Emma's Review: The Scottish Island Wedding by Kennedy Kerr

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

The most romantic of the Balhennie sisters, Heather is totally wrapped up in her whirlwind romance with handsome and kind Matthew Campbell, planning a beautiful festive wedding. Strewn with glittering Christmas lights, tartan ribbon and mistletoe, Balhennie Castle is ready for the wedding of the year. That is, until the groom’s family arrive…

Heather always knew Matthew wasn’t close with his family and was looking forward to welcoming him wholeheartedly into her own. But now she knows he never told her the whole truth. Matthew is the youngest son of the richest and most powerful family in Scotland. And his mother Elizabeth is absolutely opposed to their wedding, forbidding it from going ahead.

The well-to-do Campbells are the total opposite to Heather’s warm, tight-knit clan and tensions between the families turn icy. With just seven days to save their relationship, will a sprinkling of Christmas magic help Heather and Matthew find their way back to each other? 

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

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

Emma's Review: The Resistance Book Club by Ellie Curzon

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Every page is shared in secret… and a single book could cost a life.

France, 1941. Margot locks her bookshop door and slips into the cellar, where a circle of brave women gather by candlelight to read the books the Germans are burning. They are risking everything to share forbidden stories and fight back. But one seat is empty… Esther is missing, and as a Jewish woman, she is in terrible danger. Whatever happens, Margot has promised to take care of Esther’s baby, darling Isabelle…

Present day. Lucy gasps as she descends into the cellar beneath the bookshop she has inherited from her grandmother. Wooden chairs are arranged in a circle, as if the resistance book club members have just vanished. A candle sits on a saucer; a book lies open.

Still grieving her grandmother, Lucy was left a letter about the wartime book club hinting at a devastating secret. And one book is wrapped in yellowed newspaper, addressed in faded ink to a woman named Esther. Does it contain a clue about the fate of the tiny baby hidden by the book club? What really happened on that dark night when one of its members was taken by the Nazis?

And as she uncovers the bookshop’s past, will the truth force Lucy to rethink everything she thought she knew about her own family? 

Book Link: Kindle

Emma's Review: The Lost Husband by Shari J. Ryan

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Celina has given up hope of ever leaving Auschwitz. Only memories of her beloved husband Noah keep her sane—her childhood sweetheart, her protector, once her entire world. If she allows herself to remember that he was killed, she knows she’ll be lost too…

Now, as the Soviets liberate the camp, Celina screams when a man in a German uniform grabs her. But the familiar green and gold sparkling in his eyes steals her breath. He looks exactly like Noah. But it can’t be him. Not here, not in this uniform…

As a Soviet officer hauls him away, Celina can’t let him go without making absolutely sure. Did her husband somehow survive the war, disguised as a German soldier?

To find the truth, she must follow as the Germans—now prisoners themselves—are marched away through the snowy forests of Poland. Staying hidden, and staying alive, will prove almost impossible.

But if it’s really Noah—and he’s still the good man Celina fell in love with—can she find a way to rescue him before she loses him all over again? 

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The Children on the Train by Anna Stuart

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Grete always longed to be a mother, but it never happened for her so, as the clouds of war gather over Europe, she’s devoting her time to helping Jewish children escape the Nazis. She remembers the face of every single child she’s taken on trains to freedom in the Netherlands. The danger increases with each trip, but, today, she has to get her best friend’s children to safety, because they are closest thing she has to family.

But at the border, the train screeches to a halt and she hears the shout of a Nazi guard. Then the sound of boots coming towards their carriage. When the door bursts open, she draws herself up tall, and prepares to face the interrogation she knows will come. With shaking hands, she passes over Rosa and Adele’s tattered papers and hopes they aren’t scrutinised too closely.

Grete is ready to do whatever it takes to keep her small charges safe…

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: A New World for the Irish Daughter by Kate Hewitt

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

San Francisco, 1893: When Maggie O’Halloran steps off the train in California, she knows she must be brave for her friend Brendan and her brother Danny. Having fled both New York and Chicago, they all have broken spirits and fear having to start again. Can Maggie find courage and strength for them all?

Maggie soon finds a boarding house that will take them in. In a lively part of town, and with a colourful clientele, it is not somewhere she ever imagined staying. Until one night when they are woken by a distressing cry, and Maggie finds herself assisting a doctor to save a young woman’s life.

Working through the night by candlelight, Maggie realises this may be her true calling. When the doctor asks if she would consider training as a nurse, she says yes immediately, hopeful she might have finally found her purpose in life. Will this now give her the courage to tell Brendan how she truly feels?

