If you save a crumbling mansion, will it mend a broken heart? Feel-good, warm and romantic, FINDING HOME is perfect for fans of Carole Matthews and Milly Johnson.
A month ago, Amy Wood had her perfect home, her perfect boyfriend and her perfect job in London. Now she's broken-hearted, living in her parents' tiny bungalow, and working in a local estate agents in Bath.
At least her new job keeps her busy. Rosemont Hall is a crumbling mansion riddled with woodworm, dry rot - and secrets.
As Amy searches for the perfect owner to restore the house to its former glory, she begins to uncover pieces of the past that some people would rather remain hidden.
In her battle to save Rosemont Hall, Amy will encounter scary housekeepers, evil property developers and mysterious American heirs - and will discover whether the secrets of the past can bring her closer to the future of her dreams...

Finding Home is one of those books you just lose yourself in. Much like Cathy Bramley's book Wickham Hall, it's centered around a stately home, although Rosemont Hall is literally falling to pieces, with the East Wing literally hanging off, but Amy Wood is a woman on a mission, and when she lands a job at an estate agent's (that doesn't seem to require any formal qualifications?) and she's the one tasked to sell Rosemont Hall, she knows that the hall has GOT to be saved, and not by making it into a golf course.

I thoroughly enjoyed Finding Home. Considering I started reading it during one of my busiest weeks ever, and thought I would never get it finished at one point due to extreme tiredness, I actually managed and, not only that, I loved the book so much. It was genuinely a blast. I love books about saving stately homes, and Amy was a very, very passionate person. And the story behind Rosemont Hall was truly epic. Worthy of its own book, actually, I felt, I was entranced by all the goings-on way back when, and the little snippets of love letters we saw just made me all the more excited to find out the real story! 

This was genuinely such a fun book. It even had me giggling a few times, I just managed to completely lose myself in the pages, which is one of the best feelings in the world. I loved Amy, I loved the setting, I loved Rosemont Hall (and wanted to move in - though only after they fixed the issues and got central heating, I have no desire to live in a freezing cold block of ice, thank you very much). Mrs Bradford was quite the eccentric character, too. Even the romance was sweet, if a little super quick, but there was no ridiculous breaking-up-and-making-up come the end of the book, which drives me insane, so that was a refreshing relief. 

I would genuinely recommend you read this book. Finding Home is the perfect little read to while away a day or two, I loved getting to know the characters, the setting, the story behind Rosemont Hall, it had everything I love in a book and I really, really enjoyed it. 

Paige Toon has been one of my favourite authors ever since I read Lucy in the Sky and I count those first four books - Lucy in the Sky, Chasing Daisy, Johnny Be Good & Pictures of Lily some of my favourite books, ever. But I wasn't so enamoured with the past few, if I'm being perfectly honest, so I was a bit dubious about reading The One We Fell In Love With, because I didn't want yet another love triangle book - or, in this case, a love quadrangle, if that's even a thing? But The One We Fell In Love With is right up there with Lily, Johnny, Daisy and Lucy in terms of how amazing it was. It's like I fell right back in love with Paige Toon.

The One We Fell In Love With seems to be a turning point for Paige Toon, as she takes a bit more serious approach to her novels and there isn't one point of view, there's three, identical triplets (which is a rare thing, apparently) Rose, Eliza, and Phoebe. It's all about how they fell in love with this guy Angus, but it's actually so much more than that, and I can't even mention half of it because you need to read this book with as little information as possible, because then you'll get the greatest reading experience. There was lots of talk on social media about some kind of big twist, which made me sad to hear because I didn't want to know, but knowing there was a twist coming didn't change a thing, because it absolutely blew me away. And to find out exactly what that twist is you'll have to go and read the book. Sorry.

This is actually a hard review to write. Because I don't want to accidentally ruin anything. I will say that I loved the girls. Well, I loved Phoebe and Rose. Eliza was harder, because reasons. But each of their voices were strong, and for once, I loved all the points of view, instead of wanting to rush back to Phoebe or Rose or Eliza. Instead, I liked hearing what all the girls had to say. And I LOVED Toby. Oh man, did I love Toby. (And yes, you'll notice I didn't say I loved Angus). To me, Angus was just there, it wasn't really HIS story, it was the girls story (to me, anyway) and I never really felt anything for him (sorry Angus). 

