This week I finished reading Dear Mrs Bird by A J Pearce, and I am happy to report that I loved it. I have already bought the next book in the series and hope to get to it soon!
I then read The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park by Michiko Aoyama. I read her book What You Are Looking for in the Library last year, and liked it, but there was one particular element of the story which bothered me a bit. No such issue with this one. I am already looking forward to her next book and thankfully there isn't too long to wait as it is out early next year.
Next I started reading Maame by Jessica George. This is the current Cook the Books selection and I think I already know what I am going to cook. That could change but we will see.
Finally I started reading The Midwives Christmas Miracle by Fiona McArthur. This is the first in a new trilogy that is set in the same world as a number of other books I have read. Only thing is the main female character is friends with a person who was clearly in another book. I thought I had read all the books set in Wirralong but apparently I only read the first two books in the last series set there! Time to rectify that I think.
I did go to not one but two Rachael Johns events. I had already bought tickets to the Books in Bar event which is held in a city about an hour away from me and then they announced an event at my local library. I am trying to support anything held at the library so they keep having them so snuck away for a long lunch and went to both events!
I'm watching
We started watching Joanna Lumley's Spice Trails and we are finding it very interesting. In the first three episodes she has visiting Indonesia, India, and Madagascar.
Life
The day after we got back from holidays was our wedding anniversary but I didn't want to schedule something so close to being away, so last night we went to our anniversary dinner. We did a thing called Le Petit Chef and Friends. Basically it is an animation than uses your table cloth and plate as a screen and tells a story about each course that you are going to eat. It was a lot of fun and the food was surprisingly good as well.
I mentioned last week that my phone died while we were on holidays. I got it back from the repair shop this week which is good news. The bad news is that they had to replace the motherboard and I lost everything I had on my phones, which is basically thousands of photos.
Every month I share some of the statistics related to the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. I find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing!
In terms of the books read in October, there were 55 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 21 participants. There were 53 individual titles reviewed, written by 50 different authors, There were 3 reviewers who reviewed 5 or more books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 8 or just 1.
So which book was reviewed more than once in October? There was just one book that was reviewed more than once which was The Predicament by William Boyd. Coincidentally I just picked this book up this week.
The interesting thing is that this month there were no other authors who had multiple books reviewed! That's very unusual. Usually there are one or two.
If you love historical fiction and reading challenges, it isn't too late to join us! All the details can be found in the sign up post. If you are starting to think about next year's challenges, then consider joining this one. Sign up details will be up in a few weeks.
We just got back from two weeks in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, and it was an amazing holiday. We stayed in some fabulous hotels, we saw some interesting sites and we ate some delicious food, which is the main part of what I am going to focus on today.
If you asked me what we ate I would have to say buffets...lots and lots of buffets. They were available in every hotel for breakfast, lunch and dinner in both Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Some were better than others and they mostly had the same fare, especially at breakfast time. I am okay if I don't see another buffet for a while.
What they did have for the most part were really fantastic fruit options including juices, ranging from bananas to pineapple and mango juices and smoothies. I did wonder if I was going to come home with a tinge of pineapple yellow to my skin because I ate so much of it. It was just so delicious.
One down side is that my phone died on day 2 of the trip so I lost all my photos from several trips which is a bit devastating. I take a lot more photos than my husband so his phone became our phone for the rest of the trip. It did mean that I didn't check emails, didn't post anything to social media. It almost became a forced break.
Once we arrived in the town of Negombo we spent our first day doing a walking tour of the fishing area and the fish market. It was interesting because whatever doesn't get sold at the fresh fish market then gets laid out on the sand and dried. This is then sold as dried fish across the world. This varies from tiny fish to even larger fish like sharks and rays. One thing though.....it was very smelly.
You might have thought that might put me off seafood, but no way! Our first lunch was in a beachside restaurant and I was right in there with prawns. The thing that surprised us though was the beers. It was hot and humid so we thought we would try one of the local beers. The bottles of Lion beers came to the table and we were all a bit shocked as they come in 625ml bottle sizes which is much bigger then we were used to. This is my friend Di who I met at bookclub many years ago and we travelled together with her and her husband George.
After lunch we headed back to the hotel for cocktails in the pool, the first of many on this trip!
