Tag: Chick Lit

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No Place Like Home – Maxine Morrey

Welcome back everyone, after trying out a brand-new genre for me last week with Tom Stone: Day of the Dead, we’re back to the familiar today. Since I enjoyed Second Chance at the Ranch, I thought I should try out another of her books with Rach Random Resources when it became available.

Writing Style

The writing style is actually very similar to Second Chance at the Ranch, which I realised as I wrote that is pretty obvious. I mean it’s the same author, why did I expect anything different?

Anyway, the main thing I liked about her descriptions of the location was the way that she wrote about the Kansas landscape. I love those quiet country landscapes and just being able to sit back, relax and enjoy a glass of wine (or two…).

But really, you can totally lose yourself in your imagination of these places and the emotions going through the characters. It was mesmerising and I actually found myself for once wanting more descriptions of the landscape rather than what was happening between the characters.

But she also keeps you totally engaged and hooked on whats happening between the characters all the way through. And she even addresses the topic of domestic violence in what I feel to be a great way. It’s raw, it feels honest and it addresses the aftereffects that victims experience.

Initial Thoughts

Pretty much straight off the bat I was a bit concerned about the topic of domestic violence being perpetrated with no context or meaning. That didn’t really sit well with me because it’s a topic often portrayed in a way that glorifies it.

But we quickly progressed to her being saved by the cops and moving in with a friend. And then we fast forward through time a little bit.

Final Thoughts

Overall I really enjoyed this one. It was mostly calming, and when my mind is whirling with my projects at work and the assignments I need to get done. I really needed that balance.

The fact that this story was told over a period of a few years, with the characters not knowing how to move forwards from friendship. Or if they even should. Felt really real to me.

The speed at which they came together didn’t really feel real. But then again, I’m not really the type to jump so fully into something like that so maybe it’s just me.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review, next week I will be reviewing Summer of the Viking by Michelle Styles. Continue to read further down to find out about the author and any extra giveaways available.

Author Bio

Maxine has wanted to be a writer for as long as she can remember and wrote her first (very short) book for school when she was ten.

As time went by, she continued to write, but ‘normal’ work often got in the way. She has written articles on a variety of subjects, as well as a local history book on Brighton. However, novels are her first love.

In August 2015, she won Harper Collins/Carina UK’s ‘Write Christmas’ competition with her first romantic comedy, ‘Winter’s Fairytale’.

Maxine lives on the south coast of England, and when not wrangling with words loves to read, sew and listen to podcasts. Being a fan of tea and cake, she can (should!) also be found doing something vaguely physical at the gym.

Below are links to Maxine’s social media, including Pintrest.

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An Impossible Thing Called Love – Belinda Missen

Welcome back everyone, I hope you enjoyed the summery feel of The Italian Retreat on the Italian Lake. This week’s review isn’t quite so summery, but it does involve two countries again, and a holiday fling.

Writing Style

I quite enjoyed the way this one was written. There was a magical feel to it that made me wish I had the guts to up and move to London, like I wanted to for a while there.

As Emmy came across new locations she would marvel at the simplest of things. This really made me connect with her because I do this as well when I travel. The simplest of things grabs me attention and I just want to know more because it’s somewhere different and I want to know how it differs to what I’m used to.

Also, a holiday fling that actually wants to stay in contact just has a magical quality to it. The touches of that magic scattered throughout the story really kept me engaged throughout the whole book.

Initial Thoughts

Right at the very start of the story I thought we might have been in some ancient Viking town or city during a festival. That just shows how recently I’d read the blurb doesn’t it? Coz it was, in actual fact, set in Edinburgh in like 2010 NYE.

One of the magical qualities of this book was the way Emmy and William hit it off as he helped her after receiving a punch in the face. They just seemed to have instant chemistry and it seemed a given they’d get together. Until they parted ways and didn’t exchange numbers or emails or anything.

When they kept running into each other I started to think maybe it would work out. But then it all seemed to fall apart. I felt really bad for Emmy at this point. I’ve lost a good friend when they stopped responding so I can empathise with how she would’ve been feeling. And it made me connect to her even more.

Final Thoughts

I really liked that the issues that pop up in real relationships was what made these ones difficult. Lack of communication, a feeling of getting left behind, not wanting to look like you can’t hack it. And even the desire to prevent someone else from ruining the relationship so not talking about that person.

