Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

The Only One Left was chosen as our book club book for October, and the date which was set for the discussion was the same date as the murders took place at Hope Mansion... This book has more twists and turns than the twistiest rollercoaster in the world! From about three-quarters of the way in, there were just more and more and more, and I didn’t see any of them coming! Nope! Not one! The descriptions are vivid, and the atmosphere throughout is dark and tense. I could feel all the creaks of the house, and the crashing of the waves as they battered against the rocks below. This is my first book by Riley Sager. I have heard so many good things about him that I was glad I had the opportunity to read this one.  Yes, there were things that maybe shouldn’t have been possible, but none of these were things I thought too much about as I was reading. Go with the flow. Don’t worry too much about what might have happened in real life, and just lose yourself in the book. That’s what I did and...

This weekend I headed off to Ferry Lane Market to mingle with my favourite bunch of market traders and the newcomer amongst them, Sabrina Swift. Or as she introduces herself, plain old Jilly Dickens. Sabrina, for good reason, is hiding from her real life in London and just wants to mingle with normal people and fit in with her new friends. I love, love, love this series from Nicola May. Each book follows a different character, and with each story I read, I just fall more in love with everyone (well, almost everyone) who lives in Hartmouth. To be honest, I wasn’t sure about Sabrina at first, and it wasn’t until she decided to take on a Ferry Lane Market stall herself that I began to warm to her. But then she becomes another Nicola May character who fits in so well with all the others, and I was hooked. Of course, from that moment on, I wanted her to be happy, to find a man and a new life where she’s appreciated. Does all that happen? You’ll have to read it to find out. This latest stunn...

Stella has come home for Christmas, not expecting to find that her sister has run off to get married and Henry, a man she once loved, has returned to Leiper’s Fork, but he’s a different man from the one she once knew. I’m a sucker for a Christmas book, no matter the time of year. I mean, who doesn’t want to read about Christmas parades, snow falling, and cookies and hot chocolate, even if it’s sunny outside? (It wasn’t, by the way)! I really enjoyed this latest offering from Jenny Hale and immersed myself in the comings and goings in Leiper’s Fork. Jenny writes as though she’s right there, in the scenes she’s describing and I imagined myself being there too, soaking up the wonderful Christmas spirit under the cosy smell of the pine trees at the heart of a fun-filled, people-packed place which is actually called Christmas. When Henry left Stella a message to say ‘Meet Me at Christmas’ I wanted to go along with her to get away from ‘Storm Babet’ which ripped its way through the UK this w...

I love a book with a vampire theme, whether dark and gory or cute and fun. This one fell into the latter category and was a quick, easy-going read. Frederick is our vampire, and he simply doesn’t have a clue. He doesn’t have a clue how to dress in the twenty-first century; he doesn’t know how to order a cup of coffee and doesn’t know anything about the internet at all! Cassie and Frederick made me laugh throughout the book. Between them, they get up to all sorts of scrapes and somehow have to rectify them, which usually gets them into even more trouble! One of my favourite parts was when Cassie was trying to teach Frederick about Instagram and he wasn’t understanding why people take so many pictures of food! I completely agree with him. But yet I still do this, almost every time I sit down to a meal! I really hope there is a sequel to this, I'd love to find out what Cassie decides to do in the future. Thank you to #acrossthepondbookclub for choosing My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenn...

Tilly made me cry again! I don’t know how she does it, not many authors have this effect! I loved this third book in the series, and this time the story is Gaby’s, the eldest Morrow sister and perhaps the most serious. Once again we return to Port Promise, a small town on the coast which revolves around the lifeboat station, its crew members and their families. All families have dramas, but right now, Killian, Gaby’s husband, is bringing his drama right into the middle of his family and who knows whether they can come back from it. Only time will tell. I can’t express enough how addictive and warm these last three books from Tilly have been. I am considering myself a part of Port Promise life now and if I could up sticks and join them all tomorrow, I would do. Almost everyone tries to be warm and welcoming to an outsider, and I think I’d fit in pretty well there. I wonder if they have a bookshop? I could totally open a bookshop by the seaside, with maybe a small coffee shop at the back...

Full of secrets, lies and deception, The Retreat by Karen King is a fast-paced psychological thriller. It won’t have you jumping out of your seat or hiding behind the sofa, but it does have enough umph to keep you reading, to find out who is behind all the weird things that are going on here. Jose and Eva have opened their home as a wellbeing retreat, and the first guests have received a discount to discover anything that needs changing, to enable any tweaks to be ironed out before Jose and Eva open properly to paying guests. I can’t say I warmed to any of the characters, apart from maybe Eva and Saskia. However, to me, this is the work of a good writer. I don’t think we were supposed to actually ‘like’ any of them! It definitely kept me guessing the whole way through the book, although I did have my suspicions at various points as to who was sabotaging things throughout their stay. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review The Retreat by Karen King. ...

Harrowing, haunting, tragic and heart-breaking. These are just a handful of words that describe The Secret Photograph by Siobhan Curham. I loved it. I cannot describe fully how Siobhan’s books make me feel, but I always close the book and wonder about how such monsters could have existed in the twentieth century. Although a work of fiction, this latest stunner from Siobhan is based on real-life events and told from two viewpoints across two timelines. One is from Clarisse in the 1940s and the other....well I’m not telling you who tells the other story because I didn’t realise (as I’m sure was the intention) until at least halfway through the book, but it is told from someone living in France in the mid-eighties. The work of everyone in the Resistance amazes me. How so many people put their lives on the line, day after day, to bring knowledge to the world about the atrocities of war and to try to bring justice for their country is incredible. There were also so many roles to play, I wo...

This week I made another visit to the ‘Little Irish Village’ and this time it was Ava’s story to tell. Ava has been living in London with her twin sister Grace, but following an emergency back home, she has returned to Emerald Bay, just a few weeks before Christmas. One thing I adore about Michelle’s Emerald Bay books is the Irish twang that I can hear when I’m reading. Whenever the Irish dialect comes into play, I honestly hear someone saying it in an Irish accent, which I adore. It must be one of the softest, loveliest accents on the planet! Ava’s parents run the Shamrock Inn, in Emerald Bay and along with Ava and her four sisters, they make up the ultimate, cosy Irish family in a small village where everyone knows everyone and everyone’s business. Everything about this book is just lovely. The characters are wonderful; the setting is beautiful and the Irish camaraderie is second to none. Take a trip to Emerald Bay this Christmas and buy yourself a copy of Michelle’s latest book. Tha...

When I was a teenager, I devoured Dick Francis books like they were going out of fashion. As soon as a new one was published, I was there, at the library, getting my hands on it as soon as possible. Imagine, therefore, my delight when I discovered that his son, Felix Francis, was also writing books in a similar vein. No Reserve is the first book written by Felix Francis that I have read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Slow to begin with, as the scenes are set, it soon picks up pace and becomes an addictive crime thriller, set in the horse-racing world.  Theo, our protagonist, is determined to discover just who is responsible for the crimes being committed, and he seemingly won’t stop at anything to bring about justice.  All the characters are well-written and they establish themselves pretty quickly. Yes, there are some downright nasty pieces of work here, albeit making the story just that much better and I honestly didn’t work out who the villain was until the author told me! I...