as quickly as I usually like to be in a book. Howev...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of Welcome to Ferry Lane Market. I’ve read one of the Cockleberry Bay series and I know at the time I wanted to read more. However, for whatever reason, I just didn’t get around to it, so when the opportunity arose to read the first in Nicola May’s new series, I jumped at the chance. Ferry Lane Market will be just as successful as Cockleberry Bay and I will definitely, definitely be going back and reading the rest of the Cockleberry Bay books! Anyway, onto, Welcome to Ferry Lane Market...... Kara is a thirty-three-year-old who has lived all of her life in Hartmouth, Cornwall, Working on a floristry stall in Ferry Lane Market, since leaving school, she is very family-oriented and loves her Dad, her Grandad and her best friend Star. Dumping her cheating boyfriend, Jago, Kara slowly begins a new chapter in her life, starting with renting out her spare room to Airbnb guests. Then, mysterio...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thank you so much to the author, Mari Jane Law, for asking me to review Love & Pollination. I love a rom-com and it was a beautiful story to read in the sunshine, and definitely a 5 star read. Perdita Riley is experiencing some unfortunate setbacks in her life. At the beginning of the story, Perdita loses her job, but we are then taken back a few months to see her falling into the grasp of a man who only wants one thing, but a man that Perdita has lusted after for years. The story is then a continuation of the events which follow these episodes. Perdita describes events that happen in her life as ‘setbacks’ and ‘most humiliating experiences’, and numbers them all as they occur. As Law describes each one, you just know that whatever it is, Perdita will call it one or the other!  Perdita Riley reminded me of Eleanor Oliphant and I found similarities between the two characters. In my mind, Eleanor had some autistic traits, and Perdita, particularly with the strange nuanc...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thank you to NetGalley and HQ Digital for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of Dead Man’s Grave by Neil Lancaster. Dead Man’s Grave is the first in the series of the DS Max Craigie books and the first Neil Lancaster novel I have had the pleasure to read, and it was a real page-turner. I sort of wanted to get to the end because I needed to know what happened, and I didn’t, as I didn’t want it to end!  ‘This grave can never be opened’. The inscription on the gravestone is just the first mystery we are faced with, and they just keep on coming. Max Craigie and Janie Calder are detectives with Police Scotland, and they discover the first murder victim but are quickly taken off the case as corruption within the force becomes clear. A feud that began in the 1800s has led to the first murder...but will there be more? Craigie and Calder go rogue, as they begin to investigate the goings-on, unofficially. As a police procedural novel, Lancaster has nailed it (unsurprisingly thou...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thank you to NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of The Secret Path by Karen Swan. Wow! Just wow! I adore Karen Swan’s novels and I couldn’t wait to read The Secret Path, her latest release, and I wasn’t disappointed. It had everything I expected from her, several plot, twists and turns and a bit of romance thrown in too. What more could you want? Tara Tremain was living the life she’d always wanted, studying as a Medical Student in London and besotted by her boyfriend, Alex. However, when Alex suddenly betrays her, she is forced to move on without him. Skip 10 years and she is now a Consultant Surgeon and seemingly happy with Rory. The story takes a sudden twist when Tara and her friends and family take a trip to Costa Rica and in the space of a few days, her life is upended. Swan immerses you in the story she is telling, transporting you onto the Costa Rican beaches and deep into the Costa Rican jungle as we journey along with Tara on her a...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of The Therapist by Helene Flood. Sara is a Psychologist and Sigurd is an architect, and they are living in a house that has been gifted to them by Sigurd’s mother when her father (Sigurd’s grandfather died). Needing a great deal of renovation, the house is in a bit of a state, to say the least, but work has halted due to lack of funds and because Sigurd is so busy at work. One morning Sigurd kisses Sara goodbye and heads off for a weekend away with his friends...never to return!  The novel follows the police investigation, which arises after Sigurd’s disappearance and we become involved with Sara’s life as she becomes paranoid that someone is breaking into her house and following her as she tries to continue with her life. Throughout the story, we are introduced to Sara’s sister Annika, who is there for her every step of the way, and their father, who appears to be somewhat of a myster...