Emma's Review: Second Chances at the Hopeful Hearts Bookshop by Debbie Johnson

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Single mother Jane can’t believe it when an invitation to Bonnie Bay falls from the pages of a book: the Scottish village she was supposed to run away to with her first love. Until he broke her heart, that is. But he’s far away now – and why shouldn’t she spend a summer there, daughter Beth in tow? They’ll snuggle up reading, stroll by the wild sea, and maybe even banish Beth’s teenage grumps.

But arriving in the charming village, Jane’s jaw drops when she sees a familiar pair of green eyes… it’s Rory Callaghan, her first love, and the boy who broke her heart. The problem? Rory is now very much a man. He’s taller, broader. His Irish lilt still makes her weak at the knees. And the sizzling spark between them crackles just like it used to.

Rory might be a long way from his Irish hometown, but he’s made a new home right here. The cozy bookshop is his refuge, and owner Moira his replacement family. So when Jane arrives it’s like an arrow through his heart. She’s still gorgeous, still his Jane. And the fierce look in her eye tells him she’s just as passionate as he remembers.

After promising to help Moira turn the bookshop into a community hub, and with Beth making friends, Jane can’t walk away. Soon, days at the bookshop turn into very late nights with Rory. And with them both spilling secrets, the real reason they broke up soon comes to light… but will this summer adventure turn into a second chance romance? Or will their hearts end up broken all over again?

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The Hopeful Hearts Bookshop by Debbie Johnson

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Single and in a dead-end job, Kate feels hope spring when an anonymous invitation falls from the pages of a book. Now, she’s standing in a charming Scottish village and trying to ignore the six-four silver fox by her side. He’s got an invitation too, a husky Chicago accent, and dangerously gorgeous sea-blue eyes…

Widowed ex-police officer Brody never expected to be stranded in Scotland with a cute British lady. Her smile might be bewitching… but her attitude? Way too cheerful. And eccentric bookshop owner Moira says they can stay for free, as long as they don’t mind sharing one very cozy little cottage.

That’s the least of their problems. Turns out Moira’s bookshop needs them just as much as Kate and Brody need a fresh start. And with a twinkle in Moira’s mischievous matchmaking eye, things are soon hotting up in surprising ways!

But as they string fairy lights over snug reading nooks and rally the whole community to buy their favourite reads, can Kate and Brody save the bookshop and heal their hearts? Or will their fresh start come crashing down? 

Book Link: Kindle

Emma's Review: A Wedding at the Comfort Food Cafe by Debbie Johnson

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Wedding bells ring out in Budbury as the Comfort Food Café and its cosy community of regulars are gearing up for a big celebration…

But Auburn Longville doesn’t have time for that! Between caring for her poorly mum, moving in with her sister and running the local pharmacy, life is busy enough – and it’s about to get busier. Chaos arrives in the form of a figure from her past putting her quaint village life and new relationship with gorgeous Finn Jensen in jeopardy. It’s time for Auburn to face up to some life changing decisions.

Settle in for a slice of wedding cake at the Comfort Food Café – a place where friendships are made for life and nobody ever wants to leave.

Amazon Affiliate Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: A Gift from the Comfort Food Cafe by Debbie Johnson

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Christmas has never been Katie Seddon’s favourite time of year. Whilst everyone else shares memories of families coming together and festive number ones, the soundtrack to Katie’s childhood wasn’t quite so merry.

But since she moved to the village of Budbury on the gorgeous Dorset coast, Katie and her baby son have found a new family. A family who have been brought together by life’s unexpected roads and the healing magic of a slice of cake and a cupful of kindess at the Comfort Food Café.

This year, Katie’s new friends are determined to give her a Christmas to remember, and with a gorgeous newcomer in town, Katie’s Christmas wish for a happy home for her son might just come true.

Amazon Affiliate Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: Sunshine at the Comfort Food Cafe by Debbie Johnson

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

My name is Willow Longville. I live in a village called Budbury on the stunning Dorset coast with my mum Lynnie, who sometimes forgets who I am. I’m a waitress at the Comfort Food Café, which is really so much more than a café … it’s my home.

For Willow, the ramshackle café overlooking the beach, together with its warm-hearted community, offers friendship as a daily special and always has a hearty welcome on the menu. But when a handsome stranger blows in on a warm spring breeze, Willow soon realises that her quiet country life will be changed forever.

