The house on Lavender Lane is book 5 in the Hope Cove series. It follows on from the previous books and follows the 3 main ladies Emily, Josie and Lizzie. We meet a new character too! Another good read, easy to follow and would recommend this series!

One shocking incident forces six friends to re-evaluate everything

Emily only meant to spend a week in Hope Cove. But when the quirky locals involve her in various events, she happily extends her stay. She just wishes Jack were with her and not stuck working back in Oxford.

For Lizzie, Emily’s visit is well timed. She’s struggling to balance work and family life, and having her friend nearby is exactly the breath of fresh air she needs.

Josie has everyone worried. She’s trying her best to stay upbeat but after two failed pregnancies, she’s definitely lost some of her sparkle.

When disaster strikes, the three couples reunite round a hospital bed. As their lives are thrown into perspective, they’re forced to take stock. And look to the future.

Sometimes, it takes a twist of fate to make you appreciate what you’ve got and fight for your dreams …

The fourth book in the Hope Cove series by Hannah Ellis was better than the third! To be able to follow this book you need to have read the first three books. It now follows the three key ladies – Lizzie, Josie and Emily.

Rumours travel fast in a village…

Josie loves her new life in the country with Sam. But she has a secret that she doesn’t want anyone to know. Unfortunately, it’s hard to keep anything to yourself in a tiny village.

Lizzie is adjusting to motherhood, and finding it more demanding than she ever expected. Life has become a haze of sleep deprivation and dirty nappies, and it’s taking its toll on her relationship with Max.

Emily has finally got the man of her dreams. However, life with Jack isn’t as straightforward as she expected. A certain ex-girlfriend and money worries wreak havoc on their relationship.

As the three couples reunite in the peaceful Devon scenery, what better place to catch up than the local pub? There are laughs, tears and rumours aplenty.

But one thing soon becomes clear: you shouldn’t believe everything you hear at the Bluebell Inn…

The summer at the boathouse is book 3 in the Hope Cove series by Hannah Ellis. It starts before book one then we follow Emily’s character up to and beyond book two. It was an easy read yet again – easy to pick up and put down but I did feel that it wasn’t as great as the first two in the series. Let’s hope it picks up again in book 4 – my next read!

Blurb:

Of all the guys, she falls for the one who’s off limits…

Emily Winters would do anything for her best friend Josie. Every week they meet for a catch up at the Old Boathouse – an idyllic little café by the Thames where Josie’s boyfriend Jack works.

As the summer draws on, life seems perfect. Emily’s writing career is taking off and she’s throwing herself into the dating scene.

There’s just one problem: she compares all the men she meets to Jack.

And none of them measure up.

Now all she needs to do is figure out how to fall out of love with her best friend’s boyfriend. Because even when Josie moves to the countryside, and her relationship with Jack crumbles, Emily knows there are rules to friendship that you should never break.

But can they be bent in the name of love? Is there a way Emily can get the man of her dreams without ruining her friendship with Josie? One thing’s for certain: when you’re in love with your best friend’s guy, the course of true love will be anything but smooth…

These books must be good! I just finished the second book. That’s 2 books in a week which is good for me at the moment!! Yet again, another easy read romance. This is about Lizzie’s (the main character in book one) sister Josie. This book could be read as a stand alone book too, so you need not read the first.

Again, it’s available on kindle unlimited

Village life is supposed to be quiet…

Josie Beaumont is a free spirit. She changes jobs about as often as she changes her relationship status. Frequently! The only constants in her life are the comfy old shoes that she refuses to part with.

When unemployment looms again, she’s intrigued by a job opportunity at a dog kennels in rural Devon. As someone who thrives on change, a move to the sticks doesn’t faze her at all. She’s expecting life in the country to be quiet and uneventful.

What she’s not expecting is Sam.

The charming, sensitive neighbour makes life much more interesting. In fact, when she gets involved in the local community, things really aren’t as dull as she anticipated. But just when she finally feels settled, she’s offered the job of her dreams back in London. It’s time to move on.

Or is it?

Being part of a small community has stirred something in Josie and she begins to question what she really wants. Can she turn her back on her new life and say goodbye to Sam? Or is she ready to hang up her running shoes and stay put? Maybe she’s finally found something worth sticking around for…

Just finished reading this!

Such a feel good easy read. I can’t believe how quickly I read it, especially as I’ve been struggling recently. I’d certainly recommend this!

There are apparently 6 books in this collection – I’m intrigued to see if the rest have the same factors!

The summer that changed everything…

Lizzie Beaumont has it all: a great career, a wealthy fiancé, and the wedding of her dreams just months away. But when her fiancé puts work before her again, she sets off for a week in the picturesque town of Hope Cove. She’s hoping for time away from the chaos to find herself.

Instead, she finds Max.

When the gorgeous guy next door asks her for decorating help, Lizzie finds herself all too eager to please. The week she expected to drag suddenly flies by, and before she knows it, she has to return to her other life. The life with the impending marriage and the fiancé she loves.

Or does she?

One week with Max has left her questioning her life choices. Is her fiancé the man of her dreams, or just the man who asked? Now Lizzie must decide what her life will be. Will she go for the safe and predictable route, or take a chance on a man she hardly knows? No matter what she does, someone’s heart is going to break. She just doesn’t want it to be hers.

