Double Booked by Lily Lindon - Review

 

I picked this book up earlier in the year somewhere or other, because I was really intrigued by the blurb and thought it sounded great. I took it away on holiday to Greece with me thinking it would be perfect holiday reading. I ended up really not liking it. I made my way through it and then left it on the bookshelf in the hotel because I knew I wouldn't read it again. I saw a woman I had spoken to briefly had picked it up and I wanted to say 'This isn't representative of what I usually read! It isn't very good!' but I didn't. I can't really say why it wasn't my thing. I do think it skews a lot younger than it is. Georgina is 26 but it reads more like Young Adult than fiction for adults. 

Anyway yes the protagonist is Georgina, known as Gina to her friends. She lives with her boyfriend, Doug, who she met at university seven years ago and started a relationship with. They have a boring, uber scheduled life. This is partly due to Gina's past because of some trauma she lived through, which she got through by setting strict routines. But it's also partly because Doug is just really extremely boring. Gina's best friend Soph is a vlogger and influencer who is Black and a lesbian. She drags Gina out to a gay bar one night where Gina meets Kit, who is in a really cool band called Phase. Gina ends up joining the band as their drummer. The others just assume that she is gay like them and she just doesn't .......bother telling them otherwise? It's really annoying because if she just spoke up it would be fine. But I guess part of the problem is that Gina realises she has a crush on Kit. She starts to unpack her bisexuality. I absolutely didn't have a problem with this - it happens to tons of people and I did quite like the way she did this.

But, what I didn't like was the way that George - as the band calls her - starts to change herself to make herself seem queerer and to 'fit in' more. She cuts her hair, she starts to wear flannel shirts and Doc Marten boots and like, I get that, I'm here for people exploring themselves, but it just seemed so trite? It really annoyed me. Plus Gina is lying to her boyfriend which annoyed me, and people should just sit down and talk to each other. 

I also really didn't like how Soph reacted to her friend coming out. They needed a better chat about it at the end of the book but again that didn't happen. I understood why Sophie felt a bit threatened and a bit annoyed but again like - don't we welcome people into the queer community? I would if it was a friend of mine. 

I'm apparently still angry about this book even though it's two months since I read it by the time I'm writing this! I'm giving this two out of five and I definitely wouldn't read anything else by the author. I really hope that the woman who picked this up enjoyed it more than I did! 

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell - Review

I love Rainbow Rowell and I've read a lot of her Young Adult stuff, so when I saw this on Netgalley I was intrigued as it's an adult novel. I wanted to read it, and was pleased to get it approved. Thank you so much to Penguin Random House for granting me access to this book. I was provided with an electronic copy of the book for review purposes, but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

The book is about Shiloh and Cary. At the beginning of the book they are both in Omaha, their home town, for a friend's wedding. They are about thirty three at this point. Their mutual friend Mikey is getting married to someone he knew in high school, Janine. Shiloh and Cary were best friends with Mikey at high school; the three of them ran together and were pretty attached at the hip. Shiloh got out and went to university elsewhere. Cary joined the navy, where he still is. Mikey is an artist and was in like New York or something but he's now back at home too. Shiloh never really felt like she fitted in at high school, I think, but she met Ryan at college and was lucky to find a job in theater in Omaha, so ended up living there. She and Ryan had two children, Juniper and Gus, who in the book are six and three. She and Ryan got divorced and she is now living in her childhood home with her mother, Gloria. She and Ryan supposedly have 50/50 custody but he isn't that reliable. He is also seeing someone new, which Shiloh isn't happy about. 

She and Cary had this kind of mutual attraction in high school but never really acted on it. There are flashbacks to high school in the book, which really reminded me of Rainbow's YA novels, and I do think this is where her strength lies. I love how painful it is to be seventeen and eighteen in her books; I think those bits work really well. Especially as all three main characters desperately want to get out of Omaha and be someone. Shiloh's mom was not the most reliable of parents (although she seems a better grandmother) and Cary's family is complicated. The woman he calls Mom, Lois, is actually his grandma. His real mum is his 'sister' Jackie. This is never spoken about, though, but it is painful for Cary. 

