Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

"Never turn your back on the sea." 🌊 I always enjoy any book that is set in Cornwall. We nearly ended up moving there, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. So, reading a Phillipa Ashley book gives me my Cornwall fix whenever I need it! 😊 I love the beaches that only the locals know about, the Cornish folk singers, and any mention of a pasty! And Eric... poor Eric! 💔🕊️ I could almost imagine myself sitting on the balcony with a cup of coffee, chatting away to him. Phillipa never fails to immerse me in the stunning Cornish coastline, the often laid-back way of life, and the quirky inhabitants of its towns and villages. Sybil is definitely the quirky one in this book! 😄 I can imagine she'd be an absolute hoot to have as a friend, with plenty of wayward stories to share. Zennor is the female protagonist in this story. I thought it was a weird name at first until I realised it's actually a village in Cornwall, not far from St Ives—so that's kind of cool! I liked Z...

"You've been house hunting for a year Jess... Maybe it's time to trust your gut instead of your models and spreadsheets." I adored When in Dublin. 🍀 As a UK resident, I loved the little nuances between the US way of life and that of people living in Dublin. Things like how a proper cup of tea is made (which definitely  isn’t  putting the water in the microwave btw 😂☕️) really made me smile. I also enjoyed the comparisons between how many people in the UK have travelled to lots of different countries, while many people in the US often haven’t travelled outside of the States because there’s just so much to explore there. Considering we can drive from top to bottom of the UK in a couple of days, it’s no wonder we spread our wings a bit more. 🌍✈️ In my head, Jessie was always capable of so much more than the promotion she’s striving for. She really finds her feet in Dublin and seems to flourish in a completely different environment — albeit one with a  lot  of rain. ?...

“Instead of fearing a thing, try to understand it. Because understanding can change everything about the way that you feel.” 💙 I read this book for May's read for the #NeglectedFaithfulsReadingChallenge, which I actually received as an ARC quite a while back now. I have no excuse for not reading it sooner other than life just getting in the way! 📚✨ Joe Nuthin's Guide to Life is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. I love a neurodivergent read, and I can always see little parts of myself in every character I read about. Joe is adorable, brave, and nothing but honest as he learns to navigate life and all the complications it brings — especially when you throw other people into the mix! 🥹💛 The blue and yellow notebooks that Joe’s Mum has written for him are invaluable. But how can you possibly write about every eventuality that might happen in a person’s life? You can’t — and that’s where good friends who truly understand Joe come in. I loved how his friends guide...

“Maybe it's not possible to let go of who you used to be and escape old patterns.” 💭 I was lucky enough to receive  La Dolce Veto  as both a digital and audio ARC, and I chose to read it first. Although I enjoyed it so much, I’ll probably go back and listen at some point too. I always find things I missed the first time around on a second visit. 🎧✨ Pick me up and put me back down in a traditional European village with sunshine, good food, good wine and nosey locals, and I’m in heaven. ☀️🍷 This is exactly what Caitlin’s book did for me. Izzy needs to run away, and so she does — to La Musa in Italy, a place filled with fond memories for her. It’s not quite the same as she remembered, but it’s good enough to hide away from the world for a while. 🇮🇹✨ I don’t usually go for a political romance, but the politics quietly simmered away in the background, which I really enjoyed. The Italian people and countryside are the things that will stay with me most though. The descriptions ...

“You’ve got to be incredibly confident in your transport choices to drive a highlighter pen on wheels.” 🚗💛 I was worried about reading Jaimie’s new book because I loved her Ever After Street series so much, but I needn’t have worried—The Sunshine Teashop is every bit as good. It has a new vibe, new characters, and lots of huggy moments. 🤗 As the book starts, we’re in Kent. No offence to Kentish people, but I want my cute romance books to be set in the countryside or near the sea. 🌊🌿 So imagine my delight when Dolly ups and leaves for a gorgeous village in Yorkshire. 🏡 (Yes, I know the synopsis says this, but I don’t read them! 😆) I was with Dolly every step of the way and loved how easily she immersed herself in village life. She had the little old ladies wrapped around her little finger—in a lovely, happy, friendly way—and, just as importantly, they had her back every step of the way. 💛 I did cringe a bit when she and her new-found builder friend, Reece, got out the paint rol...

