hannahc

You can read my review here :) : 

https://emptychairsatemptytables.wordpress.com/2015/09/08/the-morning-after-memoirs/

So I’m still on my break from reading Wicked. I intended to just read “Any Way You Want Me” and then go back to Wicked, but I couldn’t resist picking up another one of my new-used Lucy Diamond Books. I decided to pick up the next one that was written, and this was “Over You”.

I will say that I wasn’t as gripped by Over You as I have been with Any Way You Want Me, the Beach Cafe books and Summer at Shell Cottage, but it was still an enjoyable read.

The story focusses on the middle aged character Josie, whose life falls apart completely after a night away with her friends. When Josie arrives home to her family (her husband of 7 years and her 4 year old twin boys) all is not well. With Josie’s husband Pete acting all shifty, along with Josie’s best friend Lisa, Josie’s world falls apart when her husband announces that he’s leaving her for another woman. But how will Josie get on with single parenthood, and will she make things up with Pete?

Over You was a good story, but like I said, it wasn’t overly gripping. I would have preferred to see more of Josie’s blossoming relationship with her best friend’s brother Rob, but unfortunately there wasn’t any more, aside from a small epilogue set 8 months later, so I would really like to hope that Diamond will continue Josie’s story at some point in the future!

The story line of the book was ok, it wasn’t exactly predictable, and it didn’t seem to be much more than a couple of months in the life of Josie as she moved on after splitting up with her husband. Having said that though it was an enjoyable read, and I really loved the characters, in particular Josie’s 2 little boys, Sam and Toby, and not forgetting Emma and Nell!

Over You was another good book by Lucy Diamond and I’m glad I picked it up! Looking forward to which one I pick next!

You can read my review here :)  https://emptychairsatemptytables.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/any-way-you-want-me/ 

Having just enjoyed “The Beach Café” by Lucy Diamond, I was so happy to see that my Beach Cafe adventure was not yet over when I came across both “Christmas at the Beach Cafe” and “Christmas Gifts at the Beach Cafe”!

I am not a big fan of buying Kindle books. I have a Kindle as I inherited it off my mum when she decided to buy a Kindle touch instead, but I can rarely ever bring myself to buy ebooks, I still much prefer to have the physical book in my hand, and plus, they look great on my book shelf! But I know some books, such as these ones are Kindle only.

My only complaint about the book is that I wanted it to keep going! I didn’t want it to be as short as it was.

I loved reading Christmas at the Beach Café. Following on from the Summer at the end of The Beach Café, Christmas arrives at Evie and Ed’s beach café. But it isn’t just Christmas that arrives… Evie’s best friend Amber turns up, Ed’s brother turns up and Evie’s parents all turn up in time for Christmas. With tempers flaring between Evie and Ed’s brother Jake, will Christmas be the cosy holiday that Evie wanted alone with Jake?

What I loved:

• The characters
• The story
• Everything!

What I didn’t like

• How short it was… I want more of Ed and Evie!

All in all, I loved the book. Even through its set at Christmas and I read it in the middle of the summer! Great book, highly recommend!

A year on from Christmas at the Beach Cafe, Christmas Gifts at the Beach Cafe reunites us with Evie and Ed at their Cornwall beach cafe. But is this Christmas going to be the romantic one with Ed that Evie really hopes for?

With Evie’s sister having just divorced her husband, Evie invites Ruth down to Cornwall for Christmas in an attempt to cheer her up. But the relationship between Evie and Ruth is far from perfect. And then after the death of Ed’s father, Ed decides he needs to spend Christmas in London with his mum. But nothing turns out the way it should for Evie when a lost dog turns up and Evie collapses while judging the local bake off competition. But what is wrong with Evie, and will Ed come back to help Evie save Christmas?

Christmas Gifts at the Beach Cafe was another great short book from Lucy Diamond and I couldn’t stop reading it once I’d started. With the ending of the novella I really really really hope we get another full length Beach Cafe book from Lucy Diamond as I am desperate to know what is going to happen next in the lives of Evie and Ed!

