Book Review: Horsing Around by Lexi Rees
Calling all pony fans!
This journal and activity book is bursting with pony-fuelled fun. Whether you’re preparing for your first lesson or out collecting rosettes every weekend, this book has everything you need.
✓ set your riding goals and track your progress
✓ record your best riding moments
✓ tackle the horsey games and puzzles
✓ test your equestrian knowledge
✓ giggle at the funniest horse jokes
✓ try the fun pony-themed arts and crafts
✓ save your precious pony memories
Can you complete all the challenges and become a riding superstar?
*****
I have become a big fan of Lexi Rees’s workbooks, journals, and fiction so I was delighted to be invited onto the one-day blog blitz for Horsing Around, a journal and activity book.
Horsing Around is packed with activities, trackers, to-do lists and planners relating to horses and ponies whether the child in your life is caring for one or just loves them.
With beautiful illustrations, it’s something I would have loved to have had as a child (even though I have never had access to a horse.)
It really gives the young horse lover in your life the chance to be creative especially as there are also colouring pages and ‘how-to’ for crafting projects.
by 
Upcoming Book Releases – November
I always like looking at upcoming book releases.
It could be that a premise of a book speaks to you and therefore, you discover a new author, or you could find out that your favourite writer is due to release a new novel.
Below are five novels that are due for release before the end of November. Which one gets your attention? I’d love to know in the comments.
The first one on my list is The Island We Left Behind by Kate Hewitt.
This is the fourth book in the Amherst Island series and is due to be released on 30th November by Bookouture.
I’m not familiar with this book series but this does sound like something I would love.
It’s New York, 1928. Ellen and Lucus have made the hard decision to leave Amherst Island behind for a new life – the island that’s so much a part of their history.
New York opens new opportunities including Lucus making money on the stock market. Ellen finds fulfilment as a mother.
When their son becomes ill, Ellen knows what she must do, even if it means being away from the man she loves and the new life they have begun to build.
Never Tell a Lie by Gail Schimmel is the next book on this list. It’s due to be published by Lake Union Publishing on 30th November 2021.
Again, this is another novel that sounds good and will be added to my TBR list.
After her marriage ends, Mary is happy. Her focus is on her twelve-year-old son.
However, when she finds an old postcard, it throws everything upside down.
She’s relieved when she has her high school reunion as a distraction and is even delighted when she reconnects with her old classmate, April.
As she forges a new bond with April, Mary finds herself drawn further into her friends’ life.
Is everything as perfect as it seems? Is her own past clouding her judgement or has she a reason to be distrustful?
Book three on this list is a new release by one of my favourite authors and I am looking forward to reading it.
Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult is due to be released this Thursday (25th November,) by Hodder & Stoughton.
Diana’s life is perfectly to plan. She’s 29, up for a promotion to her dream job at Sotheby’s and she’s convinced that her surgeon boyfriend, Finn is about to propose on an upcoming holiday.
Then the virus hits New York and Finn not only has to work, but the hospital also needs him to stay.
He convinces her to go on vacation without him. She reluctantly agrees.
Once she is there, the world then shuts down and Diana is stranded.
Isolated and getting only intermittent news, Diana starts to examine everything that has got her here.
But not everything is as it seems.
Mercy by David Baldacci is book four in the Atlee Pine series. It’s due to be released on 25th November by Macmillan. It sounds right up my street.
by Book Extract: The Custard Corpses by M J Porter
The Custard Corpses, a delicious 1940s mystery.
Birmingham, England, 1943.
While the whine of the air raid sirens might no longer be rousing him from bed every night, a two-decade-old unsolved murder case will ensure that Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station is about to suffer more sleepless nights.
Young Robert McFarlane’s body was found outside the local church hall on 30th September 1923. But, his cause of death was drowning, and he’d been missing for three days before his body was found. No one was ever arrested for the crime. No answers could ever be given to the grieving family. The unsolved case has haunted Mason ever since.
But, the chance discovery of another victim, with worrying parallels, sets Mason, and his constable, O’Rourke, on a journey that will take them back over twenty-five years, the chance to finally solve the case, while all around them the uncertainty of war continues, impossible to ignore.
