Category Archives: Women’s Fiction

9781804547342

Review: Escape to The Tuscan Vineyard by Carrie Walker

by

Escape to the Tuscan Vineyard

 

About the book, Escape to the Tuscan Vineyard Escape to the Tuscan Vineyard

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Aria (August 13, 2024)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages

Pack your bags and uncork the laughter in this delightful romantic escapade!

After getting her heart broken in her early twenties, Abi Mason vowed to live by a simple (but non-negotiable) rule: no second dates. Who needs a boyfriend, or anything else for that matter, when you have a career to think about?

But life has other plans: with some unexpected time on her hands, Abi finds herself on holiday in Tuscany. Among sun-dappled vineyards and olive groves, Abi meets dashing American Tony, and it seems the universe is conspiring to force her out of her comfort zone…

If Abi can break her own rules, could this unexpected Italian fling lead her to a happiness she never dared to dream of?

Buy, read, and discuss this book:

Purchase Link | Goodreads

About the author, Carrie Walker Carrie Walker

Author Bio – Carrie Walker is a Brummie born rom-com lover with a lifelong passion for travel. She has lived in a ski resort, by a beach, in the country and the city, and travelled solo through Asia, South America and Europe. Her own love life was more com than rom until she met her husband a few years ago and settled down with him and her dog Ziggy in a small pub-filled village in Essex. Escape to the Swiss Chalet was her debut novel.

Connect with Carrie:

Instagram | X (Twitter)

Connect with Atria:

Facebook | Instagram | Tiktok | X (Twitter)

My Thoughts MelissaBartell - photo

What a delightful summer read! Escape to the Tuscan Vineyard has everything I love about contemporary fiction:  a plucky lead character, an exotic location, and a romance that’s sprinkled with a healthy dose of organic comedy – the kind that comes from people and situations and never feels contrived.

What I loved was that Abi isn’t perfect but is beautifully flawed.  A bad relationship when she was young has given her very believable trust issues, and watching her untangle herself from her history was both endearing and funny.  Especially once she meets Tony, who might just be worth some mental  – and emotional  – unpacking.

I also appreciated that Abi’s friends were really supportive of her – even pointing out that she does things for other people all the time, and therefore should let them take care of her for a change (I’m looking at you, Holly.)  Her visit to her friend is, of course, the catalyst for the bulk of the novel.

 

Similarly, I enjoyed the villain of the piece. Blake was written brilliantly – just the right blend of smiles and sleaze.

 

Author Carrie Walker’s breezy style is ideal for this type of story. It’s light without being frothy, and the characters, while living in a somewhat heightened version of reality, are also extremely relatable. (I laughed out loud at the opening scene with Abi and her mother.)

 

Overall, this is a solid rom-com with some great moments.

 

Goes well with: limoncello, on a balcony, at dusk.

Visit the Other Great Blogs on This Tour

Escape To The Tuscan Vineyard Full Tour Banner

Review: Come Fly With Me, by Helen Rolfe

by

Come Fly With Me

 

About the book, Come Fly with Me

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Boldwood Books (May 22, 2024)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 22, 2024
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English

Come Fly With MeTake to the skies in this gorgeous and gripping new series, perfect for fans of Jo Bartlett and Cathy Bramley.

A Second Chance…

For Maya, serving as a pilot in the Whistlestop River air ambulance team is a dream come true. And now, with her divorce from her overbearing husband finally complete, flying over the fields of Dorset, and saving lives with the Skylarks, is the centre of her world. If only her ex would accept their separation as readily as she had, life would be perfect…

A fresh start…

Having recently transferred from London to Dorset, paramedic Noah is ready for a new start. But he’s brought with him a lot of baggage, not least his infant niece who he’s been looking after since his sister died unexpectedly earlier that year. Noah adores Eva, but is he really cut out to look after a baby?

A risk worth taking?

When Noah and Maya find themselves on the same rescue team, they’re immediately drawn to each other. Yet, with so many complications in their personal lives, do they have time to open their hearts to someone new?

As their friendship grows, Noah and Maya are both about to discover that life is worth nothing unless you share it with the people you love.

Buy, read, and discuss this book:

Purchase Link | Goodreads

About the author, Helen Rolfe Author photograph for Helen J Rolfe

Helen Rolfe writes contemporary women’s fiction and romantic fiction. She enjoys weaving stories about family, friendship, secrets, and relationships. Characters often face challenges and must fight to overcome them, but above all, Helen’s stories always have a happy ending.