One interesting buffet that we did visit was on the fourth day when we visited the ruins of the city of Polonnaruwa in the morning and did an elephant safari in the afternoon. The lunch place we went to was a family run business where they made all different types of vegetarian curries. They helpfully place a visual clue as to what kind of curry it was. My favourite was the bread fruit curry. I do have a video of the curry selection but it doesn't seem to be working in Blogger at the moment.
The next day, after visiting the Dambulla Rock Cave Temple, we headed towards the city of Kandy. Along the way we stopped at a Spice Garden which was incredibly interesting where they grow everything from vanilla to cocoa, pepper, nutmeg and mace (which come from the same plant) and so much more. They also talked about the medicinal benefits of herbs, showed us how they crush herbs to make curry mixes (including how heating them changes the flavours) and then finished up with a neck and head massage. Well, most people got both massages. I just got the neck massage. Really, what they were trying to do was sell you some natural medicine packages and, yes, we succumbed. It felt like every single spice had medicinal properties that would have done me some good!
After Kandy, we headed up into the tea plantations which is one place I was really looking forward to, and it didn't disappoint. I was glad that we were being driven in the bus and not having to drive ourselves because the roads were windy and narrow, there were stray dogs, people, tuk tuks, cars, motorbikes and buses on the roads. The views were spectacular with all the tea bushes looking almost like a textured carpet on the side of the mountains.
While there are still many working tea factories, quite a few have been converted into tourist related businesses. we had lunch at one which was very close to a big waterfall and the hotel we stayed at was a beautifully converted tea factory. We did, however, stop at a working tea factory called Labookellie which was really interesting. We got a tour of the various processes and then got a taste testing of white tea, green tea and then black tea, which all come from the some plant but either different leaves are picked or the leaves are treated differently to give different results
I mentioned the hotel where we stayed. Wow! What a place. We stayed in some fantastic hotels, but I think this was my favourite. It was so beautifully converted with lots of the history of the place kept for hotel guests to enjoy. Even the buffet counters were made using old tea chests. Even the little bottle of shampoo and body wash were in tiny little tea pots. In the garden there was a small cottage. What I didn't realise until we wandered up to it in the morning was that it was a small tea factory which produced tea for the hotel using the tea that had been picked on the property.
Every time we go on holiday, we try to do something foodie. Whether it be a walking tour in Paris or Soweto, or a wine tasting class on a cruise. Originally we were thinking we would try to do a cooking tour in Galle but in the end our foodie experience this time was a seven course meal in a train carriage! At the hotel, which is called Heritance Tea Factory, there is a train carriage which has been repurposed as an intimate restaurant. There are four booths available in the train, and they have thought of everything. Each course in the menu is named for a train station on the journey between Kandy and Ragala. The carriage is rigged up so that it moves around as if the train is going down the tracks, there is recorded history that is shared, the main waiter is dressed as a conductor and blows whistles and waves flags around at different points in the meal. When the main course comes out it is covered in cloches and the conductor and his assistant come and theatrically removed the cloches crashing them together like cymbals. And the food was really great too.
For most courses there was a choice of two options. I had
Tea gravlax
Tea smoked cauliflower cream (Soup)
Grilled prawns
Icy citrus Berry (as a palate cleanser)
Duo of Lobster (Thermidor and grilled)
Rhubarb Crumble Tart
Cheese platter
It was a really fun experience.
Our last night in Sri Lanka we were in Galle and we had a memorable meal too! There was a restaurant quite close to the hotel which was recommended to us and it had such a great vibe! It was right on the beachfront and it was a beautiful night. The cocktails were great, there was a really good musician singing and playing the guitar (believe me we heard some not so great ones on our travels), the company with old and new friends was great, and the food was fantastic. I chose to have jumbo prawns. I have never seen prawns as big as this. They were probably 25cm long. A comment was made that they didn't have much meat in them, but I was happy. There was pure joy in having that plate of food placed in front of us! If you are ever in Galle then check out Shelter.
I think my favourite food discovery in Sri Lanka was something called hoppers. I had heard of them before so knew that I wanted to try them but I ended up eating them wherever they were available. Hoppers are made from rice flour and coconut milk and they are cooked in special frying pans which are very hot. They were available in most of buffets at breakfast, and you could either have them plain or with egg. The edges are very crispy and then there is a fluffy middle. They are very versatile as you can also have them with jaggery for a sweet treat, but they can also be savoury. I tried a beetroot one at one of the dinners which was good too. I have a video of one being made. Hopefully I can add it in later.