My only problem with the book was it was too short! I want more! Please!

You can read my review here

:) https://emptychairsatemptytables.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/the-beach-cafe/

You can read my review here :) 

https://emptychairsatemptytables.wordpress.com/2015/08/05/the-light-between-oceans/

Well this is another book I'm glad I stumbled upon while browsing Amazon for new books! It is safe to say that I will definitely be picking up more books by Lucy Diamond!

This book was great! A great summer read (but I could read it at any time of the year!).

This story follows the lives of Olivia Tarrant and her family (daughter, son and their families) as they come to terms with the death of Alec, Olivia's famous author husband. However during their summer trip to Shell Cottage in Devon, many cracks appear within the families, revealing many secrets that each family member has been keeping. 

This book was soooooo unbelievably gripping, a new secret was thrown into the mix every few chapters and it really really kept you guessing. What you thought was going to happen, didn't! I could hardly put the book down, and read it in about 3 days.

The plot was great, the places well described, the characters really likeable, and all in all it was just a great book that I know I will happily pick up again some point in the future!

Top marks from me, such a great book!

Now I'm off to buy another Lucy Diamond book! 

Firstly “Grey” is by no means a brand new book by E L James! So if you’re looking for a brand new book in the 50 Shades series you have come to the wrong place, as there is not one. “Grey” however does give us some insight into Christian’s feelings. Yes the majority of the book is the same of “Fifty Shades of Grey” but with the flip that we are hearing Christian’s thoughts on everything and not Ana’s.

“Grey” fills in several blanks from the original book, for example, we get a better insight into Christian’s life pre Grace and Carrick. E L James delivers Christian’s memories from his past life through his nightmares. We also get some more information on Leila, and what happens after Christian has to rush back from Georgia to Seattle to deal with the “situation”. At the end of the book we also get a whole new insight into Christian’s feelings when he’s lost Ana, which leads nicely into the next book.

Yes “Grey” is basically “Fifty Shades of Grey” but turned around, but it does have quite a lot of new content as we are inside Christian’s head, so where anything in the original book was Ana by herself, we get the opposite here of Christian by himself. And I think if anything we get an awful lot more from “Grey”. We see how much Christian is trying to make things work so he and Ana can be together, seeing all the problems Christian is battling behind this.

Like I said, if you are expecting a whole brand new story you’re not going to get this from “Grey”. You’re going to get the story of “Fifty Shades of Grey”, but from Christian’s perspective instead. And I quite enjoyed seeing the other side of the story, so rate this very highly.

I really hate to be so critical about things, but I wasn't as impressed with Dream a Little Dream as I was with Gi's other books. For me, Billy and Me is still the best of her 3 books.

Don't get me wrong, the book wasn't terrible. It was ok, and an enjoyable read, but I wasn't too sure about the storyline. Sarah started to annoy me towards the end as she seemed so anti wanting to date "real-Brett" being happy living with "dream-Brett" in her head.

It isn't a bad book, but it felt like it took a while to get going and I started to get frustrated at Sarah's lack of interest in Brett especially when she loved him so much in her dreams.

But still, a good book. I loved all the descriptions and some of the characters are pretty likeable, and there are some pretty good twists in the plot that I didn't see coming at all.

Can't wait to pick up Gi's next book.

You can read my review here :) 

https://emptychairsatemptytables.wordpress.com/2015/06/19/the-cake-shop-in-the-garden/

This book took me a little while to get in to, but once I hit about 1/3 of the way in I could not put it down! 

The end is full of so many twists and turns and I felt very involved with the characters! All in all a really good book! 

Reading books positions

Wasn't as good as I remembered it to be, but still thoroughly enjoyable.

It took me a little while to get in to this and I'm glad I kept going, as the ending it really good! :)