When they meet up they dance and they leave together, but they don't end up having sex. Cary is leaving again for his deployment on a ship, but there is obviously chemistry between them. Then Lois falls and Cary asks Shiloh for help. When he comes back they meet up. He meets her kids. They almost get together - and then don't. It's an absolutely delicious dance, I really enjoyed it. Shiloh and Cary are both great people and I liked the depth of their feelings and self awareness. Shiloh almost seems asexual, which she seems pretty okay with, and I liked how this was dealt with. Her kids are a little precocious, which is a criticism, but I sort of forgave them. 

I liked the kind of romancing part, when Cary is away and they're emailing each other. The latter part of the book, when Mikey gets married, is set in 2006, so the internet does exist but smartphones don't. I think this was a deliberate choice because Rainbow is the same age; she would have been the same age as them in high school in 1991. Shiloh is coming into herself in her thirties which I think is something a lot of women do. I would love to see this book set today and then high school in the mid noughties, but I liked it this way too. 

I liked how much of their lives just happened. They want to be together but LIFE keeps happening and happy endings are rarely straightforward. I really liked the book and am glad I read it. I'm giving it four out of five. 

Only for the Holidays by Abiola Bello - Review

I saw a recommendation for this book on Twitter and bought it when it was 99p. I saved it to read over Christmas but it took me absolutely forever because I just really didn't enjoy it. I'm trying to work out whether it's just me and whether the book just wasn't a good fit for me, or whether it is actually bad. I read a few of the two and one star reviews to see if people agreed with me and actually I think that this is just somewhat of a bad book. 

The book is dual narrative, from the points of view of Quincy and Tia. Quincy lives on a farm in a rural town where his family is basically the only Black family in the area. They run the farm with several holiday cottages and have a fancy restaurant and stuff. Quincy is the youngest of three - his sister Drew is an internet sensation and his brother Cam is a DJ. Quincy is still at college. He had a girlfriend, Kali, but before the beginning of the book he found out that she slept with his best friend Simon and he hasn't spoken to either of them since. He's still heartbroken and concentrating on the horses and working and stuff, but he's pretty miserable. 

Tia lives in Peckham with her mum and sisters. Her older sister Willow and she have the same dad, who now lives in America. Their little sister, Banks, is only four. Her dad, Paul, is still around, but their Mum, Tope, and he are no longer together. Tope lost her job and the family had to move and it's all been a lot of upheaval for Tia. Tia has a boyfriend, Mike, who is a bit of a dickhead. Her best friend is called Remi and I wish we had seen more of her, to be honest. Mike is about to turn eighteen and Tia has been organising all of his party and is going to take the cake. However, Tia is feeling a bit underappreciated by him - he has never told her that he loves her and he's just a bit of a loser. He asks her for some space but she isn't really sure what that is supposed to mean. 

Then Tope announces that she's been given a two week (or even more?) trip to Quincy's farm to stay in one of the cottages. She needs the break so she takes her kids down there. But there's a mix up with the booking and the cottages are all full. Instead, Tia's family ends up staying in Quincy's house itself. Tia is not happy about the holiday and is determined to not enjoy herself - especially as she definitely doesn't like horses or sheep or the lack of internet. 

Quincy's family is holding a ball this Christmas, and it's a big deal because they're the first Black family to do so. Quincy doesn't have a date so he makes up a girl called Leah, but then of course he asks Tia for a favour. She says she will goes as his date if he will help her get back to London for Mike's party to sort everything out. They have to fake it in front of his friends and it nearly all goes wrong, but the two of them find themselves falling for each other anyway... 

I just felt like there were too many tropes in the book, including the fact that Tia loves baking and that they go ice skating and blah blah blah. It needed about half of it cutting out, I swear. 

One of my main criticisms was that this book felt like an American novel that had somehow been transported to the south of England. Some American things seemed to remain, like that every teenager had a fancy car (maybe they were just rich?) and just some other weird stuff. I also didn't get why Tia and her family had to go to the farm like at the beginning of December. Would a mum really take her kids out of school and college for so long? It did give Tia and Quincy time to get to know each other, which is why I suspect it was done, but it just didn't seem real. Maybe I needed to suspend my disbelief for the whole book, though! 

