Emma's Review: The Red Cross Girls by Susanna Bavin

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

When Livvy receives her orders for war work, she’s desperate for a new beginning. Most of her friends have been sent to munitions factories, so she is delighted to be working for the Red Cross, who are making secret packages that can help prisoners of war escape.

Arriving at her lodgings, she soon meets fellow Red Cross workers Rosalind and Dulcie, and the three women become firm friends. Together, they work hard for the Red Cross to help their boys fighting overseas. For Livvy, that means using her cooking skills in the face of rationing to keep spirits high.

When Livvy meets Dr Jonah Kemble, who works alongside the girls, his warm smile and kind, sparkling blue eyes make Livvy feel seen in a way she never thought she would be again. But as they grow closer, Livvy realises she will have to decide whether to tell Jonah the truth of how she came to be here, and decide whether she can ever open her heart to another man again…

In the face of war, can Livvy find the bravery to tell Jonah the truth of her circumstances and declare her true feelings for him? Or will her one chance at happily-ever-after be lost forever?

Book Links: Kindle

Emma's Review: The Hotel Dancer by Ellie Midwood

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Warsaw, 1943: Every night, Franceska dances at the most dangerous hotel in Poland. She knows which floorboards creak on the stage, which waiters are clumsy, and which officers like to be smiled at.

After her performance, one strap of her black silk dress sliding off her shoulder, she sips champagne with the terrifying SS commander who is determined to rid the streets of Jewish people. She charms him in the soft candlelight, hoping he might lead her to her missing sister. And she prays he misses the glances she exchanges with the man in the corner of the dining room, who is helping her smuggle Jewish people into the hotel and to safety.

The war has stolen so much from Franceska. She has almost nobody left in the world, and little to lose. But as she bewitches the soldiers with her dancing and flattery, extracting details that will help her in her quest, will she pay with the ultimate sacrifice? For as she fights the dark, she can no longer hide in the dark…

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The Twilight Garden by Emma Davies

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

Perched on a hilltop in the Cornish countryside, with the sea sparkling in the distance, lies a garden, once forgotten but recently rediscovered. As the sun sets over its gently crumbling walls every evening, two figures appear and quietly tend the soil at dusk. This is a place that heals the soul.

Gemma is here to find the version of herself she lost long ago. What she hasn’t expected to find is someone who understands her heartbreak all too well.

Leo is also trying to rebuild his life. He knows how to fix things around him with nails and a hammer. But if he tries to mend Gemma’s heart as he mends the garden, could he heal himself too?

Working side by side to uncover long-forgotten flowers in the garden, Gemma wonders if she’s planting the seeds for a whole new future for herself too.

But then one evening, it’s clear somebody else has been to the garden. Someone intending to destroy what they’re creating. Someone who needs to be stopped….

Can Gemma and Leo save the tumbledown, magical place that has saved them? Or will they lose the twilight garden forever?

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The Paper House by Barbara Josselsohn

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

It was a shop full of wonder; sheets of colorful paper, pots of ink on every surface, and spools of ribbon suspended on gleaming brass hooks. But it was even more magical when it was filled with people. Rumor was that the owner, Tilly, could send letters to long-lost loved ones if you penned them on the long wooden desk…

Everyone on the island would go there, not just to buy writing supplies, but to write these letters. To the people they’d not been able to say goodbye to, to the people they wished would come home. The Paper House was a place for grieving, for remembering, for forgiving.

And now, years later, as Kayla reopens the beautiful front door, and feels the memories of her Great Aunt Tilly come flooding back, it has the chance to become a place for someone who lost everything to finally find herself again.

If only Kayla can find the courage to face the ghosts of the past…

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The Candy Apple Cafe by Donna Ashcroft

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

When Izzi pulls up in her battered old car outside the Candy Apple Café, she takes a deep breath and channels her trademark optimism. She’s run away to Honey Haven to escape the mess her life is in right now. Only, she hasn’t bargained on a handsome, broad-shouldered Scotsman appearing out of nowhere and grilling her on why she’s parked there… it turns out the baking work she has lined up is in his gran’s café and he’s her new landlord...

Cameron is immediately rubbed up the wrong way by Izzi’s upbeat vibes and yet, his eyes keep meeting hers across his gran’s cake display at the Candy Apple Café. Cameron’s heart beats a little faster every time she looks up at him through those long, dark lashes and there are only so many times Izzi can pretend she hasn’t noticed the way he towers over her, his dark brooding eyes failing to avoid hers…

Then Izzi and Cameron find themselves thrown together to organise the town’s autumn festival. Planning a spectacular cinnamon-scented event as a surprise for his gran, they find themselves pressed up against each other as they work to turn a crumbling castle into the perfect haunted house filled with sweet treats…

But he’s closed off his heart. And she’s only meant to be in town for a few weeks.

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback