Book Review: New Beginnings in the Little Irish Village by Michelle Vernal

 New Beginnings in the Little Irish Village

by

Michelle Vernal

Publisher: Bookouture

 

Publication date: 4th may 2023

 

Genre: Romance (RomCom)

 

Pages: 305

 

RRP: $4.99AU (Kindle)

 

Source: eBook courtesy of the publisher

 

My review of New Beginnings in the Little Irish Village

New Beginnings in the Little Irish Village is such a fun story! I loved it from start to finish! It is a warmhearted romcom set in the small village of Emerald Bay where everyone knows your business and nobody seems to mind that it's that way.

Michelle Vernal has delivered a whole town of quirky and lovable characters. The story is just as much about the whole town as it is about the main character, Imogen Kelly, one of the five Kelly sisters.

Imogen, a highly successful Dublin interior designer, has returned home to Emerald Bay to complete an interior design project at Benmore House, the home of her first love Lachlan Leslie. A high school romance she still hasn't found closure with. Whilst at home surrounded by her family Imogen reflects on her own lifestyle choices and her current romance with a man 27years her senior.

 

New Beginnings in the Little Irish Village is a light read, a feel good story with plenty of humour at Imogen's expense. Imogen takes all the mishaps with good grace and is even able to have a laugh at herself, making her a very endearing character.

I really enjoyed this story about families, celebrations, reconnecting with your true self and new beginnings. I loved getting to know all the townsfolk of Emerald Bay and Imogen's large and loving family. I am looking forward to reading Christmas in the Little Irish Village and being back with them all again.

My rating 5 / 5   ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

About the author

Michelle Vernal is a New Zealand author who writes stories that will take you onto the page with her characters and make you feel part of their lives. She writes with humour and warmth, and her readers describe her books as unputdownable, feel good and funny. Her writing has been likened to Maeve Binchy but with a modern-day vernacular. In 2015 she was shortlisted for the Love Stories Award. In 2020 she won the Reader's Favorite Gold Medal Award for Chick lit, and in 2021 was shortlisted for the Page Turner Book Awards.

 

Follow the blog tour below

 

 

Book Review: Picture You Dead by Peter James

 Picture You Dead

by

Peter James

The ultimate find.  The ultimate price.

 

 

Publisher: Pan Macmillan 

 

Publication date: 26th July 2022

 

Series: Roy Grace #18 

 

Genre: Crime / Thriller

 

Pages: 448

 

RRP: $34.99AU Trade paperback

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

My review of Picture You Dead 

Peter James' eighteenth Roy Grace novel brings his readers right into the high stakes world of antique art.

Roy Grace and his team are working on the four year old cold case murder of an art dealer.

Harry Kipling and his wife uncover what may be a long lost Fragonard painting after picking it up from a car boot sale. If it is genuine it could be worth millions!

Roy Grace and his team soon find themselves plunged into the deadly world of fine art and the Kipling's world will be changed forever but it may not be the dream they envisioned.

Peter James has excelled in his research for this book. I was totally drawn into the world of fine art and art forgery and found myself googling the masterpieces and famous forgers.

Drawing inspiration from a real life art forger James has delivered a story that is as fascinating as it is engrossing. The deadly world of fine art involves underhanded dealings, forgery, theft, double crossing and even murder. Some collectors will stop at nothing to get the piece they want!

Whilst Picture You Dead is a compelling police procedural, James also builds on the development of his main group of characters and the reader attains a peek into their personal lives and their ups and downs.

A few things I loved about this book were; the short paragraphs, the inclusion of advances in forensics and DNA identification, the use of technology from onboard car computers, the backstory came in short bursts, the scene at Antiques Roadshow (I love that show), the inclusion of a character with type 1 diabetes, the criminals are purely evil.

 

I have no qualms about recommending this series to all crime readers. 

All Peter James' Roy Grace novels read well as standalone.

My rating 5 / 5   ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

About the author

Peter James is a UK number one bestselling author, best known for his Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series, now a hit ITV drama starring John Simm as the troubled Brighton copper. Peter has won over forty awards for his work, including the WHSmith Best Crime Author of All Time Award and the Crime Writers' Association Diamond Dagger.

To date, Peter has written an impressive total of nineteen Sunday Times number ones, and his books have sold over 21 million copies worldwide and been translated into thirty-eight languages. 