I'm giving this two out of five, unfortunately. Sorry, just not for me. 

Unorthodox Love by Heidi Shertok - Review

(Can you see where I broke my tablet? I dropped it about 5am in the tiled bathroom on holiday and it cracked all over - this photo doesn't show the spread of the crack in the bottom left all over the read of the screen. It's still usable but a bit weird, and I was really annoyed!)

I saw an author I follow recommend this book on Twitter (I will never call it X) a while back, and then they did it again when it was 99pm so I took a gamble and bought it for that. I don't generally read romance but I was intrigued by this because of the Orthodox Jewish characters. I might have mentioned before that my undergraduate degree was in Theology and Religious Studies and I'm interested in all sorts of religions. I don't like fundamentalists of any stripe, but Penina in this book is more modern Orthodox so that was fine. I have read my fair share of fanfiction in my time (and written it!) and I think there were a bunch of tropes in this book that seemed really fanficcy, but that just made me really gleeful! I would like to read more romances in this ilk, so definitely recommend some if you know any!

Penina is twenty nine years old and she works in a jewellery store with her coworkers, Maya and Gina. She and Maya are friends, but Gina is awful. Their boss, Joe, is ill, so he is having some time off. Penina volunteers in the NICU of her local hospital, and their she meets Sam, a hospital benefactor. He then turns out to be Joe's son, and he is taking over the running of the shop. Penina thinks he's hot, but lots of misunderstandings occur and they get on each other's nerves, but this is a romance! There'll be a happily ever after! I very much went in knowing that, but I loved how we got there!

Because there are complications. Penina can't have children, which explains why she's not married at twenty nine. In Orthodox Jewish culture girls generally marry young and have several children. Penina's sister Libby is just a bit older than her and she has four children and is married. Their younger sister Fraydie is a bit of a livewire and is mischievous. Penina has been using a matchmaker (very usual in the culture) to try to find a husband. But because of her infertility, she is matched with some proper weirdos and some men a lot older than her. She's about to give up when she meets Zevi, but I won't say anymore about that bit of the book.

And then there's Sam. The two of them do obviously really like each other, but there's a lot of confusion between them. Sam is Jewish but he's not Orthodox, which is kind of a deal breaker for Penina. But she can't keep away from him! 

Penina also dresses modestly and is an influencer on social media with her outfits. She's really into fashion and I liked this and how it was portrayed, and how she had other people who dress modestly who followed her, like Mormons and Muslims. I loved this crossover! I liked the look at modesty within the Jewish culture. Penina didn't ever really judge how other women were dressed, though, which I also liked. 

I also liked the look at Jewish culture in the form of shabbat dinners and stuff like that. It's really nicely done and well explained if it's a culture that is totally new to the reader. I really liked Penina too - she feels like she can fix anyone and anything because she's got a really kind heart, and also because it stops her thinking of her own problems. I so wanted everything to work out for her!

I'm giving this five out of five because I really liked it. 

Make You Mine This Christmas by Lizzie Huxley-Jones - Review

I follow Lizzie on Twitter and was so intrigued by their new romantic novel which is set at Christmas. So I requested it on Netgalley and was so thrilled to have it granted. Make You Mine This Christmas was published by Hodder & Stoughton on the 13th of October 2022. I was provided with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

I'm not usually much of a rom com fan but I loved the disaster queers nature of this book after I'd read Lizzie talking about it on Twitter. I saved it for just a couple of weeks before Christmas and it was so cosy and cute. I loved it! 

So, the hero of the story is Haf. She has had a difficult year, including a move to York and a new career. She lives with Ambrose, who is a bit of an influencer and is non-binary. Ambrose is off to their family for Christmas, but due to a mix up with Haf's parents she will be alone. She agrees to go to a party with Ambrose (they totally crash it) and while there she meets Christopher. They are outside in the garden under some mistletoe and end up kissing, when they're interrupted by Lauren, who happens to be Christopher's ex girlfriend. She's got her new boyfriend with her, who is insufferable, and the two of them end up assuming that Haf and Christopher are together. The two of them kind of go along with it, and then Lauren says she'll love to see Haf in Oxlea for Christmas with Christopher's family.