If I hadn’t have read a tinsy bit of the acknowledgement (I normally skip these) I wouldn’t have realised that this is actually one in a series. So, I will likely try and ferret out those books and add them to my every growing (it was already ridiculous) TBR pile.

Seriously, if someone could just pay me a decent salary to not work and just get through my TBR pile then maybe I will get them all read along with the rest of the series for those that I liked.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review, next week I will be reviewing The Consequence of Loyalty by Trey Stone.

Continue to read further down to find out about the author and any extra giveaways available.

Author Bio

Belinda Missen is an award-winning and best-selling author, screenwriter, and freelance writer from Geelong, Australia. She lives with her car-obsessed, but wonderful husband, two loopy cats, and more books than she cares to count.

In late 2017, Belinda signed a six-book contract with HQDigitalUK (HarperCollins). A Recipe for Disaster was released in August 2018. An Impossible Thing Called Love appeared by magic in November 2018.

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Summer on the Italian Lakes – Lucy Coleman

The Writing Retreat on the Italian Lakes Tour Banner

Welcome back everyone, today’s review is along similar lines to last week’s book in that they are both modern day romances. I chose to participate in this tour because it sounded like it might be a bit of a romance, but at the same time not really since our main character, Brie, needed to get over writer’s block.

Writing Style

I found this story to be really digestible and easy to read. And given how stressful my work life was while I read this book, I needed it. I found I was easily able to jump in and out of this story without being so hooked on “OMG what is going to happen next?!” while being just hookish enough to make sure I had something to look forward to.

I did need to make an effort to read more by the end of the book. But I assure you this had nothing to do with the writing style and everything to do with me trying to finalise some touches on my site since my developers had just finished.

I really looked forward to the times I could read so I could enjoy some light-hearted romance that had a few tense moments. These moments reminded me that it doesn’t matter how good or bad your life is to the public eye. You’re the only one who can really know how you’re feeling and it’s up to you to let people in to help you through those tough times.

Initial Thoughts

To start off with I couldn’t understand what had happened. Had Brie just been dumped? Had something happened to turn her into an emotional wreck?

Then when she turned her life around from her binge eating spree, I started to think she’d meet someone, and they’d go to Italy so she can get her groove back.

So, when she practically got forced out of the country by her agent to help someone who clearly doesn’t like her I started to wonder what could possibly come out of this story. But I persevered since Rachel hasn’t steered me wrong before with these types of stories.

Final Thoughts

By the end of the book I will admit I was a bit distracted and was reading in bursts of like 5-10 minutes in between work taking over my brain. But right near the end (I had like 5 percent left to read) I chose to stay late at work so I could keep reading while I ate breakfast to read.

I’m not sure the ending is very believable. But I guess that’s why it’s a romance book isn’t it? We don’t exactly read these to read about something that actually happens in real life.

We read these types of books for the flair, the drama and the ridiculously crazy ways people fall in love and make it work.

So, in that way I found it really enjoyable and reckon most people would enjoy this even if you’re not too big into romance since it’s not over the top.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review, next week I will be reviewing An Impossible Thing Called Love by Belinda Missen.

Continue to read further down to find out about the author and any extra giveaways available.

Author Bio

From interior designer to author, Linn B. Halton – who also writes under the pen name of Lucy Coleman – says ‘it’s been a fantastic journey!’

Linn is the bestselling author of more than a dozen novels and is excited to be writing for both Aria Fiction (Head of Zeus) and Harper Impulse (Harper Collins); she’s represented by Sara Keane of the Keane Kataria Literary Agency.

When she’s not writing, or spending time with the family, she’s either upcycling furniture or working in the garden.

Linn won the 2013 UK Festival of Romance: Innovation in Romantic Fiction award; her novels have been short-listed in the UK’s Festival of Romance and the eFestival of Words Book Awards.

Living in Coed Duon in the Welsh Valleys with her ‘rock’, Lawrence, and gorgeous Bengal cat Ziggy, she freely admits she’s an eternal romantic.

Linn is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and writes feel-good, uplifting novels about life, love and relationships.