So I’ve managed to read A question of belief by Margret Yorke this half term. For me it was an easy read, interesting to follow the lives of the various characters and to see how they crossed each other’s paths, though I didn’t feel that it was full of suspense and it certainly wasn’t gripping!

Philip Winter has no other option but to fake his own death – his life as he knows it is over. A mild, sweet-tempered salesman at an elite department store, he never suspects a nicely dressed woman will make a pass at him . . . and then accuse him of rape when he turns down her advances. Even though he is acquitted, he loses everything including his job and his wife’s trust. He just wants to disappear, and finds himself joining the lost world of the homeless.

When Philip drifts into the village of Chingbury, his life intersects with a group of animal-rights activists led by a rather frightening young woman named Tessa. Tessa has her own obsessions, which are taking those around her in a terrifying direction. Philip’s world will soon be shaken, or ended, by emotions exploding in very unexpected ways.

So recently I’ve been struggling with reading, often finding myself falling asleep or distracted by other things. Maybe I have had too many books on the go at once? More recently I’ve been chopping and changing between 4 different books!

Well I have managed to finish one, and despite it seeming to take me forever to finish it, it is one that I am recommending to others! It is funny, heart warming and sad. A well written tale of the relationship and journey between man and dog!

Ted—a gay, single, struggling writer is stuck: unable to open himself up to intimacy except through the steadfast companionship of Lily, his elderly dachshund. When Lily’s health is compromised, Ted vows to save her by any means necessary. By turns hilarious and poignant, an adventure with spins into magic realism and beautifully evoked truths of loss and longing, Lily and the Octopus reminds us how it feels to love fiercely, how difficult it can be to let go, and how the fight for those we love is the greatest fight of all.

The boy in the photograph by Nicole Trope. Published 28th June 2019!

Six years ago

Megan waits at the school gates for her six-year-old son, Daniel. As the playground empties, panic bubbles inside her. Daniel is nowhere to be found. Her darling son is missing.

Six years later

After years of sleepless nights and endless days of missing her son, Megan finally gets the call she has been dreaming about. Daniel has walked into a police station in a remote town just a few miles away.

Megan is overjoyed – her son is finally coming home. She has kept Daniel’s room, with his Cookie Monster poster on the wall and a stack of Lego under the bed, in perfect shape to welcome him back. But when he returns, there is something different about Daniel…

According to the police, Daniel was kidnapped by his father. After his dad died in a fire, Daniel was finally able to escape. Desperate to find out the truth, Megan tries to talk to her little boy – but he barely answers her questions. Longing to help him heal, Megan tries everything – his favourite chocolate milkshake, a reunion with his best friend, a present for every birthday missed – but still, Daniel is distant.

And as they struggle to connect, Megan begins to suspect that there is more to the story. Soon, she fears that her son is hiding a secret. A secret that could destroy her family…

WOW! This is a must read! It captivated me from beginning to end! I don’t want to give anything away but it certainly is a riveting story. It had me glued from beginning to end! Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC! 📚

So I love reading. It’s a favourite! I love learning new things, exploring new worlds, making friends with different characters. I love the excitement of the chase, of predicting what’s to come, of the new relationship ships blossoming. I love all aspects of reading from being captured by a title or book cover, to reading endless blurbs in the book shop, to being given recommendations, to looking at the collection to read, to passing them onto friends and family.

Everything brings me joy.

I’ve never had problems with reading. Some people I know can go months without reading. How, I often ask. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t read. But, at the moment, I am struggling with my reading. I used to be able to read one or two books a week. If I was lucky maybe even three. But at the moment, it is taking me a few weeks to read just one! I still read every night, but fall asleep quicker. It irritates me. I dislike being in this ‘slump’.

Do you ever feel like this? Or go through phases like this? Let me know!

Wow, YA recommendation coming your way! This book is called 100 days of sunlight by Abbie Emmons and is released 07/08/19. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC

When 16-year-old poetry blogger Tessa Dickinson is involved in a car accident and loses her eyesight for 100 days, she feels like her whole world has been turned upside-down. Terrified that her vision might never return, Tessa feels like she has nothing left to be happy about. But when her grandparents place an ad in the local newspaper looking for a typist to help Tessa continue writing and blogging, an unlikely answer knocks at their door: Weston Ludovico, a boy her age with bright eyes, an optimistic smile¿and no legs.Knowing how angry and afraid Tessa is feeling, Weston thinks he can help her. But he has one condition – no one can tell Tessa about his disability. And because she can’t see him, she treats him with contempt: screaming at him to get out of her house and never come back. But for Weston, it’s the most amazing feeling: to be treated like a normal person, not just a sob story. So he comes back. Again and again and again.Tessa spurns Weston’s “obnoxious optimism”, convinced that he has no idea what she’s going through. But Weston knows exactly how she feels and reaches into her darkness to show her that there is more than one way to experience the world. As Tessa grows closer to Weston, she finds it harder and harder to imagine life without him – and Weston can’t imagine life without her. But he still hasn’t told her the truth, and when Tessa’s sight returns he’ll have to make the hardest decision of his life: vanish from Tessa’s world or overcome his fear of being seen.

This book explores the senses, explores the emotions behind these senses and also builds a powerful relationship between two people. After recently reading a different book about blindness I felt more involved with this story! I read it in a day and struggled to put it down! Definitely one to add to your TBR!