Top Ten Tuesday: Books with books on the cover

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is a Indie Freebie (This topic encompasses a lot: your favorite indie bookstores, indie books, indie authors, indie publishers/presses, indie books on your to-read list, indie authors I read before they became traditionally published, etc.) (submitted by @dark.shelf.of.wonders and Books Are The New Black)

However, I am going to go rogue (again) and I am featuring books with books on the cover!

The Story Collector by Evie Woods - I am a bit hit and miss on books by this author. I loved The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris. This one....not so much. It wasn't bad. It just wasn't great either! (review)

The Secret Society of Librarians by Kate Thompson - I have, however, loved all the librarian books by Kate Thompson

This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page - Loved this one too. 

A Study in Sparkling by Jodi McAlister - I haven't read this one yet, but I did recently go to the launch. I did love the previous book in this trilogy so I have high hopes for this one!

The Astral Library by Kate Quinn - I had high hopes for this one too as I had really enjoyed quite a few of Kate Quinn's historical fiction novels, but this one was very different from her normal books. (mini review)

The Last Page Cafe by Kate Storey - This book is on my list as it is one I want to read!

The Secret Christmas Library by Jenny Colgan - A crumbling Scottish castle, a blizzard, a missing book! A lot of fun. 

The Storytellers by Sue Heath - I am always very excited to read a new Sue Heath book! There's a new one out soon! (my review)

The Other Bridget by Rachael Johns - I love the cover of this book with all the books on the shelf! (my review)

The Paris Bookshop for the Broken Hearted by Rebecca Raisin - A bookshop in Paris! I am there! (my review)

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Books

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Books for Armchair Travelers (Submitted by Laurie C @ Bay State Reader’s Advisory). 

I don't often save quotes so I am going to do a twist on the topic this week. This year is my third year of participating in the Bookish Books Reading Challenge hosted at Bloggin' 'Bout Books. For my TTT post this week I am going to share the last ten bookish books I read! I think books about books is something that most of us love!

Soyangri Book Kitchen by Kim Jee Hyde - This is a Korean book about a young woman who opens a bookshop and kitchen out in the country. 

The Croatian Island Library by Eva Glyn - A trio of characters sails from island to island in Croatia to share library books. (my review)

Dinner at the Night Library by Hika Harada - Another book that combines food and books! This is a Japanese story about a strange library which holds the books that writers loved. (my review)

Everyone on This Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson - What happens when multiple crime authors get on a train for a crime writers festival, but less people make it to the end of the line. (my review)

The Wartime Bookclub by Kate Thompson - How a Channel Island community comes together through the love of books! (my review)

The Secret Christmas Library by Jenny Colgan - When a woman is asked to find one particular item in a falling down stately home in the Scottish highlands at Christmas time, what could go wrong?

I Give You My Body...How I Write Sex Scenes by Diana Gabaldon - This was a very short audio book about writing sex scenes and featuring a lot of quotes from her books as example.

Winter Nights at the Bay Bookshop by Jessica Redland - Featuring a gorgeous sounding small town bookstore at Christmas. (my review)

The Cruise Club by Caroline James - An author with writer's block goes on a cruise where one of her author heroes is giving writing lectures. (my review)

The Storytellers by Sue Heath - A group of very different people come together at a local library with the aim of writing a short story competition entry together! (my review)

The Storytellers by Sue Heath

 

Happy release day to Sue Heath for her new novel The Storytellers!

Last year I read and loved Sue Heath's novel The Secret Ingredient. It was one of only 3 books that I gave a rating of 5/5 to, so I have been keeping an eye out for a new book by her. I was very excited when I saw the cover and read the description!

The Storytellers is another delightful read about found community, about the power of storytelling and so much more. The book is centred around the local library, where a group of come together to write a short story for a local competition. The rules are simple. Each part of the story must be clearly written by different contributors but come together as a complete story. And the prize? A party with the mayor!

Hattie first comes to the library as she wants to learn to use the computer. She has recently been widowed after many years of unhappy marriage and now she wants to find the man she believes she was in love with many years before. 

