Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

'Love is the brightest color in a gray world'. My first Abby Jimenez book was Say You'll Remember Me for June's choice for #thatindiebookclub, and I loved it. I was expecting contemporary romance, but what I actually got was a whole lot more. Yes, there was the love interest, Xavier, the grumpy man and Samantha who was the light within the relationship, but for me, the main story was the devastation that Alzheimer's Disease can bring to a family.  Abby had obviously researched the incurable disease thoroughly, and she wrote with compassion and empathy. I had nothing but admiration for Samantha, for becoming the primary caregiver for her Mum, as well as juggling, living with so many other people. This book was so much about the tightly-knit family unit, and when needed, they all come together with a common goal. Helping each other.  Of course long-distance relationships can work, although not for everyone, and Xavier and Samantha proved how strong their love was for...

'Someone is lying. Someone is missing.  Someone is guilty'. The Guilty One was twisted with a capital T and so messed up that I spoke out loud to my audiobook more than once! 😂 I really enjoyed it, even if Tate was a total douchebag, and that's being kind. Urgh, many of us will know how it feels to be bullied and to be so scared of someone that you will do what they tell you to do, no questions asked and this is what Tate does to people and how he makes them feel.  The story was told between two different timelines, then and now and there were so many twists and turns, I was exhausted - but in a good way! Everyone lies, everyone has something to hide and just when I thought I had worked out what was going on, Kiersten threw another spanner in there and contorted it that little bit more!  The narrators each brought their own special touch to the book, and yep, the characters you're supposed to dislike, you definitely did! They all did a great job. If you like twisted, d...

"When he (the sun) says good-night to the mountains he throws his most beautiful colors over them, so that they may not forget him before he comes again the next day." I adored Heidi when I was growing up, and to say that I was obsessed with the BBC adaptation is an understatement. Despite it being originally filmed in German and dubbed (very badly) into English, I could watch it over and over again. From what I can remember, it was shown on a Sunday morning, week in, and week out, and then repeated all over again.  Until I reread it for June's read for #classiclitbookclub, I'd forgotten how much I loved it. Even now, at 52 years old, I want to be Heidi. I want to be springing from rock to rock as I climb up and down the mountainside. I want to sleep in the loft on a bed of hay and gaze up at the stars through a hole in the roof! When Clara visits from the city, she arrives being unable to walk and leaves, very much recuperated. This reminded me very much of The Secre...

Kitty Collins - I love you! This gave me throwbacks to How to Kill Your Family, but way better! I love Kitty Collins. Should I be admitting that I admire a serial killer?! 🤣 She's like Dexter - which reminds me, I need to catch up with that series soon! I laughed, I cringed, and I held my head in my hands as the darkness overtook Kitty as she continued to remove those lecherous men from society. She had a pretty nifty way of disposing of the bodies, that was a cool addition to the plot, a bit mafia-esque.  I'm not sure Kitty actually likes her job as an influencer, she seems to put up with it because it's earning her money and paying her rent, but her role as a serial killer is what she's actually enjoying! Victoria Morrison as the narrator was brilliant, she made everything seem absolutely normal, as though Kitty was just going about her everyday life - which I guess she was!  Thank you to Harper Collins and Libro FM for the opportunity to listen to and review How to...

'No shouting cracked the silence; no flashlights sliced the darkness'. Steve's writing is incredible. I didn't particularly want to be in Helena's shoes, as slowly, her family disappears, and she has no alternative other than to face the horrors that the Germans are inflicting, all alone. Yet, I had no choice. Such is the power of the words which Steve writes and the in-depth descriptions he portrays of the sufferings Helena experiences, I was right there with her. Every step of the way.  Every time I read a book like this, one which is inspired by true events and particularly one set during WWII, I often have to stop reading, and reflect that all this s**t really happened and how courageous and resilient people absolutely had to be.  So much research has gone into Helena's story and Steve has done an amazing job of telling her story and ensuring that no matter how much time has passed, they have not been forgotten. Thank you to Steve N. Lee for the opportunity ...

I loved the huge twist at the end! Having read a couple of Ross's newer books, I decided to go back to the beginning of the DI Barton series and listen to The Snow Killer. I love a police procedural and this was a great one, with twists and turns throughout the story, but a huge humdinger of a spiral at the end.  This differed from others I've read, because we know from the beginning who the killer is and why they are killing. What we don't know is if and when they're going to stop, and why some of the victims are dead. Chapters skip between the viewpoints of The Snow Killer and DI Barton, and they are narrated very well by David Thorpe - although I did have to speed him up a little 😂 Thank you to Boldwood Books and Libro FM for the opportunity to listen to and review The Snow Killer by Ross Greenwood. About the Book ‘Fear the north wind. Because no one will hear you scream…’ A family is gunned down in the snow but one of the children survives. Three years on, that chi...