Helen loves creating village settings or places with a small-town feel and a big sense of community. Location has always been a big part of the adventure in Helen’s books and she enjoys setting stories in different cities and countries around the world. So far, locations have included Melbourne, Sydney, New York, Connecticut, Bath, Paris and the Cotswolds.

Helen has added Dorset to her list of locations with the launch of Come Fly With Me, set in the fictitious town of Whistlestop River. Come Fly With Me is the first book in Helen’s brand new series centred around an air ambulance team, the Skylarks, who take to the skies to save lives.

Born and raised in the UK, Helen graduated from University with a business degree and began working in I.T. This job took her over to Australia where she eventually turned her attentions back to the career she’d dreamt of since she was fourteen. She studied writing and journalism and wrote articles for women’s health and fitness magazines. Helen began writing fiction in 2011 and hasn’t missed the I.T. world one little bit… in fact she may just have found her dream job!

Connect with Helen:

Newsletter Signup | BookBub Profile | Facebook | Instagram | X (Twitter)

My Thoughts MelissaBartell - photo

I recently binged all of the available episodes of the American/Canadian show SkyMed and the Australian show RFDS, both of which feature flying medical services, so picking up Helen Rolfe’s novel, Come Fly with Me was the perfect follow up. I read it in one weekend, and then spent a few nights listening to the audiobook as I fell asleep, and enjoyed both immensely.

What I liked most was that this isn’t a story about innocent ingenues. Both Maya and Noah have life experience, and been adversely affected by it. Reading a friends-to-romance story about actual adults with jobs and children was wonderful, and both characters really sang.

I also liked the choice to set it in a flying EMT service. I love hospital dramas as much as anyone, but adding the element of flight took things to another level (no pun intended) and really let Rolfe show off her research skills as well.

The pacing of the story seemed pretty much perfect to me, and I enjoyed the side characters as well, because they rounded out the story and added dimension to the leads. I also appreciated Rolfe’s vivid descriptions of the fields around Dorset and the skies above them. I felt like I was along for the helicopter ride, racing to someone’s rescue.

Overall, this is a fantastic read, much deeper than a typical romance, with a really satisfying story.  The fact that it’s book one of a new series is an added bonus.

Goes well with coffee and a breakfast sandwich from a local café.

Visit the Other Great Blogs on This Tour

Come Fly With Me Full Tour Banner

Review: Old Girls Behaving Badly by Kate Galley

by

Old Girls Behaving Badly

 

About the book, Old Girls Behaving Badly Old Girls Behaving Badly ebook

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Boldwood Books (May 13, 2024)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 280 pages

A delightfully heartwarming and funny story that proves it’s never too late to change the habits of a lifetime, perfect for fans of Judy Leigh, Hazel Prior and Maddie Please.

Something old, something new, something stolen…?

Gina Knight is looking forward to the prospect of retirement with her husband of forty-three years. Until, to her surprise, said husband decides he needs to ‘find himself’ – alone – and disappears to Santa Fe, leaving divorce papers in his wake.

Now Gina needs a new role in life, not to mention somewhere to live, so she applies for the position of Companion to elderly Dorothy Reed. At eighty-three, ‘Dot’ needs someone to help her around the house – or at least, her family seems to think so. Her companion’s first role would be to accompany Dot for a week-long extravagant wedding party.

But when Georgina arrives at the large Norfolk estate where the wedding will take place, she quickly discovers Dot has an ulterior motive for hiring her. While the other guests are busy sipping champagne and playing croquet, Dot needs Georgina to help her solve a mystery – about a missing painting, which she believes is hidden somewhere in the house.

Because, after all, who would suspect two old ladies of getting up to mischief?

Buy, read, and discuss this book:

Purchase Link | Goodreads

About the author, Kate Galley Kate Galley

Kate Galley writes UpLit and Bookclub fiction full of heart and humour. The older generation are at the centre of her stories and are usually wrapped up in a mystery.

She lives with her family in Buckinghamshire and works part time as a mobile hairdresser in the surrounding Chiltern villages.

In her spare time she crochets blankets, knits jumpers and also disappears into her workshop to play with kiln formed glass.

Kate is the author of The Second Chance Holiday Club – which has been optioned for TV – and The Golden Girls’ Road Trip.

