Archive | October 2023

Before You Loved Me by Samantha Gregson

Neither Time Nor Space

Before You Loved Me by Samantha Gregson is the most beautiful contemporary novel about Maltese The Buddy Dog. I absolutely adored the book. This is a real treat for animal lovers everywhere. The Buddy Dog is based on the author’s own dog.

The story is about being rescued. The Buddy Dog is rescued several times and he is also responsible for the rescues of two humans.

The Buddy Dog had a terrible start in life and then he was rescued. He formed a beautiful bond with eleven year old Sara – and then life intervened.

The Buddy Dog knows all about bad homes and bad owners. He recognizes the badness in others and knows just who needs rescuing – whether it’s another dog, a rabbit or a human. The Buddy Dog has a huge heart, full of compassion. He is looking to give love and to be loved. He still believes in goodness even when he is alone. “Buddy wasn’t broken by his abuse. He learned to trust again.”

Continue reading

Drumbeats by Julia Ibbotson

A Journey Of Discovery

Drumbeats by Julia Ibbotson is a marvellous historical coming-of-age novel that completely enthralled me. It is the first book in the Drumbeats trilogy.

The novel is set in 1965-1966. It is the dawn of a new era. Travel is beginning to open up and there are new freedoms on the horizon for women. The 1960’s was a decade that brought choice.

We follow an eighteen year old girl on her gap year to Ghana. Here she teaches English to local girls. It is a year in which her eyes will be opened, new friendships formed and old traumas re-visited.

Travelling to small villages shows up the terrible poverty. Children are dying through lack of basic medication and no mosquito nets. Any aid given is a drop in the ocean but can make a difference.

Having been sheltered in England with a Quaker upbringing, the leading lady rapidly grows up in Ghana. She proves herself to be very capable and far wiser than her years.

The leading lady’s hometown is Birmingham but it is Ghana that speaks to her heart and soul as she hears the rhythm of the drums.

Continue reading

Christmas At The Cabin by Rebecca Boxall

Cover Reveal

Christmas at the Cabin

A festive, coming-of-age tale about an Oxbridge candidate and a young homeless man who find themselves in the bittersweet predicament of falling in love with exactly the right person at exactly the wrong time.

Well-to-do Jed never imagined he’d end up homeless, but family circumstances have made it his only option. Local vicar, Ben, tries to help him but there’s an element of self-punishment to the homelessness that makes Jed continue to put up with his situation – until disaster leads him to re-consider the vicar’s offer of a place to stay.

Hattie is on the cusp of adulthood, frantically trying to persuade her mum that she doesn’t want to attend an elite university, preferring the idea of pursuing her love of art and textiles. When she meets Jed, she badly wants to understand his circumstances and why, when she has everything at her fingertips, he doesn’t.

Hattie’s mum, Christine, has had a hard life and is desperate for more for her only child. When she meets Ben, the vicar who’s trying to help Jed, she finds an unlikely ally, and the two heartbroken souls find themselves drawn to each other. Until they find their relationship suddenly tested to the limit.

Continue reading

Her Last Summer by Emily Freud

Cover Reveal

Her Last Summer

A twenty-year-old cold case unearths dark secrets in the scorching-hot destination thriller from Emily Freud.

Twenty years ago, Mari vanished while backpacking through Thailand with her boyfriend, Luke. He was accused of murder, but has always insisted he’s innocent. Besides, her body was never found.

Now, he’s finally ready to talk. And filmmaker Cassidy Chambers wants to be the one to uncover what really happened, back then, in the dark of the jungle.

But as she delves deeper into the past, Cassidy begins to fear what lies ahead, and the secrets buried along the way.

Publication Date: 11th April 2024

Pre-order Link – https://amzn.eu/d/jkWr0DQ

Continue reading