But before she can risk her heart, Brendan reveals that Danny is in trouble once more. They are leaving at dawn for Alaska to mine for gold, and Maggie is both shocked and heartbroken. Should she stay, and continue the work that has given her life such meaning? Or should she sacrifice everything, and follow those she loves even further into the unknown?

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The Midwife at Ivy Cottage by Rebecca Alexander

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

After heartbreak turned her world upside down, Imogen was forced to leave her nursing job and the life she had built behind. Now she has come to a beautiful countryside village, where she’s renovating a tumbledown cottage she hopes to call home. She never imagined the wartime secrets it’s hiding. Or that working alongside Jaz, the warm-hearted, handsome local builder with a kind smile, will make her light up in a way she hasn’t for a long time…

Hidden inside the cottage she discovers the photograph of a baby, and the incredible story of Julia, a midwife who once lived at Ivy Cottage. Julia devoted her life to caring for the village’s mothers and babies during World War Two, at a time when every birth was full of danger. Including a tiny infant who she was determined to save…

As Imogen pieces together the little boy’s story and Julia’s extraordinary courage, she begins to confront the loss she has buried for so long. With Jaz by her side, could Ivy Cottage finally be the place where her heart begins to heal?

Book Links: Kindle 

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 Man She Had to Save by Catherine Hokin

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

When Vivi arrives in Madrid, she is captivated by its heat and colour, a world away from the grey of her life as a lonely newlywed back in Berlin. But her diplomat husband and beloved brother Christian are here for one reason only: to bring the Nazi regime to Spain, and to destroy everything that stands in their path.

When Vivi is caught in a bombing raid, she is thrown unexpectedly into the arms of Emilio, a member of the militia. As she gets to know him and his love for his country, his passion inspires her, and her world changes overnight. And as he stares at her with his warm brown eyes, her heart races in her chest, knowing she is truly being seen for the first time in years…

But falling in love with Emilio is dangerous. Franco and his Nazi allies are closing in on the resistance in Madrid, and it’s only a matter of time before Emilio is discovered. Vivi does everything she can to protect him, but she knows time is running out.

When her worst fears come true and Emilio captures her brother, Vivi must decide where her loyalty lies. Should she betray her lover to save her family? Or will she choose love above all else? And once the war is over, can she live with the consequences?

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The Club for Rebellious Ladies by Siobhan Curham

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Provence, 1919. When Elodie Sinclair is sent from Boston to a glamorous finishing school for socialites in training, she is determined to do all she can to rebel. Setting up The Wildflowers Club with best friends Genevieve and Lucille, the women make secret plans to escape their insufferable conversation classes. But just weeks later, a terrible scandal leaves the women reeling. And Elodie Sinclair is presumed dead.

2025. Looking for a fresh start after her drawn-out divorce, Rae Morgan finds herself in a crumbling clifftop manor house in Provence. The mysterious elderly owner, Madame Devereaux, speaks of a glitzy charm school and the tragedy that closed its doors. Though she refuses to say any more… until Rae finds a slip of yellowed paper titled The Wildflowers Club Vows left with the keys. Intrigued, Rae knows there is more that Madame Devereaux wants her to uncover.

Elodie Sinclair’s diary is hidden somewhere within the walls of the tumbledown chateau. If Rae finds it, she’ll discover a devastating secret hidden for a generation, and a spirited woman desperate to escape… 

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: Storm Clouds Ahead for the Village Midwife by Tilly Tennant

 Reviewed by Emma Crowley

The villagers of Thimblebury know that midwife Zoe Padbury loves babies and now that she’s settled at Hilltop Farm with her boyfriend Alex, they can’t resist wondering when she’s going to start a family of her own. Yet it doesn’t feel like quite the right time. Alex is so busy and Zoe has her hands full with all her new mums to look after. Still, she has hopes for the future…

But what she doesn’t expect is to walk into her cosy kitchen and find Alex’s glamorous ex-girlfriend sitting at the scrubbed pine kitchen table. Virginia claims to be helping Alex with work but as she looks Zoe up and down and offers her a perfectly manicured hand to shake, Zoe can’t ignore a shiver of foreboding. What will this mean for her and Alex?

Zoe tries to quash the pangs of jealousy that wash over her, but with Virginia around what feels like all hours of the day, she and Alex end up in a devastating argument. And when she receives some news that changes everything, she doesn’t know if she can share her troubles… Can they find their way back to each other? Or will these storm clouds break their bond forever?

