Georgia Hill

I chose this one for the title from a random ad on Instagram, and thought the combination of witches, history and summer at the seaside would be a breather from the lengthy tome I'm also reading.

Hoo boy. Can all authors take note: readers are not idiots. Unless writing for children, and even children are not this thick, there is no need to beat your target audience over the head with the simplest of plot twists. WE GET THE POINT. 'It was almost as if she knew him already,' main character show more Beth, who is as dumb as mince, muses upon meeting the blandest of all love interests; but also, 'It was almost as if she'd known him before and in some deeply profound way.' Hmm, I wonder what this could mean? The parallel lives/reincarnation romance was also overegged, to the point where I just laughed when the pair of them finally figured everything out with the help of a bit of genealogy.

The entire cast of characters are flimsier than tissue paper - I knew I was in trouble when Beth started psychoanalysing her relationship with her sister in the first chapter. The 1660s chapters read like Barbara Cartland does Practical Magic, while Beth, who needs the Mayflower and the meaning of sinister explaining to her, is so flat and boring that I doubted she could run a business and felt sorry for the cat. Luckily for her, Doctor Nathan loves exposition ('The pilgrim ship that sailed from Plymouth back in the sixteen hundreds') and just being an all round good guy - he's so wholesome, he even uses 'jeez!' as an exclamation. Straight outta Hallmark. I literally could not care less about either of them, and Beth's attempt at spicing up their relationship of weeks was so unconvincing that even she gave up.

The connection with their 1660s ancestors is made through a diary written in perfectly legible English by an orphan who works on a farm, and on parchment that miraculously condenses pages and pages of testimony into a scrap of paper that is easily pasted between two pages in the book. The cliched wearing of white gloves while handling said artefact is lampshaded by Doctor Smarty Pants, who somehow knows they should 'just make sure your hands are clean and free of any oil or hand cream.'

The premise was fine, if not very original, but there is absolutely no life in the characters or subtly in the writing, even for what is basically a Sunday evening drama (or Hallmark movie) in written form. I thought I would be able to whizz through this in a couple of days, but I wasted a week because I couldn't fire up the interest to read another chapter.

Devon, even fictionalised, gets a star, though. show less

Jago, recently divorced and grieving the death of his father, tags along with his mother and little sister on a sea-change to Lullbury Cove. Jago, much to his surprise, finds himself attracted to the local primary school teacher, Honor. The attraction is mutual, but Honor is shocked by Jago's advances, especially considering that he is the husband of her new pupil's mother. Load of fun and heart-warming moments. A wonderful Christmassy romance.

The Little Bookshop Café- Emma’s Story by Georgia Hill is a 2018 HarperImpulse publication.

With a new hire at the real estate agency throwing her higher education in Emma’s face, she is prompted to broaden her horizons by taking a class in high brow literature. She soon finds herself developing a crush on the teacher and begins feeling restless and bored with her long-time boyfriend, Ollie. Stuck in a small town, with little opportunity, Emma begins to wonder if there’s more out show more there and if she should explore it…

This is the second installment in the Bookshop Café series and is obviously centered around Emma, Tash’s colleague and friend we met in book one. Emma loves Poldark – and her fantasies are built around these epic romance/dramas, a form of escapism that takes her away from her mundane smalltown life. Getting swept away by her new literature class and her self- important teacher only exacerbates her discontent with her life, making her long for something more. In the process, she is missing what is right under her nose….

I hate, hate, hate to admit this, but I’ve never read Poldark. I know, I know! But just so you know, I’ve added it to my TBR and plan to read it very soon. It sounds like a series I would love- right up my alley. But, while the references to Poldark went over my head, it didn’t stop me from getting the message the author was trying to convey.

Sometimes we long for something new, something more exciting, more challenging, only to discover that we had all we ever needed or wanted right under our noses all along. Will Emma wise up before it’s too late?

Overall, another cute, novella length story. I love the book themes, especially since these books are tempting me to re-read old classics or get started on books I’ve neglected to read before now! I also enjoyed some of the humor in the book, and the story was just a tiny bit lighter than the previous installment, which gave it a lovely heartwarming feel. A very enjoyable lunchbreak read!

4 stars show less

*I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I liked this novella so much! I’ve never seen the show that inspired the author to write it, but I used to love watching "So You Think You Can Dance?" and also "Dança Comigo" which I think is the portuguese version of "Strictly Come Dancing".

In "Say It With Sequins: The Waltz", the show is called Who Dares Dances and the two contestants we follow are Lucy Everett, a famous childrens books author, and Max Parry, an show more olympic swimmer. Lucy doesn't really have a problem with her dancing, but the live shows are complicated for her because she is still recovering from the agorafobia that has kept her stuck at home for years. For Max the most complicated thing is the dancing, because he feels more comfortable in the water than on solid ground.

They are two misfits, each with their own problems, that get closer together thanks to Lucy’s partner, Daniel, who is a matchmaker at heart... Max is very attracted to Lucy and she for him, but the problem is that Lucy thinks that Max is gay and Daniel too, and confuses the friendship between the two man with something more. Max can’t understand why Lucy sometimes seems to also be interested in him but acts like they’re only friends, however he respects her and never, ever tries to force things. A male character that goes straight to the favorites list!

The romance is so sweet and it was a pleasure to read a story where none of the protagonists is perfect, they both have problems and struggles, but accept and respect each other and, together, try to overcome them. I'm definitely going to read the other two novellas of the series and I hope the author will give Daniel a happy ending because he deserves it. show less