Will is the librarian who has moved back to town to look after his dad. He is only in town for a while and hopes to go back to his real job running a bookshop. Things are a bit complicated for Will as his ex girlfriend is also his boss and she is now going out with a man that Will dislikes intensely.

Avril has quit her job and is now searching for what the future might bring. She is also trying to find out anything about her mother who died when she was very young. Her father remarried and Avril doesn't really get along with her stepmother or her two stepsisters. 

Stuart has recently retired and is at something of a loose end. He has a happy marriage although his wife is often very busy with all her different hobbies. Stuart has to get out of the house on Thursdays as he doesn't want to catch an eyeful when his wife is hosting her life drawing art class.

Given that each of our characters are at different places in their lives it makes sense that their sections are all very different, and each of them work through their own issues in their sections of the story. It is a bit of a concern that Hattie does tend to want dead bodies to keep on turning up in her sections!

You couldn't help but cheer the characters on as they wrote their story, willing them on with the hope that they would win the prize. More importantly though, I willed them on as they built bonds with each other, and as they began to help each other.

There were so many great quotes about life and books in this novel, and it was full of humour too. I often found myself smiling for pages afterwards as I read including a particular passage about the local butcher that just had me laughing and smiling for ages.

This is a book that I can see myself rereading if I need a pick me up. At least until the next Sue Heath book comes out anyway!

This was one of the books I nominated for 20 Books of Winter. I am also sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews, British Isles Friday hosted at Joy's Book Blog and the Bookish Books challenge hosted at Bloggin' Bout Books.

Rating 4.5/5

20 Books of Winter - June

 

We are already a month through the 20 Books of Summer/Winter event! Can you believe how quickly that has gone?

Our hosts, Emma from Words and Peace and Annabel from Annabookbel have come up with some fun questions for our end of month recaps.

I am pretty happy with my progress so far. I read 7 of the books that I nominated on my original lists which puts me on track to finish the list. I did read 19 books in total in June so I do have some opportunities for swaps should I need them later. 

Here's my full list. The ones in bold are the titles I have read.

20 Books of Winter

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn - Review

A Bakery in Paris by Aimie K Runyan

Over the Seas to Skye by Sue Moorcroft - Review

Three Juliets by Minnie Darke

A Secret Garden in Paris by Sophie Beaumont

The Midnight Bakery by Emma Davies

Half Truth by Nadia Mahjouri - Review

The Village Cafe in the Loire by Gillian Harvey

The Storytellers by Sue Heath

The Story Collector by Evie Woods

French Rhapsody by Antoine Laurain

The King's Jewel by Elizabeth Chadwick

The Butterfly Women by Madeleine Cleary - Review

The Last Love Note by Emma Grey

The Library of Heartbeats by Laura Imai Messina

Emily Wildes Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Butter by Asako Yuzuki

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson

Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee

If your #20BooksofSummer25 TBR were a beach, what’s the most surprising thing you’ve unearthed so far – a hidden gem, a total shipwreck, or something unexpectedly delightful?

I think the book that surprised me was The Butterfly Women by Madeleine Cleary mainly because of the light it shone of the hidden or forgotten history of Melbourne!

Imagine your reading progress as a summer road trip. Which book has been the scenic route, which has been the highway, and is there a rest stop book you’re looking forward to?

The book which was the scenic route was Over the Seas to Skye by Sue Moorcroft because it took us to the Isle of Skye in Scotland and was the final book in the trilogy, so we got the opportunity for all three stories to be wrapped up. 

The highway was The Storyteller by Sue Heath, because once I started it, I just could not put it down!

The rest stop book that I am looking forward to is The Village Cafe in the Loire by Gillian Harvey which I am reading soon. I really love her books and have high hopes for this one. It will also bring back memories of our visit to the Loire a couple of years ago.

Thinking about the books I have read collectively, it has been quite the road trip so far. I have visited the Ukraine and US, Scotland, Paris (twice), Morocco, Britain and historical Melbourne.  