Then Haf and Christopher chat and sort of decide it would be good to have Haf alongside Christopher at the family home, because then his parents won't get on to him and stuff. Haf has nothing better to do, so she agrees to her. They arrange to meet in London. Haf travels down by herself, and is at St Pancras station in the bookshop when she has a meet cute with a very beautiful girl. This girl is disabled and they bond over the book Carol, which Haf buys. The bookseller notices how cute they are but they both have to get their trains, so nothing else comes of it.

Haf and Christopher arrive in Oxlea and Haf is surprised by how rich the family is and how huge the house is. Then of course the twist - the meet cute girl is Christopher's sister, Kit! It's all awkward and many, many shenanigans ensue. This book is so daft, with so many funny bits happening. I loved the stuff at the local fair, and I loved the stuff with the black tie ball and Lauren. The ending is so happy, despite everything that happens before it. I really liked this cute, fluffy book. I loved Kit, she was such a good love interest. I liked Christopher, who learns to stand up to his family and who is really well rounded. And I really liked Haf, who is heavily coded as autistic (something which the author mentions at the end). She is excellent. 

I'm giving this four out of five and am so glad I read it! 

Did Not Finish - Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

It is so rare that I don't finish a book, but I just couldn't get on with this at all. I thought I'd just write a quick post, because it really seems like a me problem than a problem with the book.

I saw loads of people rave about this series of books, so I bought the first two probably like six months ago and was looking forward to reading them. I have to admit, I thought they were Young Adult fiction and was surprised when I started this and it isn't! Chloe is thirty one, so I don't know why I thought it was otherwise... but I did. 

At the beginning of the book Chloe lives in her parents' mansion with her younger sisters, her parents, and her grandmother. Chloe works in social media and she is also chronically ill. She has fibromyalgia and I think arthritis and a lot of joint problems. She sometimes has to take a lot of painkillers and lives with brain fog because of that. I loved all this part of what I read - there aren't enough books about chronically ill young people and I liked how honest Chloe was about her illness and her pain and her limitations. (I suffer with chronic pain myself so empathised and sympathised). 

She is almost knocked down while walking on the street, and regards it as a near death experience. She is pretty shaken up and decides to write a bucket list of things she wants to do. First on the list is to move out of her parents' house, so she does. She moves into a block of flats which has a superintendent in residence. Red. He is an artist but he's had a terrible relationship and given it up, so a friend of his has given him the job. As a superintendent. Now I dunno about you but I've literally never heard of a block of flats in the UK that had a superintendent, so I found that weird. Plus at one point the edition I was reading had 'colour' spelt as 'color', I'm not sure if that was intentional. And Chloe and Red are bantering at one point and one of them says something about 'filing your taxes'. Now I'm self employed so I literally do do my own taxes, but I'd never say I 'filed' them. It felt like Americanisms shoved into a British book set in "South Nottinghamshire" and I found that very weird. 

I also found the insta romance a bit hard to swallow. I liked the beginning and I was beginning to care about Chloe and her family, but then she quickly moves out so you don't see all her family much, which disappointed me. She then instantly decides she both hates and likes Red because... he is hot and owns a motorbike? Okay. 

I'd have really preferred this if it was a YA romance, but I'm sorry, it just wasn't for me! 

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon - Review and Blog Tour

(This is a proof copy)

Where did I get it? I signed up to the blog tour and then I was lucky enough to win a raffled proofy copy. It arrived and I had forgotten signing up for the tour, but I was very excited to get stuck in to it! I read The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola years and years ago. 

What's it about? Evie is a senior in high school. She lives with her mum and sister Danica. She used to love romance novels and used to believe in Happily Ever After, but ever since her parents split up and she discovered her dad was cheating on her mum, she's lost her faith in love. She donates all her books to a little free library, and as she does she meets a mysterious woman who insists she takes a book called Instructions for Dancing. 

The book seems to give Evie magical powers - when she sees a couple kiss she can see their entire relationship planned out, including when and how they will break up. This makes her believe in true love even less. She tells her friend Martin about her visions. 