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Blogiversary Giveaway: Win a copy of Coming Home to the Comfort Food Cafe

On Saturday I was lucky enough to receive a surprise Comfort Food package from Harper Impulse publishers but as I've already got a copy of Debbie Johnson's Coming Home to the Comfort Food Cafe, and Emma has already reviewed the book which you can read here, I have decided to add an extra giveaway into the blogiversary celebrations.

Moving to the little village of Budbury, Zoe hopes the crisp Dorset sea breeze and gentle pace of life will be a fresh start for her and her goddaughter, Martha.

Luckily for them both, the friendly community at the café provide listening ears, sage advice, shoulders to cry on, and some truly excellent carrot cake. And when Martha's enigmatic, absent father suddenly turns up, confusing not only Martha but Zoe too, the love and support of their new-found friends is the best present they could ask for.

Have Zoe and Martha truly found their home at the Comfort Food Café?

Emma's Review: Coming Home to the Comfort Food Cafe by Debbie Johnson

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Moving to the little village of Budbury, Zoe hopes the crisp Dorset sea breeze and gentle pace of life will be a fresh start for her and her goddaughter, Martha.

Luckily for them both, the friendly community at the café provide listening ears, sage advice, shoulders to cry on, and some truly excellent carrot cake. And when Martha's enigmatic, absent father suddenly turns up, confusing not only Martha but Zoe too, the love and support of their new-found friends is the best present they could ask for.

Have Zoe and Martha truly found their home at the Comfort Food Café?

Amazon Affiliate Links: Kindle or Paperback

Author Interview: Debbie Johnson

Today it's my absolute pleasure to welcome author Debbie Johnson back to the blog on the final stop of her blog tour for her latest book The A-Z of Everything.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing journey? 
I’m a 40-something mum of three who lives in Liverpool. I worked as a journalist for many years, then spent quite a long time doing a crazy combination of trying to be an author, doing PR and marketing, and freelance journalism. Like most writers, it took me quite some time to reach the point where I could even dream of making a living from fiction – the overnight successes are few and far between! 

My big breaks came from winning the Harry Bowling Prize in 2010, and then getting a book accepted by HarperImpulse in 2014. I was in all honesty ready to give up by then, but as it happens that book was called Cold Feet At Christmas, and went on to be my first proper success. 

If you had to give an elevator pitch for The A-Z of Everything, what would it be? 
I’m always rubbish at these – can our elevator be like the one in Charlie and the Chocolate factory and go flying around for a while?? In essence, it’s a story about love, and family, and forgiveness. It tells the tale of estranaged sister Poppy and Rose, who haven’t spoken for over a decade until their mum, Andrea, passes away. Andrea’s greatest wish has been to bring her girls together again, and she does that by spending her last few weeks compiling an A-Z of Everything – videos, diaries, photos, treasure hunts, road trips and challenges, running through every letter in the alphabet, in an attempt to show the sisters how much stronger they are together than apart.

The A-Z of Everything has more of an emotional tone than your previous novels, where did the inspiration come from?  
I think as we get older, we start to experience more loss. I’ve said goodbye to both my parents and some very close friends, and it really does change you. It also makes you appreciate what’s important in life, and how petty things that seemed important years ago really are. I don’t think there’s any such thing as a ‘normal’ family, and this book is about that as well – the ways we love each other and hurt each other and protect each other. That all sounds a bit morbid, but I hope it’s not – there are plenty of laughs in the book as well, as there are in life – you have to find the humour in even the darkest of situations, don’t you?

What message would you like readers to take from reading The A-Z of Everything? 
That life is short, but love is long – don’t hold grudges or judge too harshly; none of us are perfect, we all make mistakes, and loving someone is sometimes about accept them warts and all.

Giveaway: Win a copy of Christmas at the Comfort Food Cafe by Debbie Johnson

It's hard to believe it's only 32 days till Christmas, despite being pretty organised this year the months still seem to have crept up on me.  But the one good thing about this time of year is that there's no shortage of festive books to read to get you in the mood, although I've only read a couple so far as Emma has reviewed most of this year's festive books including Debbie Johnson's Christmas at the Comfort Food Cafe back in September, which can be read here,

Becca Fletcher hates Christmas so much, she’s considering getting ‘Bah Humbug!’ tattooed on her forehead. She has her reasons for being Little Miss Grinch; Reasons that make this the very worst time of year for her.