Other books by Peter James I have reviewed

https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogspot.com/2021/08/book-review-left-you-dead-by-peter-james.html

 

https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogspot.com/2020/08/book-review-find-them-dead-by-peter.html 

Winner of a copy of Into the Night announced!!

 

A huge thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway for a paperback copy of Into the Night by Fleur McDonald.  The giveaway closed on the 28th April 2023 and the winner was randomly selected (using Random org) from all correct entries. 

Congratulations to........  Linda L

 

The winner has been notified and has seven days to provide a mailing address.

 

Thank you to Allen & Unwin for sending me an extra copy to give away.

 

Please check under the Giveaway tab for more great giveaways! 

Book Review: Blood & Ink by Brett Adams

 Blood & Ink

by

Brett Adams

Publisher: Fremantle Press

Publication date: 2nd October 2022

 

Genre: Crime Fiction

 

Pages: 384

 

RRP: $32.99AU  (Paperback)

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

My review of Blood & Ink

Blood & Ink was a literary delight!

 

Protagonist Jack Griffen is so well portrayed as the academic; mild mannered  and a little muddleheaded, he is always relating everything back to literature.

 

Jack, feeling down on his luck since his wife and daughter left him to live in the US, throws everything into his job as Professor of Literature at UWA. He enjoys mentoring international student Hieronymus Beck, who is writing a crime novel. Jack sees Hieronymus as his protege.

When Hiero leaves behind his manuscript outline for Jack to read over he soon realises that Hiero is acting out the murders in real life. Knowing the police would never believe him he races across the globe to try and prevent the next murder. Each pending murder is coded as a puzzle that Jack must first decipher. What ensues is a fast paced, adrenaline fuelled cat-and-mouse game as Jack is always one step behind Hiero at every turn.

Once the police become involved Jack becomes the prime suspect and whilst trying to outwit the murderer he must also outmanoeuver the police.

Brett Adams has given his readers a sharply plotted and gripping crime thriller with many literary tie-ins throughout.

A writer who would know more than me about the makeup of a successful novel will recognise

the clever addition of these structural characteristics.

I loved the addition of exFBI, now Scotland Yard criminal profiler, DCI Marten Lacroix, tough and witty. This woman needs her own series!

Blood & Ink is an adrenaline fuelled read. It reads like a hard-boiled detective story, only with a literature professor as the lead character.

I can seriously see this on the big screen.

 

My rating 4 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

About the author

 

Brett Adams was raised in country Western Australia and lives in Perth. He has a PhD in Computer Science that taught him to love puzzles, and a family who taught him to love stories (or vice versa). He writes fiction across a range of genres, and has been known to plant an easter egg or two. 

 

 

Book Review: What is Left Over After by Natasha Lester

What is Left Over After

by

Natasha Lester

Publisher: Fremantle Press

 

Publication date: 15th November 2022 (re-release) 

 

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

 

Pages: 288

 

RRP: $32.99AUD (Paperback) 

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Beauty and Lace book club

 

This review first appeared on Beauty and Lace Book Club

 

My review of What is Left Over After

I was excited to hear of the re-release of Natasha Lester's debut novel What is Left Over After.

I’ve been a big fan of Natasha Lester’s books for years and her A Kiss for Mr Fitzgerald would have to be one of my favourite books ever. Her Historical Fiction novels have been published all over the world.

I have loved following Natasha’s strong female leads in her historical novels; trail blazers for women’s rights.
 

For me, What is Left Over After was a little different to Lester’s novels I am used to reading. This is contemporary fiction and the main character, Gaelle, is broken after suffering a life altering tragedy. Gaelle is filled with self-hate and quite unlikeable at the beginning of the novel.  She feels she can never be any different from her mother and she acts out on these feelings filling herself with more hate and self-doubt. She does the only thing she knows; she runs away from her life and husband.
 

As Gaelle hides in a small seaside town in Western Australia where no-one knows her past, she begins to open up to a vivacious thirteen-year-old girl. She tells the young girl the story of her life, growing up with a mostly absent mother and no father, continually moving from place to place. The pouring out of her life story comes as a strange fairytale her mother told her as a child.
 

What is Left Over After is a heart-breaking story of love and loss. Lester explores the concept of what makes us who we are and can you change your life after a dysfunctional childhood.