From Sri Lanka we took a quick flight to the Maldives and then, unexpectedly a sea plane flight to our resort. Our original resort would have been a boat ride but their overwater bungalows were damaged in a storm so we were sent to a different resort which was further away. The resort was amazing. It was all inclusive so it was buffets for breakfast, lunch and dinner (albeit with different themes for dinner). We snorkelled, swam and generally chilled in this amazing place. On our last night, the resort organised a sunset cruise for us which was a great way to finish our holiday before doing the three flights back to Melbourne.
There is so much more I could talk about. I haven't even mentioned the egg samosas we had on the bus as a snack one day. It was an amazing holiday and I am so glad we went. Both countries exceeded our expectations!
And the picture at the top of the post? Meet our new travel companion Ella the Elephant who we picked up in Sri Lanka. We used to have Dino the Rhino but unfortunately he escaped along with all the contents of a backpack we left on a train in Japan, so we had to get a new travel companion.
Weekly meals
Saturday - Chicken schnitzel rolls Sunday - BBQ Steak and salad Monday - Pork chops, mash and beans Tuesday - Baked Tuscan chicken Wednesday - Out for dinner Thursday - Mexican chicken and beans Friday - Spicy pork and beans stir fry
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
Georgine loves her job at a performance school. She especially enjoys organising the annual Christmas performance where the kids act, play music, and help with the staging. However, the rest of her life is a bit of a mess. Her ex-boyfriend has left her with debts, the debt collectors are at the door, and she watches every penny. It's a far cry from her privileged childhood where money was never a problem...until it was.
Weeks before the performance Georgine's boss tells her that she is going to get a new assistant, Joe Blackthorn. She's grateful for the assistance although she does find him quiet. There is something about him though. Joe knows exactly who Georgine was. Back in the day she was his only friend.
Joe is a man of many identities. When he was a young man her was Richie Garrett, the poor kid with an alcoholic mother and a nasty stepsister had to do whatever it took in order to ensure that he and his step sister Chrissie could eat. He was rescued from his situation and he never looked back. Now, Joe is more than just the assistant, but he is trying to keep his head down.
Georgine has had enough of men who lie to her so the fact that Joe isn't exactly who he says he is is a real red flag, despite the obvious attraction she feels. She just needs to keep the wolves from the door, as well as ensure her sister and her father have what they need. After all, she carries some guilt throughout her life that it was her fault that her family ended up losing pretty much everything.
She also can't afford to get distracted. After all, the show must go on! The show sounded like a lot of fun.
I really enjoyed this book. Both Joe and Georgine had their lives turned upside down. Ultimately though, they were fundamentally the same people who were friends all those years ago.
When I said yes to this book I just got excited at the prospect of a new Sue Moorcroft story and didn't realise that this was a re-release of a Christmas book set in the town of Middledip. There is a whole Middledip series I had been meaning to read from the beginning of a series. It looks like there are then several Christmas books that are set in Middledip but are separate from the series. However they are all connected, it looks like I will be revisiting Middledip!
Thanks to the publisher and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy. Check out the other stops on the blog tour as well!
Rating 4/5
About the Book
A Christmas Gift
Can the happiest time of year heal the most broken of hearts?
Georgine loves Christmas. The festive season always brings the little village of Middledip to life. But since her ex-boyfriend walked out, leaving her with crippling debts, Georgine’s struggled to make ends meet.
To keep her mind off her worries, she throws herself into organising the Christmas show at the local school. And when handsome Joe Blackthorn becomes her assistant, Georgine’s grateful for the help. But there’s something about Joe she can’t quite put her finger on. Could there be more to him than meets the eye?
Georgine’s past is going to catch up with her in ways she never expected. But can the help of friends old and new make this a Christmas to remember after all?
Sue Moorcroft is a Sunday Times bestselling author. Her novels have been #1 on Kindle UK and Top 100 on Kindle US, Canada, Germany and Italy. She’s won the Goldsboro Books Contemporary Novel of the Year, Readers’ Best Romantic Novel award, two HOLT Medallions and the Katie Fforde Bursary. She’s the president of the Romantic Novelists’ Association.
