Archive | May 2023

Escape To Bellbird Bay by Maggie Christensen

May13

Never Too Old

Escape To Bellbird Bay by Maggie Christensen is the sixth book in the Bellbird Bay series but can be read as a stand-alone. It is such a charming contemporary novel. I love my visits to the fictional Bellbird Bay, I always feel as if I am coming home.

Maggie Christensen writes with warmth and sensitivity as she has some tough themes at times. We see the effect of witnessing domestic abuse as a child has on a character. All her life she has feared love and marriage as she equates it with bruises and pain.

Maggie Christensen shows that we are not destined to turn into our parents. Our choices do not have to mirror theirs. We are all individuals carving our own way in life.

Bellbird Bay is a place of refuge. It offers love, friendship and fresh starts. Hurting characters can heal. We see life throws some terrible, undeserved blows, but escaping to Bellbird Bay gives characters the chance to re-assess lives and decide what really matters.

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The Secret Shore by Liz Fenwick

May11

Coming Home

The Secret Shore by Liz Fenwick is an absolutely marvellous historical tale. It will educate you as you read as the novel is grounded in fact.

Liz Fenwick has woven an epic tale with true life figures from World War II. Readers will instantly recognize the name Ian Flemming but many other characters were real too.

The tale is spun around Merry, a skilled cartographer who is remarkable at her craft. Special operatives relied on her eye for detail to make sorties into occupied France.

We see how difficult life was for women, having to choose between love or career. Women had opportunities in war to excel but were returned to the lesser positions in peacetime.

Life was difficult for homosexuals. We follow a couple of ladies who have to behave very differently outside their home. They have to deny who they really are.

The women in the novel are incredibly brave and very clever. They have huge hearts that help others in need.

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You’ve Got This by Maxine Morrey

May9

Cocooned & Loved

You’ve Got This by Maxine Morrey is an absolutely delightful contemporary novel that will warm your heart and make you smile.

The action is in the first person from the point of view of the main character. We get to know her intimately. She is kind and amusing but being a pupil from the school of hard knocks means she has constructed a wall around her heart. “You helped make cracks that let the light in.” We all need to find that person who enables us to trust and to let them into our life. Our lives become richer when we learn to open up and let people in.

A family run hotel welcomes everyone with a warm smile. The reader feels the warmth as a loving kindness envelops us.

Rejection after rejection from a baby has hurt. A character is remarkably undamaged with a sunny personality which the reader admires.

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The Mystery Of The Homeless Man by Gina Cheyne

May7

Seeking The Truth

The Mystery Of The Homeless Man by Gina Cheyne is a contemporary crime novel and the third book in the SeeMS Detective Agency series but can be read as a stand-alone.

We witness the plight of a homeless man who, though invisible to some, had a name and a life. It matters to the ladies of the agency that they seek out the truth and know his story.

There are no lengths to which some will not go in order to seek revenge. In their bitterness, the truth is twisted and lies are spun.

The bond of sisterhood means the ladies of the agency work together – but sometimes it seems that a character prefers the words of a stranger to those whom she knows.

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