Book Review: Make or Break at the Lighthouse B&B by Portia MacIntosh
Hello to Portia MacIntosh and the blog tour for her latest novel, Make or Break at the Lighthouse B&B which is due to be released on eBook by HQ Digital on 14th February.
Thirty-one-year-old matchmaker Lola James had it all – until she broke her leg at a wedding and discovered that her so-called ‘best friend’ was suddenly too busy to call, her flat had far too many steps, and her boyfriend replaced her quicker than you can say ‘crutches’.
And so she’s back at her parents’ B&B, sleeping in the living room (she can’t get upstairs) and having her hair washed by her mum (she can’t get in the shower).
Freshly single and with a lot of time on her hands, Lola is only too pleased to run into gorgeous Dr Will, an old friend who has definitely improved with age… And then there’s Dean, a divorcé who’s convinced he’s better off alone – no matter how lonely he is.
Can Will help mend Lola’s broken heart as well as her leg? Can she help Dean find love? As a wise man once said, sometimes the one for you is right under your nose, all along…
Lola James has the perfect life. She’s a matchmaker for celebrities, has the handsome boyfriend and she’s about to be a bridesmaid to her very glamorous friend.
However, when she breaks her leg, her boyfriend suddenly has better things to do, her friend is angry at Lola for supposedly stealing her wedding thunder and her boss tells her that, with a cast, she is not the right image for the job.
Just like that, she finds herself back in Marran Bay, back in her childhood home – The Lighthouse B&B.
As she re-acquaints herself with childhood friends, she is trying to figure out what to do next. Could a new life and love be closer than she thinks?
I immediately warmed to Lola. She wasn’t like the characters around her at the beginning of the book.
I think we’ve all had moments where we are not sure what to do next and Lola is definitely having one of those moments. I could really empathise with that.
I want to go to Marran Bay. It sounds beautiful. I also love the idea of a B&B attached to a lighthouse. It reminded me of the Portland Bay lighthouse I used to visit as a child.
by 
Book Extract: Her Outback Driver by Giulia Skye
A big welcome to Giulia Skye and the blog tour for her novel, Her Outback Driver. Giulia has shared an extract with us but first, here’s a little about the book…
When former Olympic champion, Michael Adams—now Canada’s hottest reality TV star—insults his fake showbiz wife on social media, he jumps on the first flight to Australia to escape the ensuing scandal. Desperate to experience ordinary life again—if only for a few weeks—he becomes “Adam”; just another tourist exploring the dusty Outback trails in a beat up truck. But with a reward out for his safe return and his fame’s nasty habit of catching up with him when he least expects, Adam needs a better disguise… and he’s just found one.
Tired of lies and liars, British Backpacker Evie Blake is taking a year out of her busy London life, looking for adventure to heal her broken heart. So when the hot Canadian she meets at the campground offers to drive her through Western Australia’s wild Kimberley region, she grabs the chance, unaware he has the world out looking for him. He’s just a down-on-his-luck traveler, right?
But when hot days turn into even hotter nights, how long does Adam have before Evie discovers who he really is?
If you want my opinion, it sounds amazing.
OK, so do you have a cup of tea… biscuits… a comfy chair? Excellent. Keep reading and enjoy.
***** beginning of extract*****
Extract intro: Her Outback Driver:
“Adam” is a Canadian celebrity-sportsman on the run from scandal, pretending to be an ordinary tourist on the Australian backpacker trail. Evie is a British backpacker working as a cleaner at the campground she’s been staying at. Adam has just arrived at the campground, very hot and very dirty after a few days on the road…
EXTRACT:
He grabbed his gel and towel, and stepped out of the truck. Man, this heat was intense. The air thick and heavy like soup. He wiped the towel over his sweat-slicked face, desperate for cold water on his skin. But when he reached the shower block, a sign stood in his way.
Closed for cleaning.
No frickin’ way.
“Hello?” he called, but when no reply came back, he stepped inside, thinking what the hell? He stripped and stood under the shower, turning the dial full blast toward the blue arrow. He’d be thirty seconds, sixty tops—just long enough to feel something cold on his skin and wash away the three-day grime. By the time the cleaning guy returned, he’d be cooled off, semi-dressed and out.