Her novels, short stories, serials, columns, writing ‘how to’ and courses have appeared around the world.
A new Maggie Christensen book means just one thing! I am absolutely going to be reading it!
This book is the seventh book in the Pelican Crossing series which is set in a small coastal town in Queensland. Lou Chambers is owner of the local bookstore in town and she is proud of everything she has achieved in her life. After being betrayed by her first love who ran off with her sister, Lou became a librarian and then later followed her dreams to open Books and Coffee. The store is now an integral part of the town and she often tries new events to try and draw in the towns people. She has watched many of her friends fall in love and have their own later in life romances, but Lou is convinced that it won't happen for her, especially seeing as she has never had another love since Darren left.
She never did speak to her sister again after that betrayal, despite Fleur trying to reach out to her several times over the years. It is particularly hard for Lou at Christmas. Lou tells her friends that she is fine on her own, after the business of the pre-Christmas sales in the bookstore, but the reality is that she is lonely and laments the fact that she will once again be alone.
Widower Blair Stevens has recently moved to Pelican Crossing with the encouragement of his daughter. He was a university lecturer in Tasmania but now he has moved to the town to be closer to his family, including his two grandchildren. He sees this as the time that he can finally start writing that book he has been talking about for years, although his daughter, Katrina, seems to see him as a built in baby sitting service.
After meeting at the bookstore, Lou and Blair become friends, and Lou surprises herself be telling Blair that she has decided that it is time to track down her sister and try to build some bridges with her. So far Lou hasn't had any luck finding her, but maybe Blair can help given his experience in researching. The more time they spend together, the more they like each other, but will Lou be willing to open her heart to Blair after all these years alone.
As usual, I enjoyed my visit to Pelican Crossing, seeing the community that the author has built in this coastal town. It was interesting that there have been some seeds planted to suggest that there may be some trouble ahead for the town given the rising cost of real estate and the difficulty in finding workers. I wonder if this will play out in future books.
It is always fun to read one of the Pelican Crossing Christmas books because it more reflects what my Christmas is like, although the weather is more likely to be better in Pelican Crossing than it is in Melbourne. Christmas for us is in summer which means long days, carol singing at on a summer evening at the local park and lots of seafood.
The next book in the Pelican Crossing series has already been announced, and I am here for it!
I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted by The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews. Be sure to check out other stops on the tour shown below. Thanks to the publisher, and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy.
When retired widower Blair Stevens leaves Tasmania to join his daughter in Pelican Crossing, he questions if he’s made the right decision. But as he delves into the town's history and starts writing the novel he's always wanted to, he becomes engrossed in his new life.
When an event at Lou’s bookshop brings the two together, they strike up an unlikely friendship. As Blair helps Lou search for her long-lost sister, their connection deepens in a way neither of them anticipated. But as fate pushes them towards each other, will their friendship blossom into something more?
A heartwarming story of two strangers who find unexpected companionship in this small town on the Queensland coast.
After a career in education, Maggie Christensen began writing contemporary women’s fiction portraying mature women facing life-changing situations, and historical fiction set in her native Scotland. Her travels inspire her writing, be it her trips to visit family in Scotland, in Oregon, USA or her home on Queensland’s beautiful Sunshine Coast. Maggie writes of mature heroines coming to terms with changes in their lives and the heroes worthy of them. Maggie has been called the queen of mature age fiction and her writing has been described by one reviewer as like a nice warm cup of tea. It is warm, nourishing, comforting and embracing.
From the small town in Scotland where she grew up, Maggie was lured to Australia by the call to ‘Come and teach in the sun’. Once there, she worked as a primary school teacher, university lecturer and in educational management. Now living with her husband of over thirty years on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, she loves walking on the deserted beach in the early mornings and having coffee by the river on weekends. Her days are spent surrounded by books, either reading or writing them – her idea of heaven!
Last year I read and enjoyed the first book in Debbie Viggiano's Starlight series, so I was pleased when I saw that the second book was coming out.
Starlight Croft is a small village where everybody knows everybody and they all know each other's business, especially Hetty who seems to have the sight and has been known to make pronouncements about the future. Jen Armstrong is doing everything she can to avoid Hetty because she has secrets, big secrets that she cannot share with anyone. Her husband Peter has recently died, and it's fair to say that the biggest emotion that Jen feels is relief. She and her two grown children can now begin to plan for their new life.
