Seaside Stories by Adele Cosgrove-Bray, Tim Hulme, Andy Siddle, Nikki Bennett, Peter Caton and Ruth Ann Titley

An excellent collection of short seaside stories and poems that are a nice easy read, and although you can read the book in one sitting, it is filled with quite a lot of different stories and poems. I enjoyed reading all the poems, and my favourite story was The Forgiving Sea by Andy Siddle. About how a man manages to turn is life around and move on after a tragic accident.

Married by Midnight A Christmas Story by Talli Roland

Kate wedding is only a few days away and so is Christmas, shopping for her wedding dress she finds the perfect 1930’s style dress. Hidden in the dress hem she finds a note attached to the dress from the dresses previous owner. Kate being a believer in signs and superstitions sets out to find the dresses owner to see if the dress holds the key to a long happy marriage.

This is another wonderful winter tale from author Talli Roland that you can put the kettle on, sit down and relax and read in just one sitting. The perfect short story for this time of year, with its heart-warming storyline full of Christmas cheer.

Rare Earth A Novel by Colin P Smith

This is a compelling novel which some readers may find distressing as it does have graphic scenes of animal and human cruelty throughout the story.

The storyline covers the appalling atrocities of the mindless slaughter of thousands of elephants and rhinos for their ivory, horns, and other body parts around the world, the storyline is used to express and expose what goes on, and the lengths of evil man will go to for greed, with no thoughts or feelings to the harm and distress that they put these poor innocent animals through.

The novel is only one hundred and twenty-six pages long, but I found myself having to pause a lot through this book and to take a break. In parts it is most upsetting and distressing. It is a book that will make you think, and I myself was shocked to read what goes on. It is an issue we could all choose to stick our head in the sand and avoid, but I made the decision to go ahead and read this book to learn just what is happening. I think the author does a really good job of educating the reader to the horrors of what is going on, it made me want to look and see what is being done to stop poaching and what we can do to help before these beautiful creatures are wiped out and become extinct.

It is a book that educated me, and will remain in my thoughts for a long while. I am glad I read it. It is a real eye-opener and makes you aware. I thought it was really well thought out and written in a way that the storyline helps include facts that educate the reader.

Colin Smith is a scientist and inventor. He has spent his life developing new technology in the bio sciences. He has held executive technical positions in multinational companies and is widely travelled. He has now retired and lives with his wife in West Sussex, UK. This is his first novel.

Shiri by D.S Taylor

Shiri is a young shepherd girl when her small village in Palestine is set a light and invaded by Amenhotep, Prince of Egypt, the village is destroyed, Shiri’s people killed or enslaved. Shiri manages to flee and escape. Shiri must warn the Shepherd king and soon finds herself on a quest to the heart of Egypt and a journey of destruction, power, and love.

One of the things I really enjoy about doing my job is that often I will now be given a chance to read books that I would never ever have chosen to read myself, so I am often introduced to new genres and fantastic books that before I would never have thought to try to see if I like them, and this is the case with Shiri. Shiri is one of those books which clever wording draws you in from the very first sentence it is a book you will find hard to put down. I found it intellectual and intriguing.

Jam Tops the Fonz and the Pursuit of Cool: A Rockin’ Retro Rom Com for the Hair Gel Generation! By Kris Lillyman

Its 1978 and  nerdy teenager Gordy Brewer decides it is time to pack away the toys, stop being a Sci-Fi fan and become cool. Gordy knows this is the only chance he has for cool chic Pippa Wilson to turn her attention away from super cool boyfriend Steve Cool (Yes his real name) and for her to notice him. Gordy uses The Fonz as his mentor to come up with a list of what is needed to be cool.

Daisy Flynn also longs to be in the cool crowd, she has a secret crush on Steve Cool.  When she spends a summer working with Gordy in a record shop she immediately knows she has found a kindered spirit in Gordy, and a shared interest in music. Something magical happens when Gordy and Daisy work together they become cool.  But summers do not last forever and Gordy is still in pursuit of Pippa and chasing his dreams.

 

Will Gordy be still playing it cool when he releases that the girl of his dreams is not at all what he expects her to be?

This is a book that will take you back to the good old days of 1978 with its constant referrals to all that is nostalgic about this era, which makes this a book if you grew up in the 70’s and 80’s a story that you can easily relate to from the start, adding this with a fantastic, and funny romantic comedy that will have you laughing out loud from beginning to end, this is a not to be missed read.  I will look forward to reading more books by the author Kris Lillyman.

Kris Lillyman is based in Northamptonshire, England and has worked as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator for over twenty-five years. He is married with two grown up children. In addition to adult novels, he also writes and illustrates children’s books.

Mistletoe Mansion by Samantha Tonge

Kimmy Jones dreams of running her own cupcake business, boyfriend Adam thinks she has her head in the clouds, and that she needs to find what he thinks is a normal, sensible nine to five job. With Kimmy still happy to chase her dream she soon finds herself single and homeless just a couple of weeks before Christmas.

When she sees by chance a housesitting job at Mistletoe Mansion she manages to get herself the job, and finds a temporary solution to her problems. Also she hopes to make use of the house’s superb kitchen facilities to get her baking business going.

She soon is mixing with the elite celebrity neighbours and all is looking well, until haunted happenings start to begin in the house. Using all the paranormal skills Kimmy has learnt from watching Most Haunted, can Kimmy communicate and help not only a ghost move on, but herself too.

Although this book does have a very Christmassy title, you could actually read this book all year round, as the theme of Christmas is only a backdrop to the story. With its crazy cast of characters the story is a nice, easy  and a fun read, packed with humour and hilarious one liners, such as ‘It’s the first and last time anything from Primark touches my sofa’   A wonderful, warm and witty read that I really enjoyed and it entertained me. I look forward to reading more books by the author Samantha Tonge.