This truly was an amazing read, deserving of all the praise heaped upon it by Marian Keyes and Giovanna Fletcher, to name the two authors quoted on the book itself. I can't believe it's Paige's tenth novel, mind, it seems like only yesterday I was reading (and loving!) Lucy In The Sky. In fact, I'm desperate to re-read those earlier books. Pictures of Lily has been calling my name for weeks. The One We Fell In Love With was delightful. I've fallen back in love with Paige's writing completely, and I'm so glad I took the plunge and bought the book, because it was stunning. One of the finest books I've read this year, for sure. It'll take a lot to top this book, I'm telling you. It hit me in all the right places, and it's a book that just has to be read. 

Sophie May has a secret.
One that she's successfully kept for years. It's meant that she's had to give up her dreams of going to university and travelling the world to stay in her little village, living with her mum and working in the local teashop.
But then she meets the gorgeous Billy - an actor with ambitions to make it to the top. And when they fall in love, Sophie is whisked away from the comfort of her life into Billy's glamorous - but ruthless - world.
Their relationship throws Sophie right into the spotlight after years of shying away from attention. Can she handle the constant scrutiny that comes with being with Billy? And most of all, is she ready for her secret heartbreak to be discovered and shared with the nation?

Don't judge me too harshly, but I have had Billy and Me by Giovanna Fletcher sitting on my TBR pile since it was released in 2013 (although that is not AT ALL the oldest book sitting on my TBR pile - THAT you can judge me on). It was just one of those books I never got around to, but after having a look at what books were hiding behind other books, I brought it out from it's hiding place and just NEEDED to read it. Helped by the fact the sequel Always With Love is out next month (wahoo!). Clearly I was waiting to read it because I knew I'd be waiting three years for a sequel...

Billy and Me was absolutely fantastic. Jill Mansell is absolutely right with her cover quote - this is a glorious book, with buckets of charm and I'm kicking myself (not literally) that it took me so long to read it. I LOVED it. For a while I thought I was going off the genre I've loved for such a long time, but books like Billy and Me remind me that this genre still has some hidden gems I've yet to read - including the rest of Giovanna Fletcher's books!!! It just made me feel so genuinely happy and I absolutely love books where a normal girl goes out with a famous person, and Giovanna has first-hand experience being married to Tom Fletcher. 

Sophie is the loveliest character I've ever met. She's so sweet - and to learn about her history just made me want to squish her into the biggest hug ever. I loved that she stayed in her home town, and worked with Molly in Tea-on-the-Hill, because it seemed lovely, and exactly right for her, so who is anyone to judge just because she didn't go to Uni or on a gap year (neither of which I've done, or could ever afford to do). In the real world, you have to just get a job and get on with it, and Sophie did that, although her job with Molly sounded amazing, like the dream job. And their banter and interactions in the cafe were delightful. Then Billy came into the picture and it all got even better, because Billy was amazing too. I loved their chemistry right from the outset, and I spent most of the book smiling like an idiot, it made me so happy.

Billy and Me also made me cry, thank you for that Giovanna, it was ever so kind of you. Basically this book just had all of the emotions. Laughter, tears, happiness, sadness, characters you absolute adore, it was the whole package and I will not get over the fact it took me so long to read it. This was everything I wanted in a book and more and I can't wait for the sequel, because I need more of Sophie and Billy in my life. 