Now, though, she can’t avoid her version of ho-ho-hell – because she’s travelling to the Comfort Food Cafe to spend the festive season with her sister Laura, and her family. She’s expecting mulled wine, the smell of pine trees, 24-hour Christmas movie marathons and all kinds of very merry torture.

Emma's Review: Christmas at the Comfort Food Cafe by Debbie Johnson

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Becca Fletcher hates Christmas so much, she’s considering getting ‘Bah Humbug!’ tattooed on her forehead. She has her reasons for being Little Miss Grinch; Reasons that make this the very worst time of year for her.

Now, though, she can’t avoid her version of ho-ho-hell – because she’s travelling to the Comfort Food Cafe to spend the festive season with her sister Laura, and her family. She’s expecting mulled wine, the smell of pine trees, 24-hour Christmas movie marathons and all kinds of very merry torture.

But little does Becca know that the Comfort Food Cafe is like no other place on earth. Perched on a snow-covered hill on a windswept bay, it’s a place full of friendship; a place where broken hearts can heal, and a place where new love can blossom. It’s a place where Becca’s Christmas miracle really could happen – if only she can let it…

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Extract from Summer at the Comfort Food Cafe by Debbie Johnson

Today it's our stop on the Summer at the Comfort Food Cafe blog tour which Emma has already read, you can read her review here if you missed it, so I have a extract to share with you which features an first encounter for our leading lady Laura...  

We get to the car, I pass him the key and he effortlessly unlocks and lifts the roofbox lid. The one that took a whole lot of huffing, puffing, effing and jeffing for me to sort out the night before. I look on, standing on tiptoes and still barely able to reach. I am starting to hate him, a little tiny bit.

In the end I give up on my ineffectual stretching. It’ll be easier if I just let him get everything out and then the rest of us start to carry it back to Hyacinth. Of course, what I’ve temporarily expunged from my mind about the roofbox is the way I’ve packed it.

Actually, ‘packed’ might be too generous a word. What I’d actually done was put masses of the kids’ clothes and shoes into bin bags, put breakables and electrics into a cardboard box, added a few essentials like coffee and bog roll in one of those big reusable shoppers and then shoved most of my stuff down the sides, squeezing it all in to whatever spaces were left.

It had seemed to make perfect sense at the time, but as the man tugs hard at one of the tightly packed black bin bags, I start to regret it. It’s a mess, frankly. The kind of mess you only ever want to see yourself.

I start to regret it even more when he finally manages to pull the bin bag away, with a grunt of effort. As it pops free, it brings with it a big, squashed clump of my underwear, which promptly scatters around us like an explosion of over-washed cotton being shot from a knicker cannon.

One pair of briefs gets stuck on the car aerial and another is caught mid-air by Nate, who immediately makes an ‘uggh’ noise and throws them on the floor. Jimbo, who has ambled out to see what all the fuss is about, straight away makes a beeline for the pants that Nate has just discarded and gobbles them up into his mouth. He runs away as fast as he can, a disappearing black blur with a limp pair of white undies hanging out of his muzzle.

Emma's Review: Summer at the Comfort Food Cafe by Debbie Johnson

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

The Comfort Food Cafe is perched on a windswept clifftop at what feels like the edge of the world, serving up the most delicious cream teas; beautifully baked breads, and carefully crafted cupcakes. For tourists and locals alike, the ramshackle cafe overlooking the beach is a beacon of laughter, companionship, and security – a place like no other; a place that offers friendship as a daily special, and where a hearty welcome is always on the menu.

For widowed mum-of-two Laura Walker, the decision to uproot her teenaged children and make the trek from Manchester to Dorset for the summer isn’t one she takes lightly, and it’s certainly not winning her any awards from her kids, Nate and Lizzie. Even her own parents think she’s gone mad.

But following the death of her beloved husband David two years earlier, Laura knows that it’s time to move on. To find a way to live without him, instead of just surviving. To find her new place in the world, and to fill the gap that he’s left in all their lives.

Her new job at the cafe, and the hilarious people she meets there, give Laura the chance she needs to make new friends; to learn to be herself again, and – just possibly – to learn to love again as well.

