Emma's Review: The Cafe on the Coast by Christie Barlow

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Can a cake change your life?

Clemmie Rose’s great-great-grandmother’s beloved clementine torte is her ticket to the prestigious Royal Baking Competition. A win could put Puffin Island’s charming Café on the Coast on the map, land Clemmie her very own cookbook deal, and secure her a coveted invitation to a royal garden party.

But when she discovers the competition is being hosted aboard the Royal Yacht by none other than her ex, Oliver Lockwood, the stakes – and the soufflés –suddenly rise, and Clemmie’s bid for the Golden Whisk trophy is at risk of collapsing like an underbaked sponge.

When a decades-old secret is thrown into the mix, she’ll need more than the perfect recipe to keep her dreams from crumbling.

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Emma's Review: Healing Hearts on Thistledown Lane by Holly Hepburn

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Maura has everything she ever wanted from life – a quirky cottage in Edinburgh’s picturesque Dean Village, a thriving career as a potter and a contented relationship with her childhood sweetheart, Jamie. Never mind that the cottage is damp, her pots aren’t selling and Jamie prefers a night down the pub with his rugby mates to an evening in with her.

But everyone wishes things were just a tiny bit better, right?

When Maura reunites with Fraser Bell at a Hogmanay party, she’s instantly transported back to her school days. And when he proposes she makes ceramic ghosts to complement his city ghost tour business, she’s tempted. At first, everything goes smoothly but it’s not long before their new partnership causes problems that ripple through every aspect of Maura’s life. The ghosts go viral, so she has more orders than she can fulfil and Jamie is not thrilled that she’s spending all her time in her studio. But when Edinburgh Castle shows an interest in Maura’s work, things begin to spiral out of control.

Can Maura really have it all or will she regret wishing for more?

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Emma's Review: The Lifeboat Orphans by Ellie Curzon

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Fifteen-year-old Connie is leaving war-torn England for the safer shores of America, looking after a nine-year old orphan boy with sad blue eyes. But the ocean is rife with Nazi vessels. And when their boat is torpedoed, in the fear and chaos Connie can’t stop thinking about handsome Jack, who stayed behind in London. Will the orphans survive, and will Connie ever be reunited with her first love?

Back in London, sixteen-year-old Jack desperately misses Connie, his brave, kind friend, after their tearful goodbye when her ship set sail. As bombs set the skies ablaze, he listens to an old radio for any news about the dangerous Atlantic crossing. When he intercepts a secret message that could change everything, he races to the war office. Will they listen to a young lad like him, and can he save Connie and countless other lives?

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Emma's Review: Her Forgotten Hours by Lily Graham

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

France 1944: Frankie opens her eyes and winces. The daylight coming through the shutters is acid bright but that’s not what is causing her pain. As she tries to speak through burned and blistered lips, she realises there is only darkness where her memories should be. She is fed sips of water by a kindly old French man, Antoine, who tells her that his grandson found her lying next to her burning plane, crying out for a man called Michael. A man she cannot remember.

The Nazis stalk the streets outside the little French farmhouse where Frankie is hidden, and she knows that she is putting Antoine and his grandson’s life in terrible danger. But to leave she needs to remember who she is, and why she feels so afraid when she tries to recall the man she cried out for. As she lies in lavender-scented sheets, flashes of memory begin to come back. A forest deep in rural France, the smell of fear and pine trees and a face she loves marked with terror. Frankie is sure she came to rescue Michael, and she’s determined to complete her mission. But can she find him before the soldiers find her?

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Emma's Review: The Irish Nurse at the Lodging House by Natalie Meg Evans

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Nurse Grace Whelan’s Irish accent isn’t out of place on the hospital wards in the East End. But she hides it, and so much more, when her work takes her to the other side of the city. Her roommates at the lodging house and her potential beau, RAF pilot Owen, can never know the secrets she’s keeping about her family…

The three girls may share a room in the cosy lodgings, but they are very different. Jess is a country girl not used to the city, and Betony is adjusting to life without her aristocratic father’s money. But as they go through terrifying air raids and family heartbreak together, a sisterhood starts to form.

Until Grace’s criminal brother tracks her down, looking for money. And when it’s revealed she’s not the only one involved with Owen, the scandal threatens to tear the three apart for good.

Devastated, Grace is torn. Will she lose her new friends as quickly as she found them? Or can confessing all her secrets bring them closer together, as the war comes to their doorstep?

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