Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

"Hurricanes aren’t just weather; they are monsters that never truly die.” The Storm was my second January listen for another of @hook.me.a.book’s challenges, the #LetsEarItAudiobookChallenge 🎧📚. I’d been seeing this one everywhere on Instagram over the past few weeks, so I finally got around to listening. It took me a while to get into it. The build-up was slow, and I found it took a minute to get to grips with all the different characters — particularly in audio format, where each character had a different narrator 🎙️. However, once I’d heard from them all, I was hooked and the pace picked up more and more. Alongside the multiple points of view, the story also uses a dual timeline — just to confuse me and intrigue me a little further ⏳🤔. After all the twists and turns, I still couldn’t fully work out what had happened in the past or how it was going to play out in the present, especially as the latest hurricane headed towards St Medard’s Bay 🌪️. As the story peaked, I found ...

"How could he have betrayed his beautiful wife like that?" This was one of my January listens for another one of @hook.me.a.book challenges. This time it's the #LetsEarItAudiobookChallenge. I'm pretty sure this is my first Susan Lewis book, and I really enjoyed it. 😊 Of course, I spent most of the story trying to second-guess what was actually happening, but apart from a few inklings, I didn’t see the twist coming at all until it was fully explained. 😲 No One Saw It Coming is told from multiple points of view, but I never felt confused. It was easy to move between perspectives, and I very quickly became invested in each character and desperate to know what would happen next. 📖💭 A great deal of research has clearly gone into the mental health aspects of this novel, and they’re portrayed both sensitively and realistically. It’s quite frightening, really, how sometimes we just can’t understand how someone else’s brain is wired. 🧠 Now that I’ve read one, I’ll definit...

"I've been looking for you. I'm in trouble and could do with a place to stay." Historical fiction is one of my favourite genres 📚❤️, but I usually read books set around the Second World War, so the late 1800s is a rarity for me ⏳. The author weaves fact and fiction together seamlessly 🧵, incorporating difficult subjects including prostitution, abuse, gambling, and factory strikes ⚙️. It seems absurd to me that girls who were brought up well, with a good education and a decent job, were banished to the workhouse by their parents if they fell pregnant 😔. I appreciate that, in some walks of life, this still happens even now, but it continues to baffle me that parents could do that to their own flesh and blood 💔. Even though it is set in the East End of London 🏙️, which we all know or imagine to be part of a large city, there is still a huge sense of community spirit and support, which I loved 🤝💞. Young and old alike are more often than not willing to help their ne...

"...family isn't just blood, it's the people you choose to bring into your life." I’ve joined a few challenges this year, and one of them is the #kindlecrushchallenge which is being run by @hook.me.a.book 📖✨ The aim of this challenge is to finally read some of those books that have been sitting on your Kindle forever. So, I started off with Forever Starts Now by Stefanie London 💕, which has been on my Kindle since 2021—and I’m ashamed to say it was also an ARC. 😬 I really have no excuse other than life getting in the way and new books constantly being added to the pile. 📚 Anyway, I’m here now and I’ve finally read it… and I really enjoyed it 🥰. We’re in the small town of Forever Falls 🏡, where Monroe is stuck in a rut and Ethan drops into town in an attempt to discover the truth about his father. In doing so, he also drops straight into Monroe’s life. 💫 The story is full of friendship, romance, family, and self-discovery 💖—everything that small-town life bring...

“A home isn't always the house we live in. It's also the people we choose to surround ourselves with.” If I could give The House in the Cerulean Sea a thousand stars, I absolutely would! And honestly—who says I can’t? A thousand stars it is! ⭐️✨ I adored everything about this book: the descriptive writing 📖, the unbelievably imaginative characters 🧠💫, the storyline, the setting 🌊🏝️, the artwork on the cover 🎨, the cosy feel of home 🏡 and—most importantly—the fact that there’s more to read! The only thing I didn’t adore was how fricking long it took me to actually read it 😅. This book has been sitting on my shelf for at least two years! Finally, thanks to the amazing #thatbonkersbookclub (previously known as #thatindiebookclub), I’ve taken it off the shelf and absolutely devoured it 📚💙. I haven’t felt this way about a book since I first read Harry Potter almost thirty years ago, but The House in the Cerulean Sea has completely captured my heart 💖. It’s all about belon...

“I’ll never get used to anything. Anybody that does, they might as well be dead.” Breakfast at Tiffany’s is our first read of 2026 for #classiclitclub 📖✨ and despite it being one of my favourite films, I’d never read the book. It’s rare that I enjoy the film more than the book, but for this one, I’m making an exception. In my opinion, the film is way, way better. 🎬💔 Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly is iconic ✨, and while reading the book, I couldn’t help but hear Holly’s lines in Audrey’s voice. I think Holly is incredibly lonely and somewhat immature—although I’m pretty sure she knew exactly what she was doing when she relayed Sal’s weather report. 😉 Holly is running from a life she didn’t like and ended up in New York 🗽, where, let’s be honest, she keeps on running—though maybe not physically. As one of our book club members said, Holly is a survivor 💪, and given what she’s come through, she’s had to do whatever she can to get by, whether that’s mixing with criminals or taking...

‘I want you to have everything you’ve ever dreamed of.’ ✨ I don’t know what it says about me, but when I read a book like this—filled with village life, crafting clubs,  🧶  eating cake,  and drinking tea  ☕  —I want to be right there in the heart of it all  This is despite the fact that I don’t particularly like “real people” and very much enjoy my own company! Jessica has the knack of enveloping you in whatever world she’s writing about, and Tomorrow Starts Today is no exception. 💛 I totally wanted to join Yvonne’s crafting club, chat to Trevor the parrot 🦜, and go for long walks around the Lakes, 🚶‍♀️🌿 what an idyllic part of England to live in! I loved the second-chance romance 💕, the friendships, 🤝 and the new challenges this book brought. It’s full of hope and optimism, and the reassurance that there is a brighter future out there for all of us. 🌈 Thank you to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Tomorrow Starts T...

“…their laughter wove its way around the bustling stalls, a joyous sound telling of friendship and resilience.” 💕 The Market Girls of Petticoat Lane is the first book in a brand-new series from Patricia McBride, and I knew I’d love it before I even started 📖✨ Despite being set during the Second World War, it’s cosy and full of hope and inspiration 🤍🌟 Maisie, Amanda, and Bethan — despite their differing home lives — are the very best of friends. They work together, play together, and look forward to a productive business future together 👭👚 I really enjoyed the camaraderie between the friends, and it’s honestly eye-opening to see how different young people were eighty years ago compared to today ⏳ The work ethic is far more evident, especially during the war years 💪🕊️ It’s always a joy to read wartime fiction like this, and I inevitably feel happy and contented by the end of the book 😊📚 Thank you to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review The Market ...

“An autistic psychopath is the human being who is most fundamentally himself. He cannot be anything but original and spontaneous. He is uninhibited by the collective social will.” The Matchbox Girl is a story based on true events in Austria 🇦🇹 during the Second World War. Our protagonist, Adelheid, has been placed in a specialist paediatric clinic 🏥 for children with a range of mental illnesses. Adelheid tells her story as she lives it 📝. At times it feels chaotic and random, yet she makes meticulous notes about everything that happens around her—sometimes to the detriment of those sharing her world 😬. She follows the rules carefully and does exactly as she’s instructed, until she begins to realise 🤔 that maybe she needs to follow her own rules instead. I initially found The Matchbox Girl difficult to read—not because of the subject matter, but because of the haphazard use of capital letters 😕. This felt like a deliberate stylistic choice, intended to reflect Adelheid’s fragment...