Immerse yourself in the most gorgeous gardens in the world.  This is such a gorgeous book, full of beautiful pictures from amazing gardens, all over the world. I'd love to visit even just a fraction of these. We love a road trip, so maybe now I will need to persuade my husband that a garden needs to be incorporated into each vacation! The book also includes lots of ideas for you to travel and enjoy outdoor spaces. A great coffee table book that will definitely give your guests something to talk about! Thank you to Sabrina Dax and Lonely Plant for the gifted copy of The Joy of Exploring Gardens. About the Book Discover 60 of the world's most spectacular gardens plus 120 travel ideas to ignite a love of outdoor spaces. Featuring the history of every botanical gem, beautiful photography and trip planning tips, this uplifting book explores the restorative effects of flora and fauna, and the joy to be experienced from each of the inspiring gardens inside it. Walk spellbinding nature...

'For those they took, whose names we'll never know because no one was left to remember them'. Once again, Steve N. Lee has bowled me over with this WWII historical fiction novel. It is set in Poland at the beginning of the war, in an orphanage run by Mirek, a published author, and Baba Hanka, a grandmotherly figure who I adored. He was a miracle worker in the kitchen. She made edible meals out of plants and herbs that had been foraged in the forest. Mirek was an incredible strength to the kids he was looking after, and even when things were looking bad, he pulled on his positive mask and attempted to turn things into a game, so the kids wouldn't be scared. This is a book, based on true events, about WWII so of course it's heartbreaking, hearing about yet more unspeakable events which took place and how horrific people were treated. But everyone should be aware of just how bad things were for hundreds of thousands of people and how heartless the people who carried ou...

Transported to another world, tempted by a dangerous passion. Demons, royal courts, vampires, and an adventure! What more could a fantasy lover need? I probably glanced at the synopsis when I requested this one, but I forget that within five minutes! So when I plugged in my AirPods and started planting up my tomatoes, I absolutely wasn't ready for any of what I listened to, but oh boy, was I taken on an adventure. Unbound by Shadows starts off pretty normally, just a couple of sisters, spending a weekend hiking together, until Selene seemingly falls through the earth. It's then that the fantasy begins.  I loved that Selene was idolised by the majority of people who came across her, it was a refreshing change that someone didn't want to kill her on first sight! Samael was an awesome demon, who, just needed to learn how to control his temper and perhaps Selene was the human who could help him with that. Aileen Bishop did a fantastic job narrating this one, and quite often I f...

'...before she met a tousled American man who'd packed a piece of her heart in his suitcase when he'd left...' Nooooooo! I don't want this trilogy to end, but sadly this in the final book in the series. 😢 This time around, we are living with Valentina for a wee while. She is living a slightly tumultuous life right now, with no job, an errant husband and nothing very positive happening.  But she's off to her cottage on Skye for the summer, to spend some downtime with her sisters and their families - but of course it doesn't turn out to be quite as relaxing as she'd hoped. This one was my most favourite of the trilogy, and I didn't think it was going to be. After reading the others, I thought Valentina was going to be stuck-up and boring, but she was far from it. I loved her. I loved her story, I loved Barnaby, I loved the views from her cottage, and yes, the author made me feel as though I was right there, wandering on the beach and searching in the ...

'Nuturing drooping aspidistras and desiccated begonias back to full health'. I've been reading so many more books recently where the protagonist is middle-aged. As a 52 year-old in reality, a 30 year-old in my head, and a 70 year-old in my body, I love that Celia, Amanda, Terri, and Enzo made me feel that there are still hundreds of opportunities, just waiting around the corner.  When I read that Celia ran her very own houseplant hospital, I found myself wondering whether I knew enough about plants to run my own… I definitely don't! 🤣 But Celia did, whether it was a poorly Peace Lily, a sickly spider plant or a finicky Fiddle Leaf Fig, she somehow manages to find a cure and send them on their way. Does she cure Spike? You'll have to read the book to find out! 🌵 I think you'd need to be in the UK, and old, to remember a character called Beryl the Peril in a comic called the Beano. Well, Mathilde is Enzo's nine-year-old daughter and that's who she dresse...