The story is emotional and the tragedy real. It has a strange story within a story with the inclusion of the fairytale.
 

Natasha Lester’s writing is engaging and even in this debut novel her potential shines through.  

My rating 4 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

About the author

Natasha Lester worked as a marketing executive for L'Oreal before turning her hand to writing. She won the Hungerford Award for her first novel What is Left Over After. Since then She has become A New York Times - bestselling author of seven historical novels, including The French Photographer, The Paris Secret, The Riviera House, and The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre. Her books have been translated into many different languages and are published all around the world. When she's not writing, she loves collecting vintage fashion and practicing the art of fashion illustration. Natasha lives with her husband and three children in Perth, Western Australia.

Other books I've read by Natasha:

https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogspot.com/2020/10/book-review-paris-seamstress-by-natasha.html

https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogspot.com/2020/10/book-review-paris-seamstress-by-natasha.html

 

https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogspot.com/2021/08/book-review-riviera-house-by-natasha.html 

https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogspot.com/2016/08/a-kiss-from-mr-fitzgerald.html

 

 

 

Book Giveaway: Into the Night by Fleur McDonald

A big thank you to Allen & Unwin for sending me an extra copy of Into the Night to give away to one lucky reader.

 Into the Night

by

Fleur McDonald

 About the book

 

Detective Dave Burrows is devastated. After an acrimonious divorce, Dave has no choice but to let his ex-wife and her father Mark call the shots: supervised, one-hour visits are all he's allowed if he wants to see his two young daughters. And he knows he'll jump through any hoops to see Bec and Alice.

On Leo Perry's farm, sixty kilometres out of Yorkenup, the only positive in Leo's day is the unswerving loyalty of his dog, Coffee. Thanks to yet another power outage, Leo is out in the morning heat, refuelling the water pump. But seconds later he watches in horror as the tank explodes. Flames engulf wooden beams and sparks ignite grass just as Leo realises he's at the end of a one-way petrol trail, the fire roaring straight for him.

When Dave and his partner Detective Bob Holden are called to Leo's ravaged farm, they're unclear if they're dealing with arson, suicide or something else. There's been no sign of Leo anywhere, and his wife Jill is distraught. Leo and his dog appear to have vanished. But, when Dave and Bob begin their investigation, what they find makes no sense at all.

I haven't had time to read it yet but I know it's going to be fabulous. You don't have to have read the other books in the series, as they all have a standalone story.

GIVEAWAY

Enter here to win a paperback copy of Into the Night. The giveaway is open to Australian addresses only and entries close at 6pm AEST on  28th April 2023.

 

This giveaway is now closed and the winner was Linda L.

 

Book Review: The Next Girl by Pip Drysdale

 The Next Girl

by

Pip Drysdale

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

 

Publication date: 30th November 2022

 

Genre: Crime / Mystery Thriller

 

Pages: 368

 

RRP: $32.99AU (Paperback)

 

Source: Courtesy Beauty & Lace Book Club

 

This review first appeared on the Beauty & Lace Book Club

 

My review of The Next Girl

With her release of The Next Girl, Pip Drysdale has delivered an adrenaline fueled story with themes of toxic masculinity, online bullying and revenge versus justice.

 

Billie had always wanted to work in the justice system working her way to become a lawyer. She relished her job as a paralegal, helping attain justice for victims of crime. When her latest case goes terribly wrong, her client's abuser is acquitted and Billie loses her job.

Billie decides to avenge the victim by exposing the man for what he really is and to do this she must become, his next girl. The main character was so stressy and hyper I found it hard to settle into the story as she was racing from one thing to the next.

The Next Girl is a vigilante style story with lots of mysteries running through it and I found the not knowing, rather than drawing me in, was confusing at times.

The Next Girl is timely and compelling. I did enjoy the story, it just isn't my favourite by Pip Drysdale.

My rating 3 /5 ⭐⭐⭐

About the author

Pip Drysdale is the bestselling author of The Sunday Girl, The Strangers We Know and The Paris Affair. She grew up between Africa and Australia, became an adult between New York and London. Before becoming a novelist she spent time as a musician and an actress. Pip presently lives in Sydney.

 

My reviews of Pip's other books:

 

https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogspot.com/2021/03/book-review-paris-affair-by-pip-drysdale.html

 

https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogspot.com/2019/12/book-review-strangers-we-know-by-pip.html