Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

"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...

Friendships and family, new life and new beginnings. I love being back in Street, in Somerset, as Kate, Louisa, and Jeannie are hoping against hope that Britain will win the dreadful war and their loved ones can come home. Once again the book is full of friendships and family, new life and new beginnings, but it also isn't without its heartache as the atrocities of war are still in action. Prisoner of war camps are real, and the Germans are using that dreadful mustard gas! Despite everything, this book is full of hope and positivity, and I admire how strong people were (and had to be) during these difficult times.  I'm pretty sure that this is the last book in the series, and I'm gutted, I'd love to see how the Clarks Factory Girls live their lives as WWI ends and there is fresh hope on the horizon again. Perhaps May will write about them as they have to devastatingly navigate WWII.  Thank you to NetGalley, Boldwood Books and Rachel's Random Resources for the opport...

I listened to The Journey After the Crown as an audiobook. It grew on me, but it was incredibly slow to begin with and it took me an age to get to grips with the characters. Daisie and Violet are nineteen-year-old identical twins who have the chance of a lifetime. They are to be maids to Queen Elizabeth II onboard the royal ship, as she and Prince Philip embark on a royal tour of Australia and the Commonwealth. Whilst the story is long-winded and the characters are unlikable, I did enjoy the story. Some parts shocked me, whilst for much of it I was frustrated by the actions of several people. It was full of drama and interest and worth a read for anyone who enjoys historical fiction. Whilst based on a true event, the story is entirely fictional, maybe it would have been better if there were more elements of truth included. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK Audio for the opportunity to listen to and review The Journey After the Crown by Andrew Mackie. About the Book A young...

I read the first two books in the Clarks Factory Girls series, back to back. This second in the series is a continuation of the lives and stories of the people who live and work in Street, Somerset, in the UK and, once again, they welcome us with open arms. I love the characters (well, most of them) that May has created and the family and friendship they bring.  This time around, we discover more about the effects the First World War had on the men who fought and the women who stayed at home, as well as the backward beliefs that some characters had, resulting in heartbreaking decisions having to be made, particularly by young women.  I love the community spirit in this series. Almost everyone looks out for their friends and neighbours and will help them out any way they can if necessary.  If you love a wartime saga like I do, then pick up these books. Despite the setting of WWI, they are warm and cosy books with great characters who you just want to be friends with. ...

The Clarks Factory Girls is a new wartime saga series by May Ellis and as I’m on the book tour for the second in the series, I wanted to read the first one, before I started the second. I’m unsure whether our friends across the pond know that Clarks Shoes used to be a massive thing in the UK (although maybe not as much these days). Almost everyone I knew had a pair of Clarks shoes as their first ever pair, and school shoes in particular would, more often than not, have been a pair of Clarks. Anyway, this series immerses us into the lives of characters who lived and worked in the village of Street in Somerset in the UK, where Clarks had its first factory. Louisa, Jeannie, and Kate have been friends since they were all at school together and now work side by side in the machine shop in the Clarks factory in 1914. Throughout the book, we learn how the community, factories and individuals coped with the onset of war and the challenges that it brought, whether personal or professional. I ...

The second in the East End Library Girls series and a welcome return to Cordelia, Jane and Mavis. Since Cordelia arrived at the library, the three have become firm friends. This book continues where the first one left off and we follow the lives of the three women and how they are surviving the war. Houses are bombed, children are evacuated and soldiers are injured, but the three are resilient and manage to cope with whatever is thrown at them. I loved catching up with these three again. Despite the harrowing circumstances of war, the book has a lovely warm feeling. I enjoy reading about life during the war, the difficulties with housing, finding food and not knowing from one day to the next what will happen. It makes us appreciate everything we have today. The library helped bring the community together and for those who were lonely, I can only imagine that this must have been a godsend.  Although the second in the series, this could be read as a standalone. However, the first one...

There are four books (so far) in the Cornish Girls series by Betty Walker and I’ve only read two! It absolutely doesn’t matter. You can read it as a standalone or as part of the series. I will definitely go back and read the other two, even if the characters will all be upside down and back to front! A Mother’s Hope for the Cornish Girls is set during WWII and the story is told primarily by Sonya, Lily and Mary, each living and working in St Ives. Sonya is helping at the orphanage, Lily is now training to be a midwife and Mary is working as a nurse in the convalescent home for wounded soldiers.  I devoured this book in two days, I just couldn’t put it down and I’ve just discovered there is a new book coming out in August so I can’t wait for that! It is beautifully written, with compassion and empathy. I read the last page and closed the book, feeling that I had just been enveloped in a great big hug! Thank you to Avon Books for sending me a review copy of A Mother’s Hope for the ...

⭐⭐⭐⭐ I listened to The Dover Cafe at War by Ginny Bell as an Audiobook from Borrowbox and loved it.  I find that a wartime saga always makes for easy listening or easy reading, and this was no exception.  Bea Holland narrated it beautifully and I enjoyed how she brought the characters to life.  Despite the sometimes heartwrenching circumstances, a good book, set in wartime, always makes me feel warm inside. The Dover Cafe is set at the heart of Dover's market square and is run by Nellie Castle with the help of Marianne, her eldest daughter.  As Britain is on the brink of World War II, Marianne's scandalous past begins to catch up with her, and now that her son is 10 years old, there are things she can't keep from him any longer. Ginny Bell can draw the reader into the story and keep them there for the entirety.  Each character becomes a friend, and with each turn of the page, you're waiting to see what happens next.  Of course, there are some rogues, aren't...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This review is for The Butterfly Box by Santa Montefiore.  I was lucky enough to discover this in a box of giveaways outside a neighbour's house and I am always on the lookout for something new to read!  I have heard other people discuss Santa Montefiore novels, but this is the first time I've read one, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It coincided with a delightfully warm, three days in March in the UK, during lockdown 3.0, and I spent the majority of my time outside in the sunshine, enthralled in this book.   The story is set primarily between Chile and Cornwall, with Federica Campione being the main character in the book.  With a Chilean father and an English mother, the novel begins with Federica as a 6-year-old girl who idolises her father, and despite his many absences, in her eyes, he can do no wrong.   The story follows Federica as she grows to become a young woman, and we join her on her journey through life, loves, hardship and torment....