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At the End of the Summer – June Moonbridge

At The End of the Summer Tour Banner

Welcome back everyone, I hope you enjoyed the review of The Earl’s Irresistible Challenge  and have been looking forward to this review.

I know I seem to be churning out reviews this month; but there were just too many books coming out/ open for reviews for me to turn them down! And today’s review is no different in that there was something about the blurb that drew me in and made me want to know what happened.

This book starts off with Caroline tired and going to a concert with her friend because her friend insisted. At the same time, or at least it felt like it, we were also introduced to Joshua, one of said band members, as he notices Caroline in the crowd trying to find her friend. He’s so taken with her as soon as he sees her that it actually distracts him from his music enough that his band mates notice. The next thing we know Caroline is waking up in a hotel bed with one of the band members singing from the shower and Caroline has no memory of how she got there. As she tries to make her escape Hale, the lead singer, comes out of the bathroom and Joshua comes in through the main door making it seem like she’s slept with both of them. And her memory can’t help her out knowing what actually happened.

Well as it turns out this is a common occurrence for Caroline if she doesn’t sleep enough. I can understand her weird ability to just fall asleep anywhere if she’s overly tired but I gotta admit I’d be at that stage after like 20 hours awake. Not like 30+ hours like she seems to manage. Is that weird that she can stay awake that long? Or am I weird for struggling to make it to only 20 hours? Honestly, I’m not sure but the fact her memory goes haywire when this happens is what adds a fair bit of drama to the story.Because of that she puts up all kinds of barriers between her and Joshua even though she is totally attracted to him.

Luckily for her, her friends and Joshua conspire to get them together and slowly but surely this happens. If only it wasn’t for her pesky relationships with her parents that makes this so difficult. I can understand hating particular traits of your parents and being terrified of having them, to the point that it cripples your ability to socialise or date. Not only is your mind going around and around in circles arguing with itself, if you manage to share these fears with anyone else, they brush them off making you feel even sillier about your fear. And I know in my case, it only instilled them further. So, Caroline not wanting to open up makes total sense to me.

What doesn’t make quite as much sense is Joshua not even telling Caroline about his sisters and their families. That’s like beyond crazy protective. How can you expect a relationship to work if you won’t even share that much detail about yourself? What makes that worse to me is the fact that he’s pursuing Caroline but won’t share even the tiniest detail about himself; yet expects her to share her life and fears with him.

By the time I was getting towards the end of the book I was getting a little bit frustrated with Caroline because Joshua just seemed so sweet. But then again,reading the book I can see his side of the story the whole way whereas she doesn’t get that perspective without asking. And even then, being able to trust what people are telling you can be a difficult thing. When I got to a certain point, I just knew I only had 2 or 3 chapters left and knew I needed to stop,get ready for bed and finish it snuggled up before going to sleep. And I was right. It was so perfectly sweet and gorgeous that I couldn’t imagine it not working out between those two characters. And for more reasons than just them getting their happily ever after with each other. But you’ll need to read the book to find out why!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review, on Friday I will be reviewing Made to Break Your Heart by Richard Fellinger, which is another one from my new source of books to tour with.

Continue to read further down to find out about the author and any extra giveaways available.

Author Bio

June was born in June and she always loved the moon. Born and raised in Slovenia, she studied economics, and quickly realised she hated it.

However, later she found herself working in mainly male-dominated businesses. She can choose the best steel for your project, but don’t, please don’t, ask her which lipstick brand you should use.

Although her writing was constantly criticised by her teacher that didn’t stop her. Under different pen names, she had stories published in magazines, and then went on to publish three books under pen name Eri Krt.

After having two children, and learning that her second child has autism, she married their father and carried on working. Work and family life left her with little free time. But the desire to write didn’t die. Always looking for something new, she challenged herself to write a novel in English and all her three novels:

are a result of that continuous challenge …

You can find June at the below places, as well as BookBub.

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Second Chance at the Ranch – Maxine Morrey

Second Chance at the Ranch Tour Banner

Welcome back everyone, I hope you enjoyed my review of Miao-Shan on Monday. If you haven’t already gone and gotten a copy, I urge you to do so! All authors put so much work to have their novels published, so I can’t imagine how much harder it’d be for new authors. 

Today’s review is one that I couldn’t pass up for a few reasons, but the most compelling was wanting to know how the Aussie outback was portrayed by someone who I don’t think has any links to Australia.