Jen is also conscious that she has to get involved in the fight to save Starlight Hall, the place in the village where weddings are celebrated, parties are held, and where the village comes together regularly. One of the people interested in buy the Hall is property developer Liam Lancaster. Despite being the bad guy in this scenario all the town women agree that he is a very, very handsome man, including Jen.
With her husband having only recently passed away, the last thing Jen expects is to feel something for another man, but she needs to keep her feelings hidden because she could not put up with another philanderer! Can Liam convince her that he is a decent man, despite his plans for the village hall.
There are lots of fun secondary characters including Jen's friend Alice and head of the Saving Starlight Hall activities and pub owner, Cilla. There were some slight references to the previous book, but not enough to make you feel like you would be missing out if you haven't' read it.
Having now read two books by Debbie Viggiano, I can say that she has a very distinct voice in her writing, which is definitely playing for laughs. And it works. I definitely smiled my way through this book, but was also surprised by a couple of the events in the book, especially near the end. If you like a British style of humour, then it is definitely worth giving her books a try.
I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews. Thanks to the publisher and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy. Check out the other stops on the blog tour as well!
Rating 4/5
About the book
Saving Starlight Hall
Nestled deep in the countryside lies Starlight Croft – population small, gossip levels high, and secrets harder to hide than a cow in a phone box.
Jen Armstrong thought she had life more or less under control – marriage ticking along, teenagers on the right side of the law – until hubby Peter unexpectedly demises leaving Jen suddenly single, hugging a secret, and trying very hard not to fall apart in front of the entire village.
Cue The Starlight Society: a mismatched crew of locals with hearts of gold, questionable strategies and Jen reluctantly roped in to assist. Their mission? Raise the cash to save the hall before a charming-but-infuriating property developer named Liam Lancaster possibly turns it into a boutique hotel with mood lighting and tufty towels.
Can they pull it off? Will the hall survive? Might a secret be unwittingly revealed? And can Jen resist throttling an enemy who has the most annoyingly twinkly eyes?
A feel-good romantic comedy where love, lies, and livestock collide.
Prior to turning her attention to writing, Debbie Viggiano was, for more years than she cares to remember, a legal secretary. She lives with her Italian husband and a rescued pooch from Crete. Occasionally her adult children return home bringing her much joy... apart from when they want to raid the fridge or eat her secret stash of chocolate. Tweet @DebbieViggiano or follow her on Facebook!
You know I love an escapist romance. While I normally read a lot of books set in France, Italy and Greece, this year my focus seems to have moved North as I have read a couple of books set in Finland and now this one which is set in Norway.
Sara Pearson is a lawyer who is going places. Sure, her private life is a mess given that she is currently going through a divorce from sleazy Mark, but any day now she is going to be made partner in her law firm. When she wins a big case but doesn't get made partner, her anxiety and stress reach burn out levels and she is forced, albeit unwillingly, to take a month off work.
When one of her friends mentions that she saw that a Hollywood star had recently stayed at a luxury resort called Firefly Forest, Sara decides if it is good enough for them, it's good enough for her so she impulsively books to stay at the spa retreat for four weeks. It's pricey, but it's going to be worth it.
With her bags packed filled with her most fashionable winter clothes, Sara heads off to Norway. She probably should have taken a closer look at the website because the place where she ends up is less luxurious spa retreat and more vegan getting back to nature retreat! As such, it is against the rules to use the internet unless there is an emergency, it is alcohol free, and every day there is a silent lunch. Then there are various wellness activities which encourage participants to look inwards. It is not what Sara signed up for. She does contemplate leaving but there are no refunds and the air fares are expensive to reschedule, so she stays...for now.
There is one bright light though. Firefly Forest is a family run affair. There is the father, Tore Nilsen and his two sons, Henrik, and Jonas and his fiancee Greta who are doing their best to keep the retreat commercially viable. Henrik is one of the good guys. Handsome, attentive and drawn to Sara despite her initial unmet expectations of her destination, he too has had a high flying career but these days he is happy to live and work in the family business
When the Nilsen's whole home and livelihood come under threat from an unlikely source, Sara becomes involved, which is probably the least she can do, especially since she may have been the person who inadvertently caused the problem in the first place.