Coincidentally, birthdays feature prominently in both the Meet Cute stories published this week.  In The Boy at the BBQ, it’s Betsy’s mum’s fiftieth birthday celebration – a fun-filled gathering where Betsy finally gets to see her crush Seb again after a long summer without so much as a glimpse.  For Helena in The Boy with the Board, the tragic events of her eighteenth birthday kick start a chain of events that lead her to California and hunky surf instructor Ashton.
This got me thinking about my own experience of birthdays. 
I didn’t have a party every year as a child, but on my eighth birthday I had a traditional party at home with some of my school friends.  We played all the old favourite party games like pass the parcel and musical bumps and my older sister made me a hedgehog cake with chocolate buttons for the prickles – yum!
Sixteen, eighteen and twenty one were fairly uneventful.  I genuinely can’t remember anything special about sixteenth birthday, and although for my eighteenth I did have a cake especially made for the occasion and a bottle of Lambrini, it wasn’t a big event.  My twenty-first was spent with my now-husband in the small attic flat we shared at the time eating take away pizza which was all I could manage to do as I wasn’t feeling very well on the day.
By the time I hit thirty I decided it was time to try something new and had my first (and only) experience of tequila on a night out with my workmates as the clock struck midnight and took me into a new decade. 
All in all, my birthdays don’t tend to be that exciting, plus being in late September I was always been at school on my birthday unless it happened to fall on a weekend (as it did on my aforementioned eighth birthday which was a Saturday!). 
In contrast, my son Zachary is now eight and his experiences of birthdays has been far more exciting!  For his first birthday we had an open house where friends and family dropped in throughout the day for cakes and biscuits and his second birthday was celebrated in Rome with a day at the zoo.  He’s had parties at play centres, church halls and at home, and his last birthday was spent on an aeroplane flying to America! 
I love writing about milestones such as birthdays and anniversaries and I’ve just written a birthday scene for the novel I’m currently working on which is due out next summer – but I can’t tell you any more about that project just yet!
 
The Boy with the Board and The Boy at the BBQ are romantic short stories in The Meet Cute Series, published on May 19th 2016 by Harper Impulse, the digital-first romance imprint at Harper Collins.
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I've not read a New Adult book in a while, so when the opportunity arose to review She Laughs in Pink, after I revealed the gorgeous and super appropriate cover a while ago, I said yes, duh. It sounded great, and I loved the idea of two lost souls finding each other, although Juliet being in love with Ben, Chase's room-mate, did give me pause (and some angry feelings). But this was actually a great read. It's my first read from BookFish Books, but it will not be my last (especially since there's a second Sheridan Hall book coming - can I get a HELL YEAH?!?!). 

She Laughs In Pink sees two very damaged people come together (actually, it brings more than two damaged people together because the whole of Sheridan Hall are like a family and I am so, so hoping the second book will visit another Sheridan Hall member - Pooja for example SO needs her own story) and what I loved immediately is that Chase and Juliet are so forthright about how they feel. Juliet, about her feelings for Ben, and Chase about his feelings for Juliet. And despite the fact Juliet is so sure she's in love with Ben and they're soulmates, etc, Juliet and Chase actually have a wicked good connection, and amazing chemistry. And you kinda want to bash Juliet's head in for even wondering whether she should just let the Chase thing follow its own path, or keep making a play for Ben who's clueless (until he's not clueless). But, in the end, you really want Chase and Juliet to make it work. 

I loved both Juliet and Chase. Separately and together. Juliet was such a strong character, such a strong girl, she'd been through so much, and still had so much life to her. But, like I said, I wanted to bash her head in sometimes, because she just needed TO PICK A SIDE AND GET ON WITH IT. Mostly because I wanted her to pick Chase and couldn't understand why she mooned over Ben. But Chase I loved. Yes, he had his moments (like any time Sara entered the page) but he was amazing. And he loved his Gram something chronic which made my heart ache. Chuck both Juliet and Chase into the same scene, and it was like my Kindle was on fire, their chemistry was so good. 

I genuinely loved this book. It was so, so good, and the unexpected plot twist literally had me gasping for breath, this was such an emotional, amazing read, though. Juliet and Chase will stay with me months after reading, I can already tell. The whole of Sheridan Hall is in my heart and I can't wait for book two!!!!!! I am INSANELY excited for book two! More Sheridan Hall, hopefully more Chase and Juliet and Ben and Pooja and Rocco and oh man, just ALL OF THEM.