Story overview

The story starts with Hero on a modelling set with a headache just wanting to leave. My first thought reading this was that I’d gotten myself stuck in a stuck up models story. But I was quickly proven wrong when she stands up for an assistant the photographer tries to fire.

In any event, we find out that her sister is engaged to an Aussie sheep farmer. Unfortunately, he’s based outside of Adelaide, so she’s going to be moving there away from Hero. And of course, Hero just has to be at the wedding!

Obviously, she meets someone there, and kind of has a thing going on for a while. But not in the way you’d expect. In fact, she get’s scared and runs home to London.

This is where the first really pivotal (in my opinion) thing happens. Like I saw it coming, but even then it really was emotionally draining reading that part of the book. Trust me. When you get to this point in the book; you’ll know. It hit’s you that hard that you just know.

And this is where the “Second Chance at the Ranch” comes into play. I can’t say it was successful though. Some people are just too stupid to let this attempt be successful. But this time Hero didn’t have the opportunity to control the situation like she did last time. And this is where I felt the drama ramping up.

My thoughts

Seeing that the title of the book tells us a second chance is involved. I assumed Hero already new someone at the ranch and so going back was the second chance. For that reason, if you thought the same as me, you’d be wrong!

I got closer to the end of the book I kept checking how much further I had to go. I kept seeing the percentage left getting smaller and smaller. And I kept wondering how we’d possibly get the second chance playing out properly.

Final thoughts

As an Aussie, I feel like I need to say that some of the descriptions of our outback really confused me. I’ve actually travelled to the outback a couple of times and the location, people and customs were completely lost on me.

Typically speaking if you live on a “station” in the Aussie outback you’re a good couple of hours away from the nearest town. And their local town sounds like it’s within 30 minutes of the station. By comparison, it sounds like it’s set in a town the size of Alice Springs, which is more like a city.

And I say this because I’m fairly certain that Coober Pedy doesn’t have a hospital. At least if it does I don’t remember seeing it or any signs pointing in it’s direction. So it honestly left me wondering where the hell this town and station could be set. Where could this town be set where Adelaide is the nearest airport and city, has the typical outback red dirt AND has a town big enough to have a pub with a beer garden and a hospital.

This one just went over my head a little but the town still sounded lovely! Also, country folk talk more bogan than this book suggests and we don’t really say “G’Day”. So there were a few things that just didn’t sound quite right to me.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review, next week I will be reviewing Love Heart Lane by Christie Barlow on another Book Tour. 

Continue to read further down to find out about the author and any extra giveaways available.

Author Bio

Maxine has wanted to be a writer for as long as she can remember and wrote her first (very short) book for school when she was ten.

As time went by, she continued to write, but ‘normal’ work often got in the way. She has written articles on a variety of subjects, as well as a local history book on Brighton. However, novels are her first love.

In August 2015, she won Harper Collins/Carina UK’s ‘Write Christmas’ competition with her first romantic comedy, ‘Winter’s Fairytale’.

Maxine lives on the south coast of England, and when not wrangling with words loves to read, sew and listen to podcasts. Being a fan of tea and cake, she can (should!) also be found doing something vaguely physical at the gym.

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A Greek Affair – Linn B. Halton

A Greek Affair Tour Banner

Welcome back everyone, after reading about Satan and the history of man I thought we could do with a change. So today’s review is going back to a romance novel.

Story Overview

Like with many a good romance novel we start some years in the past to set the scene of what our main character is going through. In this case Leah has just come home with her two year old baby to discover that her husband, her daughters father, has abandoned them and left them with a ridiculous amount of debt. 

Fast forward 7 years and she’s finally managed to pay off all the debts, avoided the cottage being foreclosed on and feels like her life is finally on the up and up. In this case we come back to her right as she’s about to win an award for the best travel blog!

Because of this win she gets more offers to stay at hotels for free to review them on her blog. Personally, I think this is pretty cool, but at the same time so many people are doing this it’d be pretty hard to make a living off of blogging alone. 

Not only did it surprise me that she can earn enough money from her blog to get by, I was also massively surprised that she gets over 1 thousand individual hits a day! I’m lucky if I can crack double digits when a new review goes up! That’s not to say I’m not grateful for all those who have followed me and so might be reading my reviews from their emails. I just have no idea how many of them are reading them.

