Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

“So you thought a sneak attack with mistletoe would help me get in the Christmas spirit?” 🎄💋 The audiobook contains Teddy Hamilton (sigh)! Review done! 😂 Only kidding! The other narrators are great, and I do love a multi-cast narration. 🎧  Mistletoe All the Way  has scooped me up from autumn and gently placed me down, slap bang in the middle of Christmas. 🎄❄️✨ I loved it. I've only just realised that I enjoy a story that features a miserable main character — in this case Noah as the Grinch — who slowly and surely, as if by the magic of Christmas, finally begins to see what all the fuss and happiness is about. 🎅🏻❤️ I love the addition of the older characters, and Eloise's feisty grandmother and her 'boyfriend' Henry are brilliant. They are supportive, independent and certainly aren't taking any nonsense from anyone. 👵💕 I also enjoyed the added suspense and mystery as Eloise investigates Stephen to find out just what he's up to. And the fact that she...

“I feel no need to break the silence. This silence is perfect – this silence is sparkly.” I love Scrabble, and seeing the cover of this book just made me want to listen. The story is about Wordle, but you catch my drift! 😉🔤 I play an online app version of Scrabble every single day with my Mum and, although we might not talk all the time, we both know each other is OK if we've played our turn. 💕 I think that's why the whole idea of communicating through a word game really appealed to me. Emily and John are so cute, and both a little nerdy. Emily just needs to realise that she's happier in a small town rather than a big city! I loved the small-town vibe, the friends Emily makes and the house she lives in. 🏡💕 It's a cosy listen and Katie was a lovely narrator. I will definitely pick up more books that Amy has written. 🎧📚 A very belated thank you to Libro.fm & Avon Books for the free audio copy of A Five-Letter Word for Love by Amy James. All thoughts are entirel...

"As soon as she walked through that exit, the spell would be broken, and she'd be back to reality." I had a physical and audio copy of this book but chose to listen to it during our long, long hot summer in the UK. ☀️ I really enjoyed it. The characters were funny, and Maggie especially, I thought, had a very sarcastic sense of humour. 😏 Maggie and Flick bounced off each other — once they actually decided they wanted the same thing — to bring down the man who had wronged Maggie. 👀 As the two travelled across Europe, chasing a cruise ship, I slipped into their adventures with them. I mean, who wouldn't fancy a flutter in Monte Carlo or a cocktail in Sicily?! 🍸🇮🇹 The twist towards the end was unexpected but kind of made sense as to why Flick was so invested in Maggie's story. 🤔 A very belated thank you to Pan Macmillan for the free print copy and to Libro.fm & Zibby Books for the free audio copy of So, I Met This Guy... by Alexandra Potter. All thoughts ar...

“To all the nerds out there, we think you look hot in your glasses” 🤓❤️ The sixth visit to Dream Harbor and I really enjoyed following Daisy and Elliot’s relationship, as they begin with fake-dating and inevitably end up falling in love. I don’t think that’s a spoiler — we all know it’s going to happen in Dream Harbor! 😂💕 Elliot is so sweet, kind and thoughtful, and always seems to be putting Daisy’s feelings first. Daisy was a bit naughty at times, and I did feel she was stringing him along a little because she didn’t know whether she wanted this relationship or not. Just as with all the other Dream Harbor relationships — which pop up every now and again in this one too — it’s all about the thoughts and feelings. Daisy and Elliot work well together, and their friends all love them. It’s cute, easy-to-read and a little bit spicy. 🌶️🥰 I loved it! Thank you to HarperCollins and Libro.fm for the opportunity to listen to and review The Daisy Chain Flower Shop by Laurie Gilmore. 💕📖 ...