If one of the books you’ve read this month was turned into an ice cream flavor, what ingredients would it have, and what would it be called?

I would turn Half Truth by Nadia Mahjouri into a pistachio and saffron ice cream. The colour of the pistachio could represent the green and gold of Australia and the saffron the flavours and cultures of Morocco. I feel like an ice cream would be very welcome in the heat of Morocco. 

If you could swap places with a character from one of the books you’ve read this month, purely for the summer, who would it be and what items would you absolutely take with you?

My answer to this one will surprise no one I am sure. If I could swap places with a character from one of the books I read it will be Charlotte from A Secret Garden in Paris. Why specifically Charlotte and not one of the other characters. She is staying rent free in her aunt's house in Paris! And the item I would take with me would be the hand drawn map of the garden tour that Emma's grandmother Mattie drew so that I can wander all over the city finding hidden and lesser known gardens.

“Plot twist!”: If your summer reading challenge were a book, what unexpected event just happened to shake things up? Or did life get in the way of your reading plans?

Whilst I did think a lot about what books to include in my original list, only two from the original list were from my list of committed blog tours, and I also didn't really take into consideration all of the books that I already had out from the library. This means that I have several reading lists going with due dates looming! That could become a problem over the next couple of months.

And now, onto July!

This week....

 I'm reading

This week was a pretty good reading week! I finally caught up on my War and Peace readalong and I finished a few other books too!

Firstly, I finished reading Not My Greek Wedding by Sue Roberts. There were some good parts to this book but it wasn't my favourite. My review is here.

I then picked up The Storytellers by Sue Heath which was one of my most anticipated upcoming new releases, and for good reason! I loved it. I have read both books that have been released under the Sue Heath name and loved them both! Now I just have to work out when I can post the review and wait for the next Sue Heath book. 

I started reading Half Truth by Nadia Mahjouri last week and was glad to finish it this week! I am planning to share my review of this one this week some time.

I also read French Rhapsody by Antoine Laurain. I will be posting about this during Paris in July.

Those last three books were all on my Twenty Books of Winter list so I am making some progress there!

Finally, I started and finished The Girl from Normandy by Rachel Sweasey which I am due to review at the end of this week. 

I'm watching


I started watching a TV series called Mixtape, which is based on a book of the same name which I read and reviewed a while ago. I felt a connection with the book as I had lived in both Adelaide and Sheffield which is where it was set. They have changed the Australian setting to Sydney for the TV series. I will keep watching and listening to the music of the era! Here's the trailer:

I also watched the first three episodes of Gary Barlow Food and Wine Tour of Australia. Gary is the  lead singer of Take That and while they were touring last year he was also filming this show. He has famous friends (for example Tim Minchin and Danni Minogue) join him as he explores a particular region in Australia. I do always enjoy seeing how other people view Australia.

While I am waiting for new episodes of the Australian series, I am also watching his Wine Tour of South Africa. The first episode was set near Cape Town and featured some areas that we visited a few years ago!

We binge watched the second season of Ted Lasso this week. I suspect we will probably watch season 3 this week. 

Life


After picking up some germs last week, I have still been sick all of this week, so it has been a very quiet week. I suspect it might be the same this week.

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Winter 2025 to Read List
Blog Tour: The Island of Hope and Dreams by Kate Frost
Head over Wheels by Leonie Mack 
Blog Tour: Not My Greek Wedding by Sue Roberts

Weekend Cooking: Everything is Indian by Justin Narayan

Spell the Month in Books: June




I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date and Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my Winter 2025 to-read list

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books on My Summer Winter 2025 to-Read List.

A couple of weeks ago I shared the first 10 of my 20 books that I plan to read for the 20 Books of Winter event hosted by Emma from Words and Peace and Annabel from Annabookbel. Today I am sharing the rest of the books I plan to read. 

The Last Love Note by Emma Grey - I loved Pictures of You when I read it earlier this year so I am really looking forward to this one. 

The Library of Heartbeats by Laura Imai Messina - This sounds like such a lovely read. 

