The perfect daughter is dead. And a secret is eating her family alive...
Jenna is given another shot at life when she receives a donor heart from a girl called Callie. Eternally grateful to Callie and her family, Jenna gets closer to them, but she soon discovers that Callie’s perfect family is hiding some very dark secrets …
Callie’s parents are grieving, yet Jenna knows they’re only telling her half the story. Where is Callie’s sister Sophie? She’s been ‘abroad’ since her sister’s death but something about her absence doesn’t add up. And when Jenna meets Callie’s boyfriend Nathan, she makes a shocking discovery.
Jenna knows that Callie didn’t die in an accident. But how did she die? Jenna is determined to discover the truth but it could cost her everything; her loved ones, her sanity, even her life.
Murder. Corruption. Dark secrets. A titanic wave of refugees. Can Anna solve a terrifying case that’s become personal?
Anna Fekete returns to the Balkan village of her birth for a relaxing summer holiday. But when her purse is stolen and the thief is found dead on the banks of the river, Anna is pulled into a murder case. Her investigation leads straight to her own family, to closely guarded secrets concealing a horrendous travesty of justice that threatens them all. As layer after layer of corruption, deceit and guilt are revealed, Anna is caught up in the refugee crisis spreading like wildfire across Europe. How long will it take before everything explodes?
If you're a regular of the blog then you'll know that I'm not really a fan of serials, as I'm too impatient and prefer to read a story all in one go, but what's slightly different about Della Parker's The Reading Group is that a few are going to be published on the same day so can be read one after the other instead of having to wait a few weeks or even months for the next one. We'll still have to wait a while for the next ones but at least reading 2 or 3 together makes it seem OK, and after all who could resist reading a series featuring a book group, so when I was contacted by Alainna at Quercus I agreed to be part of the blog tour for the first 3 books, December, January & February.
Meet the Reading Group: six women in the seaside village of Little Sanderton come together every month to share their love of reading. No topic is off-limits: books, family, love and loss . . . and don't forget the glass of red!
Grace knows that the holiday season is going to be different this year. No turkey, no tinsel, no gorgeously wrapped gifts under the tree . . . how on earth is she going to break it to her little boys that Christmas is effectively cancelled? And can she bear to tell anyone her embarrassing secret? Enter the Reading Group: Grace's life might have turned upside down but there's no problem they can't solve.
The first book in the series is a super short read, approx 22 pages, but it is perfect as a taster for the series as we are briefly introduced to the women who make up the Reading Group as they rally round to support their friend and fellow member Grace and her family at their time of need. Times are tough and Grace is feeling lost as to how to cope with it all but that's when her friends step in to help make this a Christmas to remember.
I love the concept of this series that each of the novellas will feature a classic as it's chosen book of the month, and in December it of course had to be Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, and the central story will revolve around different group members. But of course the rest of the reading group will always be there in the background to offer a listening ear as the saying goes 'a problem shared is a problem halved', a shoulder to cry on or for morale support when needed.
When Lesley Kinnock buys a lottery ticket on a whim, it changes her life more than she could have imagined . . .
Lesley and her husband Mack are the sudden winners of a £15 million EuroMillions jackpot. They move with their 15-year-old daughter Rosie to an exclusive gated estate in Buckinghamshire, leaving behind their ordinary lives - and friends - as they are catapulted into wealth beyond their wildest dreams.
But it soon turns into their darkest nightmare when, one beautiful spring afternoon, Lesley returns to their house to find it empty: their daughter Rosie is gone.
DC Maggie Neville is assigned to be Family Liaison Officer to Lesley and Mack, supporting them while quietly trying to investigate the family. And she has a crisis threatening her own life - a secret from the past that could shatter everything she's worked so hard to build.
As Lesley and Maggie desperately try to find Rosie, their fates hurtle together on a collision course that threatens to end in tragedy . . .
Money can't buy you happiness.
The truth could hurt more than a lie.
One moment really can change your life forever.
Verity Bloom hasn't been interested in cooking anything more complicated than the perfect fish finger sandwich, ever since she lost her best friend and baking companion two years ago.
But an opportunity to help a friend lands her right back in the heart of the kitchen. The Plumberry School of Comfort Food is due to open in a few weeks' time and needs the kind of great ideas that only Verity could cook up. And with new friendships bubbling and a sprinkling of romance in the mix, Verity finally begins to feel like she's home.
But when tragedy strikes at the very heart of the cookery school, can Verity find the magic ingredient for Plumberry while still writing her own recipe for happiness?
This year has been a bit of a rollercoaster for me personally for various reasons so every time I try to make plans with regards to catching up with reading and reviews on the blog something else comes along to throw a spanner in the works. And that has certainly been the case for reviewing Cathy Bramley's latest book The Plumberry School of Comfort Food which I actually read at the end of August for the Food and Drink feature month.
What I love about Cathy's books is that she creates characters that you find yourself rooting for, in this instance Verity who finds herself at a low point in her life with regards to her job and her relationship. But fortunately for her she's given the opportunity to get away from it all when she receives a call for help from Gloria. And so she sets off to the Yorkshire village of Plumberry to help Gloria set up a cooking school despite having lost her love of cooking following the death of her best friend Mimi, Gloria's daughter, who she used to make cookery videos with when they were teenagers. Has this challenge come at the perfect time for her?