Only the water wasn’t cold and the cleaning guy not a guy at all.
Adam wiped soapy water from his eyes and focused on the figure standing before him. The cleaning guy was a young woman with huge brown eyes and sun-streaked hair scraped back into a tight knot on the top of her head, just like his favorite aunt Florence used to wear. Except Aunt Flo’s hair was gray and looked like wire, and she’d never before stood outside his shower gawping at his naked penis—unlike this bug-eyed stranger.
“The showers are closed,” the woman said to his bare butt as he whipped around. Her accent was flat and clipped—British—like royalty, though looking over his shoulder he saw nothing regal about her. She was dressed in dark green shorts and a dirty light-blue vest, damp with patches of sweat or water, or both. White earphones dangled around her neck. He turned off the shower.
“Didn’t you notice the bright yellow sign? The cleaning bucket? The distinct lack of shower curtain?”
Well, he’d ignored the sign and bucket, obviously, and throughout his career, he’d been in plenty of changing rooms at top sporting venues around the world all boasting a distinct lack of shower curtain. Okay, they were all a lot nicer than this dump, but he’d never been in a place like this before so how would he know?
“If you’d be so kind as to pass me my towel, I’ll get out of your way.”
She handed it to him, finally lifting her gaze to his face. Her eyes narrowed. He narrowed his own back, already picturing the headlines.
by Book Extract: In Too Deep by Elly Redding
Hello and welcome to Elly Redding and the blog tour for her novel, In Too Deep which was released by Silverwood Books on 3rd February.
Set in the rolling countryside of Devon, ‘In Too Deep’ is the emotional story of a woman’s determination to win the trust of the man she’s adored since they were thrown together as children, by forcing him to confront the darkness of his long-lost past.
One little lie. A guilty secret. And the man she mustn’t love…
It’s been six years since Isy Forrester left home. In that time, she’s strived to forge a new life for herself in London, away from Jack Mancini, her father’s adopted son, and his devastating betrayal of everything she thought they had.
Only now her father’s in hospital, and the house that’s been in her family for generations is at risk. Forced to return to Devon, she finds Jack as infuriating and stubborn as ever, and just as irresistible. Soon she realises the bright lights of London can’t hold a candle to him.
But Jack has a past, one which he refuses to share with her. And until he can trust her with these deepest secrets, how can she risk her heart? How can she even begin to help him, when he won’t tell her what happened all those years ago – before her father brought him home to Hambledon Hall?
Elly has shared an extract from In Too Deep today. Enjoy!
***** beginning of extract*****
Jack is waiting for Isy to return from a brief stay in London to Hambledon Hall
‘You’re quiet tonight, my lad,’ Frank said, as Jack stared down at the iPhone in his hand. ‘And checking that constantly isn’t going to bring her back any sooner.’
Jack knew that. Of course, he knew that and part of him wished the damned thing hadn’t been invented. Only he was waiting for a text that hadn’t come. A WhatsApp message to tell him she’d left and was on her way home.
‘It’s almost seven o’clock,’ Frank said, checking his watch. ‘Why don’t you try to phone her and tell her to wait until tomorrow? Then you can go out with your mates, and I won’t have to worry about her driving back in the dark?’
‘I tried,’ he said, trying to shrug it off, as though it was of no consequence. ‘She didn’t pick up.’
‘You’ve got to stop doing this, you know,’ Frank said, leaning towards him. ‘You’ve got to let her go. You did it before. You can do it again.’
Jack wasn’t so sure. She’d been gone two days now and it seemed like forever. ‘I should have told her everything before she left for London the first time. We should have told her everything when you took me in.’
‘She was too young. She wouldn’t have understood.’
by Audiobook Review: The Wives by Tarryn Fisher
You’ve never met the other wives. None of you know each other, you see your husband only one day a week. Thursday. But you don’t care, you love him that much. Or at least that’s what you’ve told yourself…
And then, one day it all changes.