“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...

“Inside was a message in her dad's handwriting.” 💌 The Lily Garden was April's read for #kindlecrushchallenge 📚 and a book that had been sitting on my Kindle for almost five years! This was the first Barbara Josselsohn novel I’ve read, and I loved it from beginning to end. ❤️ We spend the majority of the book in the small town of Lake Summers—a place where, almost thirty years ago, Caroline lost her parents. 💔 She left a few years later and never returned… until now. ✨ The story had everything I adore in a book: a close-knit community, 🏡 cosy spots to grab a coffee, ☕ a great food place serving delicious, mouthwatering dishes, 🍽️ and of course, a cute love interest. 💕 Throw a garden into the mix 🌸 and I’m all in! I really liked how Caroline’s daughter, Lee, consistently knew what she wanted throughout the book and stuck to her guns. 💪 Yes, other people tried to force their opinions on her, but in the end, her dreams shone through. ✨ Maxine and Gull are great characters...

"Having a desk job doesn't mean you have your shit together," I say. "It just means you have a flat ass from sitting all day." 😅💺 Let me begin by saying I was born in the seventies, when a stream was something at the bottom of my road that I paddled in 🌿💦, and the internet hadn’t even been thought of. This book is completely outside my comfort zone, so I was surprised I enjoyed it even as much as I did 🤔📖 The idea of someone watching and listening to my every move 24/7 is unsettling 😬👀 Dell’s world felt strange and uncomfortable at times—her life is about as far from what I’d consider normal as you can get. Some of the things she does for money really made me wonder… are there actually people out there like this? I suppose there must be 😳💸 That said, I didn’t like Dell. I found her underhanded and manipulative, with little respect for herself or anyone else. She’s not someone I’d ever want to meet 🙅‍♀️🚫 Thank you to Scribner UK for the gifted copy o...

"Out on the pond the water is absolutely still. A fish jumps and, in its wake, leaves a trail of concentric circles. I watch them bleed out and around the edges until they are reabsorbed, as if nothing ever happened." 🌊🐟 March's read for #kindlecrushchallenge was The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller, another book that's been missing in the depths of my Kindle for a few years! 📚 I enjoyed this book the more I read it. It's definitely a slow-burner, flicking between twenty-four hours in the present day and back in Elle's childhood. ⏳ It's a great work of literary fiction where Miranda leaves the reader wondering what on earth it is that they've just digested. 🤔 It wasn't until I was probably a quarter of the way in that I settled into the rhythm of the story and began to enjoy it, if indeed you can enjoy a book with so many disturbing triggers! 😬 The ending has been left to the reader's imagination - I think - at least that's the w...

“I swear this airline reminds me of The Flintstones. I'm surprised the floor doesn't open up and we land the plane using our feet.” 😂✈️ Told over the space of twenty-four hours, There’s Always Next Year was a fun listen, alternating between Dominique and his cousin Andy, who, although from the same small town in Indiana, have been living very different lives for the past two years. The story was engaging, with multiple plot threads culminating in a finale in the town square on New Year’s Day, when everything comes together. 🎆 I enjoyed the focus on the attempted redevelopment of the town, alongside Dominique and Andy’s relationship mishaps, as they navigated a chaotic New Year’s Day with some wonderfully crazy characters thrown into the mix. 🤪🏙️ Eric Lockley and Khaya Fraites, as Dominique and Andy respectively, were excellent narrators, drawing me into the manic, rushing-around-town madness that provides the backdrop for most of the story. 🎧✨ Although a Young Adult novel...