“You don’t need a map, Jules. You got this. Keep the red flag on the right and the horse between your legs and you’ll be home in no time.” Pride is the second novel I've read (actually, listened to) by Natalie Keller Reinert and, as I said before, I'm addicted. 🐴❤️ It’s taken me so long to get around to this series. I used July’s #LetsEarItAudiobookChallenge for this one, but let’s be honest, the only challenge was actually getting around to listening! 😂 Jules has it tough! She catches a break and everything looks to be all rosy in horsey land, and then wham, it’s all called into question again. But Jules is a tough cookie, and this is what I like about her. She picks herself up and tries to be better, for herself and for her horses. 💪🐎 I enjoyed that, in this one, Jules went back to basics, working for another trainer for a few months and realising that actually, she might not know as much as she thinks she does — and that she can still be taught. It’s incredibly humbling ...

“There’s only so much oxygen on an airplane. I don’t want his ego to suffocate the rest of us. You know, safety and all that s**t.” #thatbonkersbookclub, for some reason, decided to read three books in July and Mile High was the first one I read. Now, I wouldn't consider myself a sports romance fanatic. I can take them or leave them, to be honest, and so I went into this one with no expectations or particular interest. It just goes to show that book clubs can open your eyes to things you wouldn't normally read! 📚 I enjoyed Mile High and listened to this rather than read it, which probably made it even more fun. The dual narration of the two main characters, Zanders and Stevie, was brilliantly portrayed and even though Zanders is initially an arrogant d**k, there's a reason for that. I guarantee that if you read the book, you'll come to love him, as of course, Stevie does. ❤️ While writing this review, I discovered that the author, Liz Tomforde, used to be a flight att...

“Good will always battle evil,” he said. “Light will always fight the dark. In those moments, you’ll learn who you truly are.” ✨ OMG, I love this series. ❤️ Rites of the Starling was our Sequel Shelf pick for June for #thatbonkersbookclub, but I listened to it the week it was released—I just couldn't wait! I'd had it reserved on Libby for months. 🎧📚 I had absolutely no idea what was going on. 😂 I couldn't work out whether the two stories were dual timelines or running simultaneously, which, for me, made the story even more addictive. And no... I didn't guess! Every reveal came as a complete surprise. 🤯 Everything clicked into place in the end, but honestly, trying to figure it out was half the fun. The multiple storylines and narrators were incredible, and all three narrators brought so much passion to the story. ❤️ So many questions were answered, but even more have appeared—or are still complete mysteries. I loved the politics, the romance, the battles, and of cou...

“New friends can often have a better time together than old friends.” Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald was April’s read for #classiclitbookclub, 📚 and one I’d read before for A Level. I wasn’t a fan when I first read it at sixteen—though, to be fair, I really didn’t enjoy dissecting books. For me, books were written to be read and enjoyed, not analysed and picked apart so students could try to get into the author’s head. 🤯 That’s probably why I failed my A Level English Lit!!! Anyway, I did enjoy it more this time around, thanks in part to the narration from Trevor White, who brought the characters to life far more than a classroom full of students and a slightly fuddy-duddy teacher ever did! I also noticed a lot more this time 👀. Before, all I really remembered was people lying on a beach in the South of France—after all, a teenage girl is going to pick up on the places she’d rather be. ☀️🏖️ What I didn’t remember was the reason Nicole Diver was in a mental institution i...

“Leonardo hid so many of his secrets in his artwork. My very last hope is that he hid the secret to setting me free…” ✨ I really liked the first quarter of this book—but the rest of it? I absolutely loved it. 💛 It completely blew me away. Magical realism, living forever—quite literally—not what I was expecting at all. 🤯 I don’t want to say too much because that would spoil it… just trust me and read it. 📖 Don’t be fooled—there are some truly heartbreaking moments here. 💔 It isn’t all sunshine and roses. But there are also some beautiful family connections, especially towards the end, and it all balances out so well 🫶 Helen McAlpine and Nathaniel Priestly were brilliant as narrators, 🎧, bringing warmth, love, and sadness to their characters. I was completely invested in their voices from the start. Honestly—read it, listen to it, I don’t mind—just get your hands on this book NOW! 🔥 A very belated thank you to Hodder & Stoughton Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to liste...