Emily Wildes Encyclopeadia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett - I have been not so gently encouraged to read this book for a while!

The Storytellers by Sue Heath - I am so excited for this book. The Secret Ingredient was one of my favourite books last year. 

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn - I have had this on my Kindle for 3 years. I actually already read and reviewed this one.  (My review)

Over the Sea to Skye by Sue Moorcroft  - I have already read and reviewed this one too. (My review)

Butter by Asako Yuzuki  - Every now and again my read on a theme book club reads the same book. This is the book we are going to read for our August meeting.

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson. I recently read her latest book. Having read and love both her first and latest books I had to read the one in the middle that I haven't read yet.

DallerGut Dream Department Store by Lee Mi-Ye - Can't remember where I heard about this book but I currently have it out of the library, along with a few others that I didn't include on this list. Not sure when I will read those!

The Butterfly Women by Madeleine Cleary - I am going to an author event for this book soon so will definitely want to read it after hearing the author talk

So now I have put my 20 Books of Winter out into the world. Now to read them all!

Do you have any of these books on your list this week?

Top Ten Tuesday: New to Me Authors I Discovered in 2024

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2024

I read 44 new to me authors las tyear, so I have had to try to figure our how to pick just ten. Interestingly I only had three 5 star reads last year and they were all from new to me authors, so that was an easy decision. 

The next four choices are people who I read more than one book or story from, and then I chose three Aussie authors who didn't fit into either of the previous categories!

Melissa Ashley - The first book I read last year was The Naturalist of Amsterdam and therefore it was my first 5/5 read for 2024 (my review)

Sue Heath - I loved The Secret Ingredient from this author. I am really hoping that we get something new from her in 2025. I'll be reading it. (my review)

Laura Pearson - I loved The Beforelife of Eliza Valentine so hard! I also read The Last List of Mabel Beaumont and bought just about all her other books. I will be reading her new book in the next week or so! (my review)

Hisashi Kashiwai - read both of the books that are available in English from the Kamogawa Food Detectives series last year. You can read my review of the first book here.

Gisele Stein - I read both The Anywhere Hotel and the associated short story called How Captain Found The Anywhere Hotel in quick succession

Jennifer Bohnet - I read two of Jennifer Bohnet's books set in France last year. The first was  A French Adventure (review here) and A French Country Escape (review here)

Helen Rolfe - Helen Rolfe's Skylark series is set in an Air Ambulance station and this provides a great backdrop to the stories. I read the third book this year as well. You can see my reviews for all three at this link

Sophie Beaumont - I really loved The Paris Cooking School (my review). I have her latest book, A Secret Garden in Paris to read on my Kindle.

Alli Parker - I have been talking about this author's book, At the Foot of the Cherry Tree, quite a bit recently. (my review)

Tess Woods - I read The Venice Hotel late last year and really enjoyed it!

Have you read any of these authors?

Sunday Salon: 2024 year in review

Welcome to my annual year in review post!

2024 was a pretty good reading year I think. Initially I set my goal at 75 books for the year but I exceeded that so I revised my goal to 104 books for the year. I did end up reading 120 books during the year, but I am still leaving my goal at 104, as that feels quite doable at a rate of 2 books per week.

You can see all my reading and blogging goals for this year in my recent Top Ten Tuesday post.

Let's get into the stats....

Despite my best intentions I do tend to read a lot of new releases. I ended up reading 75 books that were published in 2024. The oldest book I read was A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens which was originally published in 1843.

Genre wise, there are no surprises that my reading is dominated by general fiction (which is a kind of catch all for all sorts of books), historical fiction and contemporary romance.I did read 4 non fiction books last year, which seems to be about my normal amount.

One of the things that has changed over the last few years is that I am reading a lot more British authors. This is mainly because of the blog tours that I am doing which feature of couple of British publishers. One of my goals for this year is to focus a little more on Australian authors.

Not sure why there was a dip in March, but most of the rest of the year was pretty consistent in terms of the number of books read per month.