M J Porter has kindly shared an extract from The Custard Corpses with us today so grab that tea and biscuit and enjoy!
***** beginning of extract*****
Chief Inspector Mason is about to meet the mother and father of the murdered boy whose case he thinks might be so similar to that of Robert McFarlane
Sam paused, watching the slow progress of the woman. She was so bent; it was almost as though her nose scraped the ground. He swallowed heavily, but perhaps this was too good an opportunity to miss. Especially as an upright man followed behind, his steps slow, but his eyes focused on Sam and Higham. It was evident he’d noticed their interest in the monument.
“Good day,” Sam took the initiative, startling the woman, if not the man.
“Who are you?” the man’s accent was rough, the sound like a stone being pulled over cobbles.
“My name’s Chief Inspector Mason, from Erdington Police Station.”
Two sets of tired eyes settled on him, and he knew whatever he said next might spark hope in them. Could he be so cruel when so much was as yet unknown?
Mrs McGovern puffed through her cheeks, and he noticed the fine hairs above her lip in an unwelcome flash of late sunlight. Her lip quivered, and in her hand, she clutched yet more bright red flowers for the graveside.
by Book Extract: Partner Pursuit by Kathy Strobos
When a workaholic lawyer meets a fun-loving music marketing executive for opposites attract, friends-to-lovers adventures, which partnership will she choose?
Workaholic lawyer Audrey Willems is not going to take any chances with her bid to become a partner at her New York law firm—especially with only six months until the decision.
Until she bumps into Jake—her new neighbor. Jake is a fun-loving music marketing executive who might just be The One.
He’s funny, caring, supportive—and able to kill water bugs in the bathroom.
But Jake will never date a woman married to her job. His father was a workaholic lawyer who never had time for family.
And she’s just got the case of a lifetime—the one she needs to win to make partner. Working 24/7 at the office may not even be enough hours to pull off a victory.
If only she had not met him now.
Audrey is determined to prove that she can juggle work and romance—even if managing court cases, candlelit dinners, and bike rides around Manhattan is a lot harder than it looks. She keeps canceling dates for yet another case crisis.
But when making partner is like a game of musical chairs and the last seat is a business-class alone, which partnership will she choose?
Kathy has shared an extract with us today. Enjoy.
*****beginning of extract*****
Excerpt: Pride & Prejudice
As they reached the green subway entrance in the traffic island in the middle of 72nd Street, Jake asked, “This is your subway, right? The daycare is over on West End Avenue a few blocks down, so we’ll make it in time.”
She nodded reluctantly.
“Say goodbye to Audrey,” he said to Luna.
Luna hugged her. Audrey loved those little arms holding onto her.
Then Luna said, “You should marry this one. Mommy says that if you marry, I might get cousins I can play with.”
by Book Review: Sleep Tight by C S Green
Even in your dreams you’re not safe…
The nightmare is only just beginning…
When DC Rose Gifford is called to investigate the death of a young woman suffocated in her bed, she can’t shake the feeling that there’s more to the crime than meets the eye.
It looks like a straightforward crime scene – but the police can’t find the killer. Enter DS Moony – an eccentric older detective who runs UCIT, a secret department of the Met set up to solve supernatural crimes. Moony wants Rose to help her out – but Rose doesn’t believe in any of that.
Does she?
As the killer prepares to strike again, Rose must pick a side – before a second woman dies.
*****
DC Rose Gifford is called in to investigate the death of a young woman who has been suffocated in her bed.
As she works the case, she can’t help but feel that there’s more to this death than it appears.
Rose then meets DS Moony, an eccentric older detective who runs a secret department of the MET set up to solve supernatural crimes.
Moony wants Rose’s help but Rose doesn’t believe in ghosts… does she?
The killer is preparing to strike again. Rose must decide what she believes in before someone else dies.
Having read the premise for this novel, I was excited to be a part of the blog tour for Sleep Tight, book one in the Rose Gifford series.
Right from the beginning, this novel had me completely hooked.
The plot unfolds at a great pace as does the tension and suspense. It had me completely on edge, especially with the supernatural elements.
I was gripped all the way through as I tried to figure out what was going on and what Rose’s role in it would be.
by Book Club