Anyway! I digress! One of the offers Leah gets is to go to Athens for a few days. That in and of itself would be amazing for me. Some of the sites she visits are on my bucket list and the way Linn wrote about the places and described them made me feel like I was there.

When I see photo’s online I always think that they are photo-shopped or enhanced, but the way Linn described it really stuck into my imagination. Which meant I now have even more possible locations I didn’t know about on my list of places in Athens to visit!

While Leah is in Athens, she meets Daniel who is renting one of the villa’s she’s been asked to review and somehow, she ends up connecting with him both emotionally and physically. 

After a second trip to Athens to see Daniel and get some more photo’s the drama really begins. And this time it involves Antonio(the ex-husband) and Daniel. I spent probably a good quarter of the book trying to figure out what could be happening, who Leah was going to end up with and what would happen to Rosie (the daughter).

My Thoughts

Needless to say, I found a number of surprises along the way, but I really enjoyed them.So much so that this morning when I was meant to start work, I decided to spend another 10 minutes reading while I ate my breakfast just, so I could finish the chapter where Leah and Antonio talk for the first time in over 7 years! I was hooked, and I needed to know what went down with that phone call. 

The thing that irked me a little was that at the end of the last chapter it says “TheEnd” yet I knew from looking at the contents that there was an epilogue. It made me feel cheated a little, coz if I hadn’t have looked at the contents, I wouldn’t have known there was a little bit more. And that little bit more wraps it up beautifully! Why would you trick your readers into thinking there’s nothing else when you want them to finish the story? So when you read this one,make sure you read the epilogue after it says “The End”!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review, on Friday I will be reviewing Miao Shan: The Awakening by a new author Gary Morris.

Continue to read further down to find out about the author, see who else is reviewing this book and any extra giveaways available.

Author Bio

From interior designer to author, Linn B. Halton – who also writes under the pen name of Lucy Coleman – says ‘it’s been a fantastic journey!’

Linn is the bestselling author of more than a dozen novels and is excited to be writing for both Aria Fiction (Head of Zeus) and Harper Impulse (Harper Collins); she’s represented by Sara Keane of the Keane Kataria Literary Agency.

When she’s not writing, or spending time with the family, she’s either upcycling furniture or working in the garden.

Linn won the 2013 UK Festival of Romance: Innovation in Romantic Fiction award; her novels have been short-listed in the UK’s Festival of Romance and the eFestival of Words Book Awards.

Living in Coed Duon in the Welsh Valleys with her ‘rock’, Lawrence, and gorgeous Bengal cat Ziggy, she freely admits she’s an eternal romantic.
Linn is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and writes feel-good, uplifting novels about life, love and relationships.

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When Good Friends Go Bad – Ellie Campbell

Welcome back all, this week’s book’s theme is a little bit different because it’s looking at friendship relationships rather than sexual relationships. I hope you enjoy this one like I did, it was a great change of pace for me.

Jumping into this book I got a little confused because we jump between 3 different times; during high school, 10 years after high school and then nearly 20 years after high school. But I think this had more to do with me not paying attention to the chapter names than it being written poorly. I kinda barely glanced at them because I was so intent on just reading what happened next. Throughout this time however we’re focused mainly on Jen’s point of view out of all 4 girls.

So when we’re jumping between the year’s we learn little bit’s and pieces of what happened during their years in  high school together, which I gota say sound pretty bad! My school was nothing like this, but at the same time I do see news reports of some of those things happening in some schools in Australia so it wasn’t completely foreign to me.

But then they all lose track of each other after “something” happened at the end of one year and they all got pulled in separate directions by their parents. They don’t expand on what this is until much later in the book, and in all honesty I don’t think it was bad enough to separate them that completely and wholly. However, one of them, Rowan, wants to reconnect with them after about 10 years and so calls them and organises to meet up and reconnect. Unfortunately that experience doesn’t work out so well.