No surprises here really. My preferred reading format is definitely e-books these days. I do so enjoy the paper book experience when I have it though.

From a blogging perspective, I do have a fairly established routine. I will pretty much always post on Monday, Tuesday and Saturday, and a couple of Sundays a month and then as needed on other days of the week. 

Some other stats:

I read 44 new to me authors in 2024, which is 37%. 

The authors who I did read multiple books by were Maggie Christensen with 5 books,and Antoine Laurain with 4 books. This is the fourth year in a row that Maggie Christensen has been my most read author. I also read 3 books each from Gillian Harvey, Rebecca Raisin, Sandy Barker and Toshikazu Kawaguchi

I don't do a lot of rereads at the best of times. This year there were four rereads. Two of those are Hogfather by Terry Pratchett and The Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson which are now both part of my annual Christmas traditions. 

As always my reading is always skewed to read a lot more women authors than men. This year I read 76 books by female authors and 44 by men. 

A new statistic that I started recording this year is whether I have reviewed a book or not. I don't intend to go back to reviewing every single book I read, but I am pleasantly surprised that I reviewed 60% of the books I read.

The final statistic for me to share relates to the grades that I have given out. I am always pretty stingy with my 5 star grades, with the vast majority of my reads being a 4/5 if I liked it. Here are the grades for what I have read this year. There was one book that I gave 2.5 and only 3 that I gave 5/5 grades to. Those 3 books were:

You can read my review here.

You can read my review here. 

You can read my review here.

Previous year in review posts. If there is no link I skipped that year.

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

I am sharing this post with Sunday Salon, hosted at Readerbuzz

Top Ten Tuesday: Best books of 2024

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Best Books I Read in 2024

The first three are easy! These are the three books that I rated as 5/5 reads.

The Secret Ingredient by Sue Heath - I knew from the first couple of pages I was going to love this book! And I did! (my review)

The Naturalist of Amsterdam by Melissa Ashley - This was my very first read of 2024 and I loved it! (my review)

The Beforelife of Eliza Valentine by Laura Pearson- This book is the book that I recommended to the most people this year. I loved the whole concept! I also gave 4.5/5 to another book from this author. Can't wait to read her next book which I have waiting for me to read soon. (my review)

After that, it gets a bit harder as I had 15 books that I rated as 4.5/5 but I can only choose 7 more, so here goes!

The Other Bridget by Rachael Johns - This was a big book, and I read it in a day! Can't remember when I last did that! (My review)

A Wedding in the Sun by Leonie Mack - Given that I had two books by Leonie Mack that I gave 4.5/5, I had to have at least one of her books in the top ten today. (My review)

Funny Story by Emily Henry - Emily Henry is consistently good!

An Astronomer in Love by Antoine Laurain - I read several books by this author this year so it is only right that he is on this list. (My review)

Summer at Santorini Bookshop by Rebecca Raisin - I love the way that Rebecca Raisin writes about food, books, places! (My review)

Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See - I pretty much always enjoy Lisa See's books! This was no exception!

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros - I gave this a 4.5 just because of the fact that I could not put it down! I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series when it comes out!

Are any of these books on your favourite list?

Countdown to 2025: Day 29 and 30

 This year I am participating in Countdown to 2025 hosted by Lynn from Lynn's Books. I am travelling at the moment so I am doing both yesterday and today's prompt today. The prompt for yesterday was A roaring fire – a book that was heartwarming

II actually struggled with this prompt a bit but in the end I chose this book because it tells the story of a woman who is starting life over after tragedy and the community that she begins to build. You can read my review here. It was also one of my 5/5 reads for the year and you can read my review here

 The prompt for today is Family and Friends – a book with great characters. I chose The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman because I am really looking forward to seeing how these characters come to life when the TV series is released! I must read the next book in the series.

Tomorrow's prompt is Bottle of Bubbly – your first read for 2025. I have one book that I really want to finish before I start thinking about my first book of the year for 2025. Fingers crossed I finish it!