The book contains the address for a dance studio not far from Evie's house, so, encouraged by her Martin, she goes along. There, she meets instructor Fifi, and X, a rock musician from New York who, fuelled by tragedy in his personal life, is determined to say yes to everything in life. Fifi wants Evie and X to dance together in an amateur competition. Evie does think X is beautiful and smart and funny, but she's determined to not fall in love. 

Plus she's still not talking to her dad, unwilling to forgive him. 

This is a lovely romantic book. Evie and X are completely loveable characters with complex lives. I liked Evie's friends too, even though we don't see as much of them as I'd have liked. I loved the setting and all the minor characters. I lounged in bed one Friday morning finishing this book because I absolutely loved it and I wanted to know what happened, and it was worth it. 

What age range is it for? 14+ I think 

Are any main characters LGBTQ+? There's a subplot with two queer characters, which I won't spoil but which I did like 

Are any main characters people of colour? Yes, I think the only white people are Martin and their friend Cassidy.  

Are any main characters disabled either mentally or physically? No 

Is there any sex stuff? Very brief mentions 

Are drugs mentioned or used? No I don't think so

Is there any talk of death? Yes, and it was SO SAD. 

Are there swear words? A few, judiciously used 

 

What criticisms do I have? None. Not one. It's lovely 

Would I recommend the book? Yep yep yep! 

What do I think of the cover? It's lovely and vibrant! I would pick it up in a book shop 

 

What other books is it like? It reminded me of anything by Elizabeth Acevedo. 

How many stars? Five out of five 

 

Where is the book going now? I will probably lend it to my friend Lucinda! 

 

Instructions for Dancing is out now. I was given a free copy of the novel for review purposes but was not compensated in any other way for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Iris & Ruby by Rosie Thomas - Review

This book was the October choice for my book club, and I bought a second hand copy off eBay. I'm not sure I would have ever picked up this book by myself, and the first half dragged a bit for me, but I really liked it by the end. My book club is tonight (as I'm writing this) and I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone else thought about it. 

The book was published in 2007 and is set around then. Ruby is nineteen and arrives to her grandmother's house in Cairo having run away from her family home in Kent. Her mother is back home worried frantic about her, but there's a gap between Ruby and Lesley that neither of them can seem to cross. Iris, Ruby's grandmother, has lived a reclusive life in Cairo for many years. She is beginning to lose her memory, and is quite frail. She hasn't spent much time at all with Ruby before, but she agrees that Ruby can stay in Cairo with her for a while. 

Ruby rubs up against Iris' staff, Mamdooh and Auntie, who fuss over Iris to quite some degree. She also starts to explore Cairo with Ash, a boy that she really likes, who wants to become a doctor but who has to work nights in the hospital to help keep his family afloat. Ruby has had some recent sadness in her life, and is quite raw and still grieving. 

Iris has lived in Cairo for years, but before that she was a doctor in remote parts of Africa doing basic medical care and didn't spend much time at home with her husband Gordon and her child, Lesley. This led to the two of them not having much of a relationship once Lesley was an adult. Lesley in her turn has become an over protective mum and Ruby has rebelled against this.

Iris also lived in Cairo during the Second World War and it's this we see from her point of view throughout the book. She was the secretary to an officer, and she lived with an Egyptian girl, Faria, and another English girl, Sarah. Her life is a whirlwind of cocktail parties and dinner with officers who are never sure when they will head back to the desert front to fight. This makes them reckless men, and the women are tugged along for the ride.

Iris meets Captain Xan Molyneux and starts a relationship with him. The two fall in love and Iris makes many plans for their future. It's obvious that Xan didn't survive the war, and this is the great love that Iris never got over. She is back in Cairo because that's where she feels closest to him. She lives in a huge house that has become very dusty and unloved, and which belonged to a friend of Iris during the war. Iris ended up becoming friends with some medical personel during the war and that's how she ended up a doctor.  

She and Ruby forge a relationship throught the time Ruby is in Cairo. Something happens in the second half of the book that I loved, and which redeemed the whole book for me. It's really long though, and I did feel the first half dragged a lot. I very nearly gave up on the book but really wanted to finish it for book club. 

