Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

I absolutely love the cover of this book! I’m not particularly maternal, but it makes me want to scoop the child up in my arms and protect her forever. The Girl in the Photo is my first Catherine Hokin novel and although it’s the third in a series, it absolutely doesn’t matter if you haven’t read any of the others. However, I guarantee that once you’ve read one, you’ll want to read more. It’s 1950, and five years after the end of the Second World War. Hanni and Freddy are happily married until something happens at Hanni’s first photographic exhibition that will change both of their lives and something that will force the truth to come out.  There are many characters in The Girl in the Photo that you will despise and only a few you will grow fond of. Catherine Hokin makes this decision easy for you as she throws herself into her characters and brings them to life on the page. I travelled along with Hanni and Freddy and it was so easy to feel what they were feeling. I wanted to be wi...

I love finding new authors. Suzy England is an excellent find and Perfect is a brilliant book! Will and Rebecca are the main characters in Perfect and, in a roundabout way, are the main characters in Rebecca’s new, bestselling novel which is based around her and the people she has in her life, both past and present. Full of love, laughter, anger and tears, Perfect is a lovely way to spend a couple of frosty UK days (and nights) and for the first time in a long time, I stayed up way past my bedtime to find out what the author had in store for Will and Rebecca. I was mad at them both, and they just needed their heads banging together to make them see sense. I recommend you go out and get yourself a copy of Perfect and find out for yourselves just how frustrating but also how loveable they both could be! Thank you to Suzy England for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of Perfect. Book Description From Tall Poppy Writer and Wattpad Star Suzy England comes the emotional look into th...

Everyone should judge a Kate Hewitt book for themselves. I don’t read reviews because many of them contain spoilers and I’d always much rather go into a book without knowing what happens. That Night at the Beach is no different. You’ll be drawn in so much more if you do not know what is coming next....and I guarantee, you probably won’t have a clue what is coming next. Full of anger, emotions, and teenage (and adult) hormones. That Night at the Beach will send you on a whirlwind of your own emotions as you try to comprehend what Rose, Cara, Finn, Henry, Bella and Elspeth are dealing with. Both families have been friends for years, but something happens ‘That Night at the Beach’ that changes everything for everyone - forever. If you love Kate Hewitt, then go out and buy yourself a copy of her latest book. If this is your first time reading one, why not start with this one? Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of That Night at the Beach by K...

This is such an awesome debut novel and I’m chuffed that the author reached out to me and asked me if I would read and review a copy of Will There be Wine. It took me longer than it usually does to read a book, as I spent the first two weeks of January in Las Vegas. However, this meant I could enjoy Austen’s dating shenanigans for longer, and after an exhausting day wandering the strip, what better way to relax than to dive into a Paris rom-com! Austen is a Texan, living in Paris and after separating from her husband, she is back on the dating scene, but she is finding that French men are very different from the Americans she is used to!  Whitney Cubbison made me laugh out loud with the telling of her dating adventures of Austen and there were a couple of ‘hand over the mouth’ moments when I thought, ‘wow, you go for it girl’!  Will There be Wine would make a great movie, and with every page turn I could imagine it playing out on the big screen.  I'm hoping a screenwrit...

I’m pretty sure that Off the Deep End is my first Lucinda Berry read, however, it won’t be my last. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Fast-paced and a real page-turner, it became pretty dark as the story progressed, but this made it even more thrilling for me. It all began with two mothers, Amber and Jules, and two sons, Gabe and Isaac, but what happened, and how did it end? Told from the point of view of both mothers in alternating chapters, we discover very different versions of a similar story and many times I wanted to tell both of them to get a grip and start behaving like adults. I mean, do innocent people really need to hide stuff from the police?  There are lots of plot twists and turns, some I was expecting and some, not so much so but each added to the overall enjoyment of the book.  If you like a psychological thriller with hundreds of plot changes, then check out Off the Deep End by Lucinda Berry.  Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to l...

I was approached by the author’s assistant, who asked if I would like to read a copy of The Man Without Shelter. The synopsis sounded like something I would enjoy and so I agreed.  Lucy and Arnault are the main characters. Lucy is a lawyer, with a promising future ahead of her and Arnault has recently been released from prison and is now living on the streets of Paris. Through various situations, their lives become linked and the story progresses. Overall, The Man Without Shelter is a good book. I enjoyed both Lucy and Arnault’s stories and with Arnault in particular; the author described, in detail, how he progressed as he left prison and I enjoyed his story. That being said, the book could definitely have done with a final edit. There were quite a few grammatical errors, and it appears that English isn’t the author’s first language. I’m not sure whether the book was written in English or whether it has been translated, however, for me, it didn’t flow as well as it could have done...

I can easily immerse myself into someone else’s dystopian world, so when Samantha Fitzgibbons reached out and asked me whether I would like to read her brand new, debut dystopian novel, Happy State, I grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Happy State is brilliantly written, and I loved it from beginning to end. It was incredibly dark throughout, and I often shuddered and wondering just what the UK would be like if democracy became a dictatorship. It just doesn’t bear thinking about.  Rafella is our protagonist, and she has had to get used to having a curfew and being told what time she has to be home at night. Mobile phones are no longer allowed and nightclubs no longer exist. What I found difficult to comprehend was the plan to ‘remove’ people with any sort of mental illness from society. It was just horrifying. Happy State ended on a massive cliffhanger and I hope Samantha Fitzgibbons is well on her way to writing the next one!  I would definitely recommend Happy Stat...