Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I wanted to read A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon because one of her other books, The Trouble With Goats and Sheep, was recommended to me by so many people. However, it’s still sitting on my shelf waiting to be read! Hopefully, I’ll get around to it soon! A Tidy Ending had me gripped from the beginning. Just who was this strange woman, Linda, and why did everyone think her odd? Linda is the protagonist in the story and I honestly couldn’t work out from beginning to end what I should be thinking of her. Is she the victim and a pawn in someone else’s life or is she the mainstay in the plot? She’s weird is what she is, but I definitely wanted to read more of her story. Linda is very insightful, having her own opinions on how she feels people behave in the way in which they do. She’s funny, but she has a sad past which she tries to remember differently than it was.  Joanna Cannon did a great job with all her characters, each has their own quirks and adds to the story, I can’t say t...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Another outstanding book from one of my most favourite authors, Nicola May, but sadly, apparently the last in the Ferry Lane Market series. Rainbows End in Ferry Lane Market was brilliant from beginning to end. It was happy, sad, funny and thought-provoking and definitely something I would recommend to anyone who wants to switch off for a few hours and join someone else’s life. Glanna’s life has had ups and lots of downs until she moved to Hartmouth, but now she’s settling into her new life, making new friends and beginning to love life again. With her gorgeous whippet, Banksy, Glanna is immersing herself into Ferry Lane Market and gradually returning to becoming a local girl once again. She befriends local artist Isaac Benson and they help guide each other through things that have happened to them in the past, both discovering who they are now and how to move forward with their lives.  Nicola brings in characters that have been at the forefront of her other Ferry Lane Market...

⭐⭐⭐⭐  The description of 214 Palmer Street doesn’t do the actual story justice. A psychological thriller that raises more questions than it answers. I was annoyed and hooked in equal measures.  I enjoyed the plot and the way it played out, but Sarah and her husband Kirk annoyed the hell out of me. Sarah is just such a wet blanket. I just wanted to shout at her and tell her to stand up for herself, to do what she wants to do, not what anyone else wants her to do! Meanwhile, Kirk is just overbearing with his love, which borders on control. I know his heart is in the right place, but come on, give a girl some space!  That being said, if the author, Karen McQuestion, wanted her characters like that, then she has done an excellent job, that is exactly how they come across. I sort of worked out what was going to happen pretty early on, although I didn’t realise who ‘her’ was until quite close to the end! It was fun to discover how and why the ending played out as it did and the...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Margarete Rosenbaum is living as Annegret Huber following a bombing raid, from Jew to part of a German high-ranking family in the blink of an eye. I have read many war fiction novels, but I’m not sure I’ve ever read one which included so much detail of the inhumane behaviour of the German SS. It takes a lot to make me shudder when reading, but parts of The Girl in the Shadows did just that. Of course, I am aware of the gist of what happened during the war, but to have it written down and for the characters involved to be portrayed in such a way was eye-opening. Marion Kummerow is an exceptional author. There aren’t many who can skip between love and romance and hate and cruelty and ensure the reader is also feeling those emotions. Yes, I was left feeling very uncomfortable many times throughout the book, but actually, this was a good thing. It meant that the author was doing her job well!  The Girl in the Shadows is the third book in Margarete’s journey, but can certainly be ...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I laughed, I cried, I laughed some more! Stepping Up by Sarah Turner is pretty special and tugged at my heartstrings.  Aunty Beth steps up to look after her teenage niece, Polly and toddler nephew, Ted, following an accident. Over the course of the next year, Beth has to learn how to be a parent, coping with teenage emotions and toddler tantrums, all whilst trying to hold a job down, prove to her Mum that she can be capable of being responsible and also maintaining friendships.  I was hooked from the start, and despite the sad moments and difficult situations, I found the book heartwarming but heartbreaking at the same time. It’s been a long time since a story made me laugh and cry on the same page but Stepping Up managed it.  There isn’t a character who won’t melt your heart, one way or another, and Beth, in particular, grows in strength and confidence as the book progresses. She realises that perhaps she’s not as useless as she thinks she is and maybe people do ne...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I was asked to read and review ‘Rose’ by the author, Robin P Fletcher, and I am so pleased that he approached me. Rose was awesome, from page one. I was hooked, and I spent the whole time I was reading it, thinking how good it would be as a movie! Rose is abducted as a nine-year-old girl from her home village in Goa and taken across to the other side of the country to live with a family who wants a daughter. She remembers nothing from her previous life and settles down with her new family for the next seven years.  I don’t want to give any spoilers because I think the less you know how the story progresses, the better. We discover the lengths that a family will go to, to right a wrong, and how, with the right resources, it’s easier to solve a crime.  The characters in Rose were diverse, many of them were loveable, but even more, were downright evil and, rightly, got what was coming to them. Fletcher writes with enthusiasm and spirit, and his descriptions of people and...

  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Second World War has recently ended and people are trying to return to some sort of normality in Worthing, West Sussex. Izzy and Linda’s father has returned from the war but is without a job, suffering from anger issues and often in the pub, returning home drunk, late at night. After one such night, and following an argument with her husband, Izzy’s mother leaves and doesn’t return. Over the next two years, the girls are brought up by their grandparents, until one day their father comes to take them home. Izzy is desperate to find out why her mother left, whilst trying to maintain a job and support her sister and father.  As was normal in post-war Britain, it is the women who look after the house and, in the absence of a mother, this fell to Izzy. We travel along with her as she grows up, with a world of responsibility on her shoulders. Her family has fallen apart and she will do all she can to find out why and put right as much as she can.  At Home by the Sea...