I loved the depiction of Cairo during the war, which had a lot of information that I didn't know. I enjoyed learning the history. The depiction of the glamourous girls and the parties was so good, too. It was all too easy to imagine, and imagine the personalities of the men who were determined to make the most of all their off time and they didn't know how long they had. I liked Iris but did find her quite cold and didn't quite think that her great love affair with Xan was reason enough to not move on properly latrer in her life. I loved Ruby and felt very sorry for her. I loved a lot of the secondary characters, too, especially Ash. Cairo itself is almost a chracter in its own right. I really want to visit one day!

I'm giving this four out of five. 

That Holiday in France by Rhoda Baxter - Blog Tour

Hello! I am thrilled to welcome you today to my blog for my stop on this blog tour! I hope you will have a look around while you're here.

I read A Convenient Marriage by Jeevani Charika last year (the link is my review) and really enjoyed it. Rhoda Baxter is Jeevani's pen name, so when I saw the chance to join in this blog tour I jumped at it as I wanted to read something else by her. This is a really cute novella and was just what I needed after feeling like I'd slogged my way through the last couple of books I'd read. I read half of this in bed last Thursday evening, and then on Friday morning my partner was in a work meeting so I ate crumpets in bed while reading the rest of this, with sunshine and fresh air pouring in the window. It was lovely!

This novella is about a young woman called Ellie who is in a relationship with Luke. They have been together for four years since she was seventeen, and seem to have the rest of their lives mapped out. They'll move in together, and get married, and have some kids. Ellie doesn't actually mind this prospect, but then she's invited to her friend Sophie's wedding in France.

Luke is determined that she won't go, that it's a waste of "their" money. He basically forbids her, and she realises for the first time that she's quite scared of him. She breaks up with him.

Ellie's dad is equally displeased about her plan to go to France. He is distrustful of foreigners ever since Ellie's mum ran off with one, and he and Luke have similar ideas on life in general and what the rest of Ellie's should look like.

However, Ellie really wants to see her friend get married so she sets off. In London, she meets up with Ash, another friend of Sophie's who Ellie knows from school and from around the village, but isn't really friends with - especially because Luke was always nasty to him if they met him in the pub or something. Ash is completely dishy and encourages Ellie to come out of her shell a bit more when they're in France. But Ellie totally isn't looking for anyone else so soon after Luke, is she?

There's a lovely romance, and a lovely end part of the book, too, which happens after Ellie returns from France. In France she shows off her baking skills by making amuse bouches for the wedding, and this becomes something she can use when she's back in Yorkshire. I liked Ellie - I thought she was a plucky kind of heroine and I wanted her to be happy. I loved Ash, and I liked the Yorkshire setting and the setting of her workplace in the bakery/cafe.

I'm giving this four out of five and would recommend it if you need a bit of lovely, holiday, sunshiney romance!

Here's the official blurb of the book:

When Ellie’s boyfriend forbids her from going to France to attend her best friend’s wedding, she decides she’s had enough. She dumps him and goes to France by herself. But travelling alone is scary and Ellie realises how reliant she’d become on the men in her life.
On holiday, she learns to trust her own judgement and grows in confidence. Just when she decides she doesn’t need a man to complete her, she meets Ash, who is everything her ex wasn’t.
But is Ellie willing to give up her new found independence and link herself to another man?

• Friends to lovers
• Heroine asserting her independence
• Summer in France
• Tiny puddings

That Holiday In France is a standalone story set in the little Yorkshire village of Trewton Royd. Ideal for fans of Mhairi McFarlane or Sophie Kinsella.

Author Bio:

Rhoda Baxter writes romantic comedies about strong heroines and nice-guy heroes. Having studied microbiology at university, Rhoda likes all things science geeky. She also loves cake, crochet and playing with Lego. She lives in Yorkshire with her young family and wishes she had more time to bake.

You can find out more about her (and get a free book by signing up to her newsletter) on her website. 

www.rhodabaxter.com 

Twitter @rhodabaxter

Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/RhodaBaxterAuthor)