Reviewed by Emma Crowley
It's a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman in possession of a good job, four bossy sisters and a needy cat must also have want of her one true love. Or is it?
Verity Love – Jane Austen fangirl and an introvert in a world of extroverts – is perfectly happy on her own (thank you very much), and her fictional boyfriend Peter is very useful for getting her out of unwanted social events. But when a case of mistaken identity forces her to introduce a perfect stranger as her boyfriend, Verity’s life suddenly becomes much more complicated.
Johnny could also use a fictional girlfriend. Against Verity’s better judgement, he persuades her to partner up for a summer season of weddings, big number birthdays and garden parties, with just one promise - not to fall in love with each other…
As part of Sharon's five year blogiversary giveaways I had offered an Amazon voucher as a prize, then Sharon suggested why not do a top three books of the year for 2016 and the winner can choose the book of their choice from that selection? So that is what I'm doing although the initial idea of choosing three books has slightly stretched a bit!
I think it must be coming up to three years that I have been reviewing for Sharon and over that time I have read many wonderful books and of course a few not so great along the way. But I have been a fan of Sharon's blog right from the beginning and it's hard to believe that five years has passed so quickly. Although myself and Sharon may not have actually 'met' in real life she has become a very, very close friend to me and I feel I could tell her anything. It's not only books we chat about, it's everything and with this year being an especially tough year for me she has always been there for me - to listen to me rant, to let me offload or just offer the right words when needed. I'm very privileged to call Sharon a friend and would be lost without her and it's our love of reading and all things connected with books that brought us together and continues to develop and deepen our friendship. Sharon is so dedicated to the blog as well as working full time and I am in awe as to how she keeps everything going. She's always great at keeping me on track with what books I have to review, although my list seems to get longer not shorter - but alot of the time that's my fault.
Sharon as ever is always very generous with her giveaways and you are in for a real treat with all the goodies she has on offer to celebrate five brilliant years of reviews, début spotlights and features. Actually now that I think of it was a reader spotlight that connected myself and Sharon and we have never looked back. It was a Lesley Pearse book that Sharon first sent me so really we were destined to become friends as Lesley is a favourite author of mine for years and years. I'm delighted to be able to help celebrate five years of fantastic blogging and wish Sharon all the best for many many more years of reading, reviewing and blogging.
So now on to business as I mentioned Sharon asked me to pick my top three choices from this year. As I write it is mid October and I know there will probably more books that I read before the year is out that I would say definitely make my best books of the year list but I am going on what I have read so far. I know around the beginning of November there are three books sitting waiting to be read on my bedside locker that I have been anticipating all year but they will have to wait not to mention all the Christmas books I have yet to read (although I have made a start). I have decided to choose three books that quite simply blew me away and are still stuck in my head all these months later. They are quite serious in their themes so I decided to lighten things up a little and decided I would pick three other books on the lighter end of women's fiction so people will have a nice range from which to choose their prize once Sharon has picked the winner at the end of the giveaway. So now onto my selections.