It took me a while to warm to Sara. She was so focussed on her work that it did make sense that she wouldn't look further at the website to understand where she was going but on the flipside surely as a very successful lawyer she is good at looking for detail. I also didn't always understand some of her decisions. For example, she was moving back into her flat which she decided to get redecorated in exactly the same colour palette of the marital home. And as for Mark....ugh, what a sleaze.
This is my first book from Carrie Walker, and I am glad that I took a chance on this new to me author. I am interesting to read her previous two books as well. The titles make it sound as though they might be connected but I don't think they are. Those books are set in Tuscany and Switzerland and they both sound like fun.
The idea of seeing all that snow and the Northern Lights fascinates me. I read this on the plane to Sri Lanka, so you can't really get much more different weather conditions. We are, however, contemplating a trip to see the Northern Lights at the end of 2026 so this was definitely a good taster for that trip. I can't wait for the day that we too can escape to the Northern Lights.
I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews. Thanks to the publisher and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy. Check out the other stops on the blog tour as well!
Rating 4/5
About the Book
Escape to the Northern Lights
Packed with humour, romance and a love affair with nature, Escape to the Northern Lights is a story of transformation, second chances and finding home in the most unexpected places.
High-powered lawyer Sara thought she had life figured out – until her whirlwind marriage ends in divorce, her dream promotion slips away and a burnout diagnosis forces her to take a break.
Desperate for a reset, she books a four-week spa retreat in Norway, imagining a luxurious escape. Instead, she finds herself in the rugged wilderness of Firefly Forest, knee-deep in reindeer droppings and stuck with an annoyingly bohemian – and ridiculously attractive – outdoorsman, Henrik.
What starts as a nightmare turns into a journey of self-discovery as Sara swaps designer heels for bare feet, legal briefs for tree-hugging, and fleeting flings for something far deeper...
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.
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme isThe First 10 Books I Randomly Grabbed from My Shelf (Stand in front of your book collection, close your eyes, point to a title, and write it down. If you have shelves, point to your physical books. If you have a digital library, use a random number generator and write down the title of the book that corresponds with the number you generated. You get bonus points if you tell us whether or not you’ve read the book, and what you thought of it if you did!)
Because I read physical books, eBooks and audiobooks this felt a bit tricky to me, so instead I am going to be sharing the three books I am theoretically reading at the moment, and then the last 7 books I read. 6 of these were books that I read while I was on holiday and the other was the last one I finished before we went away
Dear Mrs Bird by A J Pearce - This is one book that I am actually reading at the moment. Somehow I ended up both with a library copy and a copy on my Kindle. I am really enjoying this one
The Secret Christmas Library by Jenny Colgan - I started listening to this before I went away. I did take my earbuds with me but I didn't listen to a single second of it. Mostly because I didn't think of it, but also because my phone died on day 2 of my trip.
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - This is the theoretically book. I was doing well at keeping up with a chapter a day until I went back to work and now I am woefully behind. I do intend to catch up but not sure when that will be
Saving Starlight Hall by Debbie Viggiano - This is the second book in the Starlight series. I read the first one last year and knew I would read the follow up. The review for this will be up later this week.
The Lucky Sisters by Rachael Johns - I can always rely on Rachael Johns for a good read and this was no exception. I did feel exceptionally lucky to be able to read this while I was on holiday in The Maldives. I am also attending an author event for her tomorrow night.
A Christmas Gift by Sue Moorcroft - I really enjoy Sue Moorcroft's books and this was another good one. The review for this one will be up later this week.
A Family for Christmas in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen - Maggie Christensen is a comfort read for me every time so I was always going to read this book, and the next one, and the one after that. The review for this one will be up later this week.
Escape to the Northern Lights by Carrie Walker - It did feel kind of strange to be reading this book set in snowy Norway while I was in very hot and humid Sri Lanka. The review for this one will be up later this week.
The Tea Planters Wife by Dinah Jeffries - I chose to read this book as it is set in Sri Lanka. I will read more from Dinah Jeffries now.
Christmas on Fifth Avenue by Julie Caplin - Christmas in New York. Yes please! (My review)
As you can see I have quite a few reviews to write this week now that we are back from holidays!
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