Connect with Kate:

Newsletter Signup | BookBub Profile | Facebook | X (Twitter)

My Thoughts MelissaBartell - photo

There’s a meme going around which reads, “Your time on earth is limited. Don’t try to age with grace. Age with mischief, audacity, and a good story to tell.”  Gina and Dorothy, the two women at the heart of this novel are perfect representations of that thought. Gina is 71 when her husband asks for a divorce and, in an attempt to rebuild her life, answers an ad to be a companion for an older woman. The woman in question, Dorothy, is in her eighties and while her faculties seem fine, she did have a fall that has her children concerned.

What I liked about this novel is that it’s a love story but not in the romantic sense. Rather it’s the story of each of these women learning to love themselves, and the loving friendship they form through the course of the novel, which also has a wedding, business betrayals, adult children having issues about their parents’ divorce, and many other every-day dramas.

Author Kate Galley has given us a pair of vivid central characters, who are refreshingly authentic and timeless in the way the best writing always is. As someone who is inching ever closer to being Gina’s age, I was tickled to see older women portrayed with vitality and curiosity. As someone who lives in Florida, where there is a very large population of retirees, I see such women every day, and both of these characters felt like the same people I sit next to in the nail salon, or are at the next table and whatever lunch spot I take my mother to.

Also worthy of note was the pacing. This  book moved well – it’s  a relatively fast read, but felt much shorter than its 280 (in print) pages, never dragging.

Over all, this is a solid novel, perfect for summer reading, and it kept my interest all the way through.

Goes well with: strawberry shortcake.

Visit the Other Great Blogs on This Tour

Old Girls Behaving Badly Full Tour Banner

Annie in Paris

Review: Annie in Paris by Carmen Reid

by

Annie In Paris

 

About the book, Annie in Paris 

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Boldwood Books (April 30, 2024)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages

Personal shopper Annie Valentine is back! Older and bolder! Annie In Paris

Fashion guru Annie is struggling to cope with her hectic life. With the demands of two older children, plus four-year-old twins, her marriage to Ed is in a romance-free rut and she’s clinging by a couture thread to her job as the nation’s favourite fashion fixer.

And where is Svetlana, her multi-millionaire friend, when Annie needs her? Busy with an expensive mid-life crisis, that’s where!

When Ed gets the chance to teach in Paris, Annie thinks time apart could be the answer. Wrong!

In Paris, Ed transforms into a debonair silver fox, attracting the attentions of stylish siren Sylvie.

Annie can’t lose her man or the job she loves, so bundling her bags, her babies and a reluctant Svetlana onto the Eurostar, she sets off to the rescue. But can the City of Love deliver the ooh la la that her marriage, and her fashion series, so desperately needs?

Another brilliant laugh out loud emotional read, perfect for fans of Fiona Gibson, Tracy Bloom and Sophie Ranald!

Buy, read, and discuss this book:

Click to Purchase | Goodreads

About the author, Carmen Reid Carmen Reid

Carmen Reid is the bestselling author of numerous woman’s fiction titles including the Personal Shopper series starring Annie Valentine. After taking a break from writing she is back, introducing her hallmark feisty women characters to a new generation of readers. She lives in Glasgow with her husband and children.

Connect with Carmen:

Newsletter Signup | BookBub | Facebook | Instagram | X (Twitter)

My Thoughts MelissaBartell - photo

I’m new to Carmen Reid’s Annie Valentine series, but she provided a helpful character guide at the beginning of the book, which made jumping in at book seven much easier. It’s possible that I would have noticed different details or responded to in-jokes if I were more familiar with the series, but I felt this book, Annie in Paris, was perfectly enjoyable as a stand-alone.

I really loved that Annie is the working mother of young twins plus older children, and that we get to see the very real (if humor-injected) struggle of managing work and family.  I also appreciated that Annie is, essentially, a problem-solver, even though some of her solutions are over the top.

The ultimate example of this is, of course, the premise of the novel itself: when her husband, who is off in Paris on a work trip, is photographed sitting a little too close to his female colleague, Annie arranges for childcare, calls her producers (she’s a tv host) and goes to Paris herself.

Added to the mix is Annie’s close friend, Svetlana, who is feeling age creeping a bit to close – she joins the chaos in France as well, getting a much needed wardrobe update in the process.

Author Reid has given us some serious subjects in this book – fidelity (or lack thereof), aging, work/life-balance – but she wraps everything with the perfect combination of poignance and organic humor.

Overall, this is a lovely story, the perfect read for summer.

Goes well with: warm croissants, fresh strawberries, and café au lait.

Visit the Other Great Blogs on This Tour

Annie In Paris Full Tour Banner