Top Ten Tuesday: Same, Same But Different

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Bookish Wishes (List the top 10 books you’d love to own and include a link to your wishlist so that people can grant your wishes. Make sure you link your wishlist to your mailing 

address or include the email address associated with your e-reader in the list description so people know how to get the book to you. After you post, jump around the Linky and grant a wish or two if you’d like. Please don’t feel obligated to send anything to anyone!).

Now, I have more than enough books so don't need anyone to buy me any, so I am going with my own theme. I have had this post sitting in draft for a while now since I first thought of it so it seems like a good opportunity to post it.

So I bring you different books with the same title

The Secret Ingredient - Sue Heath and Nancy Naigle - I read the Sue Heath book earlier this year and loved it.

Inheritance - Nora Roberts and Christopher Paolini - It's pretty clear from the covers that they are very different books

The Tea Planters Daughter - Janet McLeod Trotter  and Sara Banerji - I think I have both of these books on my Kindle

Hungry Ghosts - C J Barker and Kevin Jared Hosein - These books were both reviewed for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge so it threw my stats out a little bit until I realised it was different authors 

Life After Life - Kate Atkinson and Jill McCorkle - I listened to the Atkinson book years ago.  Must get to the next book at some point.

Can you think of other examples? There are lots out there.

Weekend Cooking/Blog Tour: The Secret Ingredient by Sue Heath

Sometimes you pick up a book, start reading and just know it is going to be a great read from the first page.  This was one of these books for me!!

Kate was very happy in her marriage to Eddie. He cooked for her, he made friends with the neighbours, and generally was an all round good guy, until he went out one day and never came back. Kate was beyond devestated and blindly stumbled through life for a period of timeuntil she realissed that she actually needed  to take stock of her life. She quit her job, anddecided to start by learning to cook for herself. She has her grandmother's recipe book, which includes lots of handwritten notes such as "Kate's favourite".

Whilst she is making a terrible mess whilst attempting to make lemon sugar pancakes her doorbell rings. At the door is  an older man who lives just down the street. He asks if he can come in as he remembers when Kate's house used  to be a tea house where he courted his wife. At times, Charles seems confused but Kate is intrigued and agrees to set the house up as it used to be so that Charles can bring his wife Mary for tea. Now Kate really needs to learn to cook scones if she is going to host an afternoon tea.

Soon Kate is getting to know her neighbours, sharing recipes and food, and learning just how much time Eddie had spent getting to know the people in their street and how thoughtful he was. For  example, Eddie made homemade liver treats for the dog that another neighbour, Della owns. He was just that kind of guy.

One neighbour who Eddie never met was newcomer Jack. Jack ran a very successful local restaurant  and was something of a local celebrity chef, until he suddenly closed down his restaurant and has basically withdrawn from life. Jack and Kate clash from the first second they almost meet. Everyone is intrigued as to why he has stepped away from his life as a chef and why. He has his reasons, but he is not ready to share them just yet.

Each of the characters has lost or are losing someone or something, and at times it is heartbreaking as the story unfolds, especially for Charles and Mary.

When you meet each of our main characters it would be easy to expect that this would be a melancholy read. It is, but it is also funny, feel good reading about finding cross generational, community based friendships, about new starts. I genuinely laughed out loud when Kate made pancakes and the aforementioned dog treats! I did wonder if I should try to use the recipe in the book to make dog treats for our dog but when she talked about how bad it all smelt I decided against it!! 

There was only one moment in the book, and it was a very brief moment, where Kate confessed about something that made wonder about her but other than that I really loved getting to know all the characters and learning their stories.

And the food!! Obviously this book is about a lot of things from loss and friendship but also about Kate learning to cook, how to love cooking, but also more importantly about how food and cooking can be used to show love to the people in their lives.

This is Sue Heath's first book under this name, and I loved it! I already can't wait to read whatever she publishes next. 