“It’s strange to think that this little black bean will grow up to be a big plant and that plant will have its own seeds to make another plant and another seed and this will go on, over and over again, for years...” My Name is Leon was recommended to me by my cousin, and it’s set in and around Birmingham — my hometown — which immediately drew me in 🏙️. I listened to the audiobook via Libby, narrated by a true Black Country lad, Lenny Henry, while pottering about 🎧. For those who don’t know, Lenny Henry is a comedian, so I went in expecting something light-hearted… but it’s far from that! While there are moments of humour, the story is often upsetting and deeply moving 💔 — powerful and eye-opening, set against the backdrop of the Birmingham riots in the early 1980s. I loved Leon’s story ❤️. I adored Tufty, his allotment friend 🌱 (who I’m guessing Lenny Henry plays in the TV adaptation), and I really admired Maureen as his foster carer through much of the book. It’s the kind of story...

"Books clomped off her desk and arranged themselves on a nearby shelf." ✨📚 This was my March listen for another one of @hook.me.a.book challenges. This time it's the #LetsEarItAudiobookChallenge 🎧. I wanted to enjoy this one, I really did. It sounded so good when I chose it on Libro FM, and maybe I made the mistake of listening rather than reading, but I think I missed a lot of it because I was doing other things! Whatever it was, it didn't grab my attention. Although I did finish it, I won't be reading (or listening to) the next one. Read the book description — sounds good, right? Especially if, like me, you love a witchy read 🧙‍♀️. Plus so many people loved it and it has such great reviews, although to be fair there are some not-so-great ones too. Maybe it's like Marmite — you either love it or hate it! Maybe I'll come back to it one day. If enough people tell me they enjoyed this one, then I might just give it another go. Although this one didn’t qui...

"Don't wish your days away." How Charlie Sheen is still alive is a mystery to many 🤯. The torture that he's put his body through is mind-blowing. Yet here he is, still here and ready to tell his story. When I saw his memoir was out as an audiobook 🎧, I reserved it from Libby (there was a long wait ⏳), and settled down to listen to the man himself tell me about how in fact, he was still alive! Charlie Sheen has been in the background of my life forever I think, but I really started to notice him when he was in Two and a Half Men, a sitcom that I loved 📺. But he starts his book way before that point. The book was really sobering (pardon the pun), 🍸🚫 and I found it incredibly interesting. Charlie doesn't pull any punches, he knows he was a total a**h**e, he knows he has no right to still be with us and he doesn't blame anyone but himself. As he finally approaches sobriety, he tells us about it with positivity and hope, and as he writes, he's eight years ...

“I am not trying to take you from the life that you know. All I'm trying to do is show you a world that you deserve to see".  #thatbonkersbookclub chose Wisteria for February’s “Sequel Shelf” 📚 It’s the third and final full-length novel in the Belladonna series, which is a series I’ve really loved! ✨ Wisteria focuses on Blythe and Fate and their forced relationship — one that slowly evolves with understanding and time spent together. Blythe has never been my favourite character in the series by any stretch, but she did grow on me in Wisteria. I know lots of people loved her, but for me she was always a bit… meh! 🤷‍♀️ Fate (aka Aris) was well grumpy 😤 Quite frankly, he needed a good kick up the a**e to stop him treating Blythe the way he did. I mean, come on — did he really need to be that harsh?! This is a difficult review to write without including spoilers, but my favourite thing had to be the front door that leads anywhere you want it to 🚪✨ Just imagine how useful that ...

“Some of the nicest people I know are decomposing as we speak. I’ve always liked graveyards. I like reading the headstones.” Billy Connolly is a legend and one of my favourite comedians of all time, so when I saw this audiobook, I grabbed it and devoured it with both ears. Billy’s stories never age. However many times you’ve heard them, his observational wit remains second to none. As he narrates — as eloquently as anyone can in a Glasgow accent — his ramblings in that unmistakable, inimitable style, I felt as though I was travelling alongside him. Every road, every adventure, every wonderfully odd character he encounters — you’re right there with him. He had me in stitches in every chapter. This is the sort of book that makes you laugh regardless of the mood you’re in. On days when life felt heavy, Billy could always lighten it. He is a gentleman and a scholar, and he will remain a Scottish icon long after he’s gone. Realistically, that time may not be too far away — and that makes th...