Rowan never turns up, Georgina is pregnant by Jen’s high school sweet heart, Meg is typically a little bit crazy and drags off some woman’s man in an attempt to land some acting gigs. Jen on the other hand realises she’s pregnant by her boyfriend who’s 8 years younger than her and starts freaking out. As she’s panicking about this potentially being true her high school sweetheart knocks on her door in the middle of the night wanting to “talk”. Needless to say Jen ignores him, leaves early in the morning to get a pregnancy test and go back to her boyfriend to break the news to him. Throughout these chapters I was a bit shocked at how the girls were treating each other buy also trying to figure out why Rowan never showed. Was she in a car accident driving there? Was she really as forgetful as they all say? But my gut was telling me it was something more sinister.

Fast forward to “now”, which is almost 20 years after high school and Jen’s marriage to Ollie (the younger boyfriend) is falling apart, Georgina is a success but not at all happy in her marriage to Jen’s high school sweetheart, Meg is broke and Rowan is missing.

Cue the main storyline for the book! The quest to find and save Rowan. The girls work together in a number of ways while trying to hide certain aspects of their life out of shame of appearing to be a failure. After quite a few up’s and downs, confusion on my part on why they were treating each other that way and conflicting gut feelings we finally find Rowan.

And it was NOT what I was expecting! To be honest, after all their research and lack of finding any trace of Rowan I was expecting to find her buried in a grave somewhere. So to find her alive and in hiding was a big shock for me. I mean, why would someone willingly put themselves back into the pre-technology time in the middle (ok technically she was outside of the township) of some rural Wale’s town?

And then we find out about how she was abused sexually before entering into a relationship that resulted in domestic violence. Even though he didn’t beat her silly, he still controlled every aspect of her life. Which is a part of domestic violence that a lot of people forget about, which is a shame because that is often much harder to walk away from than physical violence. But I’m really glad that her friends stuck by her and they faced her attacker together and managed to fend him off. I’m hoping it’s for good but in reality I doubt it. In reality I feel like he’d just try to be sneakier about it.

But the part of this book that I really enjoyed in the end was Ollie and Jen realising that they both still loved each other. And that they both just needed to find their love of life again for the relationship to feel better, more alive and overall feel the love again. I really loved this ended after spending the whole book on a rollercoaster of emotions changing directions constantly.

Thankyou for reading this weeks review and I look forward to seeing you again when I review “The Makings of a Lady” by Catherine Tinley next week!

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Lightweight – Kirsty McManus

Welcome back all. I seem to be reading at an even faster pace than I expected while on holiday’s so I’m working myself further and further ahead on my schedule than I had originally anticipated! Normally I work about 3 weeks in advance to make sure reviews are ready to go, but I seem to have worked myself into over a month in advance! Which is not normal for me!

Anyway, I’ll just into the book because I really enjoyed reading this while flying from NZ to Brisbane, and then from Brisbane to Fiji. My first thought when I started reading this one was “is this Australian?” because a few things jumped out immediately as locations I’d been to when visiting my mum in Brisbane. Turns out my hunch is right and this is set in the sunny (if not spider infested city, not that that’s mentioned anywhere in the books!) relaxed city of Brisbane in Australia’s north eastern state of Queensland.

Jumping into the book we join Isla on the day she finds out her ex uploaded a nude photo he took of her onto a revenge porn website. And even though she’s tried, the website is run out of a country that doesn’t care about women’s rights and so the photo is left sitting out there in cyber space for anyone to find if they want.

Then fast forward a few months and Isla has gained a number of kilos (we find out later it’s about 25kgs) and is constantly indulging her sweet tooth. Until that is someone who works for a bakery Isla is buying more sweets from asks her when she’s expecting her child, obviously mistaking her for being pregnant. Like women have to put up with that kind of crap from men enough as it is. Why do we have to take it from other women?

And this is the moment her cousin Grace calls her “Kawasaki moment”. The moment she realises she’s hit rock bottom and decides to change her life for the better. And I think we’ve all been those those moments in regards to some part of our life at one time or other. I know for me it was when I was needing to buy size 12 clothes (my body size naturally should sit in a 6, and don’t judge! I’m short as and short tends to means skinnier!) and that’s when I realised I needed to get back to my normal size. Or at the very least into a small 8! So Isla calls Grace (who btw is a model and super into fitness) and Grace starts coaching her on nutrition and healthy habits including exercise.