I am sharing this review with Foodies Read hosted at Based on a True Story and with the New Release Challenge hosed at The Chocolate Lady's Book Blog

Rating 5/5

About the book

The Secret Ingredient

She’s writing her story one recipe at a time…

‘A delicious story that wraps itself around your heart’ Evie Woods, bestselling author of The Lost Bookshop

It’s been three years, two weeks and one day since Kate Shaw’s life changed forever. Three years, two weeks and one day that Kate has been angry – with herself and life.

But today is different. Different because Kate has finally taken the step she’s been avoiding…back into the kitchen. Now, what begins as a (disastrous) attempt to make pancakes becomes a culinary journey that is not only a love letter to someone so important to her, but also an unexpected means of connection to a community she never knew she had…

Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Ingredient-Zara-Stoneley-ebook/dp/B0BF96B49J/

https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/the-secret-ingredient-sue-heath?variant=40275147096142

About the author:

Sue Heath lives in Cheshire, England. When she isn’t working, she can often be found running around agility courses with her spaniel, and in the evenings, she loves to cook and spend time with family and friends.

‘The Secret Ingredient’ is an uplifting story that explores how a sense of community, sharing, friendship, love, and a feeling of belonging can help us make sense of life, find comfort, and heal. How we can find our happiness in ordinary things.

Sue has also written fourteen USA Today bestselling romcoms under the pseudonym Zara Stoneley and has sold over half a million copies of her stories worldwide.

You can find out more about Sue on her website – www.sueheath.co.uk

Social Media Links –

Website: http://www.sueheath.com
Twitter: @ZaraStoneley
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ZaraStoneley
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zarastoneley/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Sue-Heath/author/B0CBVHB8T5

Weekly meals

Saturday -  Butter chicken and rice

Sunday -  Nothing

Monday - Creamy Mustard Pork Chops

Tuesday - Chicken Parma and chips

Wednesday - Takeaway

Thursday - Pork Nachos

Friday - Takeaway

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

This week....

I'm reading

Last week I mentioned that I was reading a book called The Anywhere Hotel, which I had chosen for the theme of outside my comfort zone for my read on a theme bookclub. I have now finished this book, and I did like it a lot, to the point that I read the connected short story and bought the author's next book. The short story which was called How Captain Found the Anywhere Hotel. What you need to know about this title is that Captain is a dog!!

I then started and finished reading The Secret Ingredient by Sue Heath. I loved this book from the first page, and I am looking forward to sharing my review for Weekend Cooking on Saturday! It will be a good one!

I have one more book to mention. I started reading Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa. I haven't made much progress yet, but I expect to finish it this week.

I finished listening to Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, which is the third book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. Both of these last two books count towards the Japanese Literature Challenge.

I knew exactly what book I wanted to start listening to next, Inheritance by Nora Roberts. I did get a bit of a surprise when I started listening to the audiobook as there was an introduction. I didn't realise that it was Nora Roberts herself, so I was thinking, gee I am not sure I can listen to this whole audiobook. then I heard the actual narrator and I was reassured. I will say that the narrator, Britanny Pressley does very much sound like a Nora narrator - the same tones and intonations that I remember from other audiobooks I have listened to by this author!!

Have you heard that the New Release Challenge has a new home. It is now being hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Review blog. I am excited to join in and have added a couple of my reviews from earlier this year already!

I'm watching

We started watching a new series of Great Kiwi Bake off. We watch any numbers of version of Bake Off, whether it is British, Australian, Kenyan and yes, Kiwi! This year there are new judges and one new host. I think that we need to watch a couple more episodes to get used to the new team!

Life

Well, it has taken a couple of months, but we finally have had a few hot summer days! Up until this week we had only had a couple of days over 30C. 

What else would you do on a very hot Sunday? Well, you would go and sit in the direct sun and watch a concert which features Aussie acts Bachelor Girl, Daryl Braithwaite, Noiseworks, Icehouse and ending with Scottish band Simple Minds! It was a great day out!  And one win for me....no sunburn!

 

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Have Read by Japanese Authors

The Naturalist of Amsterdam by Melissa Ashley

Weekend Cooking: Simple Noodles by Pippa Middlehurst

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge January Statistics

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date