For her, the Comfort Food Cafe doesn’t just serve food – it serves a second chance to live her life to the full…

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Author Interview: Debbie Johnson

It's my pleasure to welcome author Debbie Johnson to the blog for a Q&A on the latest leg of her blog tour for her Christmas novella Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Jumper which I'll be reviewing in December.

Can you tell us a little bit about the latest festive offering, Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Jumper?
Well, for anyone who read Cold Feet At Christmas last year, it features an update on Leah and Rob – although if you haven’t read it, it won’t matter! 

Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Jumper is a sweet, emotional story about a single mum, Maggie, who finds herself facing up to her first Christmas alone – her teenaged daughter is flying the nest, and her dad is off on a pensioners’ booze cruise! She’s left with her work – making beautiful wedding dresses for loved-up brides, despite never having been in love herself – and anticipating a solo Christmas dinner from M&S on the big day!

Of course, this being a festive romance, it doesn’t quite work out like that – Marco Cavelli literally crashes into her life on the snowy streets of Oxford, and these two apparently very different people are thrown together for a very memorable Christmas. Marco, I have to say, is my favourite of the heroes I’ve written – he manages to be funny, kind and caring, while at the same time super sexy!

I used to live in Oxford and it’s a perfect setting for a Christmas story – achingly beautiful – and also the perfect setting for the weddings that dressmaker Maggie attends throughout the story.

How did the title come about?
It came about after literally dozens of suggestions and months of trying! I can’t claim the credit for it – the idea came from HarperImpulse, my publisher – but I loved it straight away. It relates to a funny, frivolous aspect of the story, and works really well. Because Marco is a successful lawyer, he’s mature and experienced and worldy, and he’s not the kind of guy you’d expect to see in a Christmas jumper – so it’s a bit of a Bridget Jones nod as well!

We briefly met Marco Cavelli in last year's festive story, Cold Feet at Christmas, had you always planned to write his story?
I always had it in the back of my mind, yes. He was a secondary but valuable character in Cold Feet at Christmas, a good counterpoint to the sometimes very dark Rob Cavelli. Plus, you know, as a writer, if you’re going to go to the trouble of creating handsome twin brothers, it seems rude to waste one of them! When i sat down to think of ideas for a new Christmas book, he was the obvious choice – but creating Maggie, who is quiet and self-sufficient but just a lovely person, was what really completed the story.

HI Readathon: Cold Feet at Christmas by Debbie Johnson

Running out on your wedding shouldn’t be this much fun!

A remote Scottish castle on a snowy Christmas Eve. A handsome husband-to-be. A dress to die for. It should have been the happiest day of Leah Harvey’s life – but the fairytale wedding turns sour when she finds her fiancé halfway up the bridesmaid’s skirt just hours before the ceremony!

Fleeing the scene in a blizzard, Leah ends up stranded at the nearest cottage, where she collapses into the arms of its inhabitant – a man so handsome she thinks she must have died and gone to heaven!

And when Rob Cavelli suddenly finds himself with an armful of soaking wet, freezing cold, and absolutely gorgeous bride on the run, he’s more than happy to welcome her into his snowbound cottage this Christmas…

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback 

HI Readathon - Pippa's Cornish Dream by Debbie Johnson

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Every summer has a story…

Since Pippa Harte was forced to take over her parents’ farm, she’s barely had time to shave her legs let alone make time for a date. Now she’s more likely to be getting down and dirty mucking out the pigs – and avoiding those of the human male variety.

When Ben Retallick walks out of her childhood and back into her present it seems that perhaps Pippa has more time than she thought. All Poldark smoulders and easy-going charm, Ben’s definitely worth whipping her wellies off for!

But Ben is a man with his own past and his own issues – and as much as she’s enjoying having him around, she’s got to get a grip. After all life isn’t always a beach … Then again, this is Cornwall.

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Guest Review: Debbie Johnson - Fear No Evil

Reviewed by Jane Willis

The dead don't like to be ignored… 

Jayne McCartney, Liverpool's only female private eye, is soon to get a crash course in this and other ghost-related facts. 

Until now she’s kept her snooping firmly to the dodgy, sometimes dangerous – but definitely human – Liverpool underworld. But that all changes when an elderly couple approach her with a terrifying story… 

Their daughter, a 19-year-old student, died falling from her halls’ window. But she didn't jump, they insist – she was pushed. By a ghost.

Who or what is walking the halls of Hart House? And will this case end up haunting Jayne forever…?

Amazon link: Kindle