So Isla starts this journey and it was so refreshing to read about someone who fell off the wagon, didn’t always go to the gym but kept eating healthy etc. Because I know it’s really hard to keep up those habits when shit hits the fan and work gets so busy you don’t have time or motivation for the gym. I love the feeling of being fit and looking good but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel like going straight home to a glass of wine, or a tv show, or a book or a game sometimes. I’m not saying I don’t try to go but sometimes one little thing going wrong is enough to make those other options way more enticing than going to the gym! So it was really reading about someone else who faced the same struggles as I constantly do.

And on top of that she’s trying to navigate her way through multiple job changes and challenges (just like me) and try and maintain a relationship (ok, so I don’t quite fit the bill here but sometimes it feels like it as every relationship has it’s ups and downs. I’m lucky mine is mostly up) and make her life the life she wants for herself.

To hear about how she can face her fears head on and get through it in a way that feels real is amazing as well. I know I for one don’t face my fears as gracefully or maturely as Isla does. I’m prone to hissy fits and tantrums when it come’s to facing my fears so kudo’s to Isla! And kudo’s to Kirsty who has written this in such a way that it feels really real to me. Even the comment about fashion in Australia being about 6 months behind America and Europe! Little details like that really made this book so much more enjoyable.

Throughout this book I really felt like I could relate to Isla which got me way more emotionally invested in this novel. I hope you’ve enjoyed this post, if you have please like or comment!

Thankyou for reading and I will see you next week when I review the “Barnabas Tew and the Case of the Nine World’s” by Columbkill Noonan.

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Reinventing Mona – Jennifer Coburn

Welcome back all, I will be back at work by the time this post gets published and while writing this right at the start of my 2 week holiday (literally first thing I did when I got home was put a load of washing on, get some alcohol for the night and then sit down to finish this book!) I can honestly say I wish my holiday was longer.

I started this book only a few days ago and I really enjoyed it. This one follows a girl named Mona who is like a total introvert and has basically never dated. We start of the book hearing about how the guy she buys coffee from every morning can’t remember her order but can remember most other people’s order. That’s how nondescript she is. At this stage I kinda feel sorry for Mona. I mean, I’m kinda an introvert as well but never to the point that Mona is described as.

But the one thing Mona did that I can say I don’t have the guts to do, was to leave her job when redundancies were announced. I faced a similar situation only a few months ago (for context there’s at least 3 big companies in Australia doing the redundancy thing atm) and was petrified. I realised at this point in time that other than work and my boyfriend I didn’t really have much going on in my life and realised how boring I am. And yet Mona is in an even worse position in that she doesn’t even have a boyfriend.

So I have gota tip my hat to that woman for having the guts to realise when her life sucks and taking the bull by the horns to change the path her life was going down. After taking the package she hires a chauvinist pig to help her “woo” the guy of her dreams, takes a pole dancing lesson and starts taking boxing and singing lessons. the pole dancing was to introduce her to her sexy side, but the rest were all for her. Since she’s from a rich family I can see how the need for an income isn’t as stressful for her as it was for me. But those are still massive changes to make in your life.

Not only did she do those, but she found a whole new group of friends (or should I say 2 groups?) and turned her life around within 12 months. She really found herself, learnt to be comfortable with who she was and made something of her life. To read about how she did this really inspired me. Especially when the guy of her dreams professed his love and she didn’t instantly say yes to a marriage proposal. She did the smart thing whereby she said yes to dating him and seeing where it went. Just to make sure he was being sincere.

There were quite a few moments where I felt like doing a face palm because of how silly Mona’s moves were. But hey. She got to where she wanted to be in the end. Surrounded by family, being loved and being happy. It wasn’t quite the picture she had planned. But sometimes life takes those turns and you gota just roll with it and see where it takes you.

So I’m really glad this one focused on making yourself happy and while you’re at it finding the guy of your dreams. And when you find him, take it slow and make sure it’s real. I feel like too many people jump in too quickly and then they end up with a failed relationship where they’ve lost themselves somewhere along the way. Whereas with Mona, I don’t think that will happen.

I kinda wish there was more to this story but at the same time I really enjoyed how it ended and I can honestly say if another one of Jennifer’s books comes up for sale I would be happy to read them.

So until next week, I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. Don’t forget to like and comment if you enjoyed this one. I will see you next week with “An Unconventional Affair” by Mollie Blake.

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