You thought you were fine with this, with only having a fraction of a husband. But you can’t help yourself, you start to dig. Begin tracking them down, the other days… Who is Monday and why does she have bruises on her arms? Is she being abused? By who? Her husband? Your husband?
What else is he keeping from you?
And who is he, really?
I was delighted to be invited onto the Audio tour for The Wives, the new thriller by Tarryn Fisher.
Thursday only gets to see her husband one day a week. She’s never met her husband’s other wives but she loves her husband. That’s what she’s told herself.
However, Thursday can’t help it. She starts tracking down the other wives. Who is Monday and where did the bruises on her arm come from?
What is her husband keeping from her? Who is he?
Our main character is Thursday, so named because her husband has two other wives and Thursday is the day she gets to see her husband, Seth.
The wives are allowed no communications with each other. That’s the rule.
Curiosity however gets the better of Thursday and her quest to find out more about the other wives sends her down a dark path.
I was lucky enough to be provided with an audio book copy for review and it added an additional aspect to the tension that builds up really well within the novel. Lauren Fortgang narrates this book so well. On the one occasion where I wasn’t able to use the audiobook copy and switched to my kindle, I found myself not reading very far and going back to the audiobook when I could. Lauren and Tarryn’s writing are a great combination.
The atmosphere in this novel is very chilling. I couldn’t figure out where this book was going to go and when I begin, I really couldn’t predict the twists the story was going to take. The plot is unlike any other books I have read in this genre.
by Book Extract: The Other You by J.S. Monroe
Welcome today to J.S. Monroe and the blog tour for his latest novel, The Other You.
Kate used to be good at recognising people. So good, she worked for the police, identifying criminals in crowds of thousands. But six months ago, a devastating car accident led to a brain injury. Now the woman who never forgot a face can barely recognise herself in the mirror.
At least she has Rob. Young, rich, handsome and successful, Rob runs a tech company on the idyllic Cornish coast. Kate met him just after her accident, and he nursed her back to health. When she’s with him, in his luxury modernist house, the nightmares of the accident fade, and she feels safe and loved.
Until, one day, she looks at Rob anew. And knows, with absolute certainty, that the man before her has been replaced by an impostor.
Is Rob who he says he is? Or is it all in Kate’s damaged mind?
J.S. Monroe and Head of Zeus have shared an extract with us today. Enjoy.
*****beginning of extract*****
Kate glances across at Rob’s smooth, sleeping body and slips quietly out of bed, wrapping a cotton dressing gown around her as she steps out onto the terrace. It’s a warm August evening and no one can see her here. The isolated house, all glass and oak and concrete, is cut deep into the Cornish hillside and faces out to sea, which is empty tonight, apart from the winking lights of tankers moored in the distance off Falmouth.
‘You OK?’ Rob calls out.
She swings around. It’s too dark in the bedroom to see him properly.
‘I couldn’t sleep,’ she says, turning back towards the bay, where a ribbon of moonlight has been laid across the water.
A moment later, his arms are wrapped around her from behind. ‘Come back to bed,’ he whispers in her ear.
She can feel him against her, a familiar swelling. She rests her hand on his smooth forearm and thinks again about the necklace he gave her earlier, his insensitive response to her squeal of pain. It still niggles.
‘Thank you for the present,’ she says. He must have just been tired. Hardly surprising after a long week at work and then the flight down.
‘Not too tight?’ he asks.
‘It’s perfect.’
Back inside the bedroom, they snuggle up in the darkness. In all other respects, he’s played it well this evening. He ran her a bath with Moroccan rose oil and brought in two glasses of chilled champagne. Her exhaustion of earlier slipped away. Afterwards, he was the one who fell asleep almost instantly, like a laptop closing.
‘Talk to me,’ she says now, quietly. ‘Tell me about your week.’
She still doesn’t understand exactly what Rob does in London. One of the articles she read about his meteoric career described him as a serial ‘techpreneur’, the youngest ever founder of a British ‘unicorn’ company and a pioneering champion of something called ‘direct neural interface’ technology – the interaction between brain and machine. She likes the sound of unicorns. The ‘disruptive’ tag is less appealing. He also runs a charity on the side that puts on art shows in hospitals, which is how they met.
by Book Club