Holly Wright has had a difficult few years. After her mother's death, she's become expert at keeping people at a distance - including her boyfriend, Rupert.
But when Holly receives an unexpected letter explaining that an aunt she never met has left her a house on the Greek island of Zakynthos, the walls she has built begin to crumble. Arriving on the island, Holly meets the handsome Aidan and slowly begins to uncover the truth about the secret which tore her family apart.
But is the island where Holly really belongs? Or will her real life catch up with her first?
This little island has some big secrets...
Isla's got her dream job as head stylist at the most exclusive salon in Edinburgh. The fact that she's been so single-minded in her career that she's forgotten to have a life has completely passed her by - until disaster strikes.
Out of options, she heads to the remote island of Auchenmor to help out her aunt who is in desperate need of an extra pair of scissors at her salon.
A native to the island, Finn is thirty-five and reality has just hit him hard. His best friends are about to have a baby and everything is changing. When into his life walks Isla ...
Happy Birthday, darling girl...
Ever since she can remember, Roisin has received a birthday card in the post. Signed with love from the birth mother she has never met.
Brought up by her adoptive parents, Keeley and Doug, Roisin has wanted for nothing. But on her thirtieth birthday a letter comes that shakes her world.
For Keeley, who's raised Roisin as her own, the letter reminds her of a secret she's been holding for thirty years.
And for Nell, keeping watch in the lighthouse, the past is a place she rarely goes. Until a young runaway arrives seeking shelter, and unwraps the gift of hope for them all...
Mia Channing appears to have an enviable life: a beautiful home, a happy marriage, a job she enjoys and three grown-up children to whom she's devoted. But appearances can be deceptive...
When the family gathers for her son's thirtieth birthday, he brings with him his latest girlfriend, who, to their surprise, has a nine-year-old daughter. Then, before the birthday cake has even been cut, Mia's youngest daughter Daisy has seized the opportunity to drop a bombshell. It's an evening that marks a turning point in all their lives, when old resentments and regrets surface and the carefully ordered world Mia has created begins to unravel.
‘Where are you coming from with that accent of yours?’ he asks.
‘Nowhere,’ I reply. ‘I’m from nowhere.’
‘Everyone’s from somewhere,’ he says.
‘Not me,’ I reply silently.
Clemency Smittson was adopted as a baby and the only connection she has to her birth mother is a cardboard box hand-decorated with butterflies. Now an adult, Clem decides to make a drastic life change and move to Brighton, where she was born. Clem has no idea that while there she'll meet someone who knows all about her butterfly box and what happened to her birth parents.
As the tangled truths about her adoption and childhood start to unravel, a series of shocking events cause Clem to reassess whether the price of having contact with her birth family could be too high to pay...
Kate and Becca are cousins and best friends. They have grown up together and shared all the most important milestones in their lives: childhood birthday parties, eighteenth birthdays, and now a wedding day as they each marry their childhood sweethearts, Charlie and Julian.
Kate has always loved Charlie - they were meant to be. Then she discovers that life never turns out quite how you expect it to. And love doesn't always follow the journey it should.
But best friends are forever, and true love will find a way, won't it…?
Everything was perfect on paper...
Jamie MacAfee's life is almost perfect. She's sure she loves her fiancée, even if she hasn't quite worked out why she won't set a wedding date and she certainly adores her job, working as an architect on their family home renovation show. Meanwhile, her beloved mother Caroline has built up her confidence after a painful divorce, working closely alongside her daughter as the very successful host of Gut It!. Everything is going to plan, until the lives of both women are changed overnight.
When the TV channel plan to replace Caroline with Jamie as the show's host, Caroline is left feeling horribly betrayed - and old in the eyes of the world. Then tragedy strikes, leaving Jamie guardian to her small, orphaned step-brother and fiancée to a man who doesn't want the child.
Who am I? Both women ask, as the blueprints they've built their lives around break down. While loyalties shift, decisions hover, and new relationships tempt, it's time to find out what they really want - and where their future lies...
This week has been a bit of a whirlwind for Katy Colins as the story behind her debut novel, The Lovely Hearts Travel Club, caught the media's attention which has seen her story published in the national and international press, and even a live TV interview via Facetime from the Phillipines on This Morning. The first book in the series, Destination Thailand, was published as an eBook on Thursday and will now also be published as a paperback next month.
Katy Colins completed her first novel 'A Dogs Tale' at the age of 11 which received rave reviews ... from her Grandad and English teacher. This was just the encouragement she needed to carry on writing.
As a qualified journalist with articles published in Company Magazine and The Daily Star she crossed sides to work in Public Relations before selling all she owned to backpack solo around South East Asia and finally put her thoughts into words, writing as she travelled.
Katy currently lives by the sea in France where she is on a one woman mission to educate the French about the necessity and technicalities of making a good cup of tea. When she is not writing about romance, travel and adventure, she loves travelling, catching up with family and friends and convincing herself that her croissant addiction isn't out of control - just yet.
You can find out more about Katy, her writing and her travels on her blog www.notwedordead.com or via twitter @notwedordead