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The Scottish Island Inn by Kennedy Kerr

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

The Balhennie family raised their six daughters on the Isle of Skye amongst early breakfast services and fully booked summers. Their inn is never short of gossip – and when eldest daughter Sorrel turns up for the first time in ten years, the island rumour mill begins.

Always the one left to corral her younger siblings, resourceful Sorrel now runs her own successful property business on the mainland. She throws herself into the repairs, praying her curious sisters will stop asking about the real reason she left home…

But Sorrell didn’t count on brooding, blue-eyed Tam Blackwood – the man she thought was her forever – supervising the works. Now they’re thrown together again, Sorrel realises just how much she’s missed him.

And with her secret in danger of tearing her family apart for good, only Tam has a plan to fix the inn and heal the rift between the Balhennie sisters. With his help, can Sorrel finally open up? Or will the inn close its doors forever?

Book Link: Kindle

Emma's Review: A New Home for the Irish Daughter by Kate Hewitt

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Chicago, 1892: Maggie O’Halloran knows she is lucky to have escaped New York City with her life, after a notorious gang threatened her and her brother. Now, twisting the wedding ring on her finger, she knows her friend Brendan O’Donoghue’s plan to pretend to be married is sensible. But can she really pretend to be his wife when she doesn’t love him with her whole heart?

Walking Chicago’s cobbled streets, Maggie is more resolved than ever to rebuild her life and when she secures a job at the famous department store, Marshall Field & Company, she is delighted. But when ghosts of her past appear in the millinery department, she knows her true identity could be revealed at any moment, and her dreams once more reduced to ash.

When a chance encounter leads to Maggie making hats for Chicago’s World’s Fair, her desire to become fully independent feels closer than ever. But as gossip swirls about her relationship with her benefactor, can Maggie keep her head held high in this city she now calls home?

When Brendan finds himself in a perilous situation, Maggie’s courage is tested more than ever before. With danger looming, can she and Brendan survive it together? Or will they once more need to flee their home to find safety, and a chance to begin again? 

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The Irish Inheritance by Daisy O'Shea

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

When Tara Hourihan’s mother receives a letter informing her she’s inherited a house down south in Roone Bay, Tara sees her mother pale. Aoife hasn’t been back to her tiny hometown in years.

When mother and daughter arrive in town, the lawyer handling the estate gives them some shocking news: the inheritance may be split. There is evidence that Aoife’s twin sister Eithne, thought to have died as a teenager, may still be alive. Her name is listed as a patient at a local mother and baby home.

With the help of handsome local garda, Declan Ford, Tara and Aoife must untangle a decades old family secret and a possible terrible cover-up that tore the sisters apart. Did Aoife’s parents lie to her about Eithne?

What the women discover will change everything they thought they knew about their history. But can they finally put the past to rest, before it is too late?

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

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

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

A world away from the wealth and comfort of her family home, lord’s daughter Betony Styles has come to love her new life at a London lodging house with Grace and Jess. Selling her beautiful gowns to pay for her rent and rations for the other girls, Betony is determined to do her bit.

By day she works in the factory sewing much-needed uniforms for the Women’s Air Force. At night, air raid sirens blaze – but Betony and the other girls do all they can to help in the hardest hit neighbourhoods, rescuing a precious newborn from the rubble. And she’s head over heels with her beau, brave Canadian pilot Winter Macpherson.

But her father believes duty to her family should come before her duty for her country. He demands she give up playing games and come home once and for all.

To stand up to her father and follow her own path, Betony needs Grace and Jess more than ever. But when Winter disappears, her heart shatters. Together, can the lodging house girls give each other hope even in the darkest times?

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: Walking on Sunshine by Heidi Swain

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

A Summer in Suffolk could be just what she needs…

When Tilly heads to the river in Willowell, Suffolk, to scatter her dad’s ashes, she’s in need of some rest and relaxation. Life has been tough lately, and she wants a new start.

Constance has lived in Fernside forever. She owns the beautiful Willowell Woods – but she can’t manage them alone, and they’re now up for sale.

Her nephew, James, has always loved Willowell Woods – and he doesn’t want anyone taking them over. So when Tilly asks to buy them, with an exciting idea for the land, sparks begin to fly… the problem is, they’re already falling in love.

Can Tilly and James find a way to turn sparks into fireworks? And will Constance finally realise that letting in the new doesn’t have to mean getting rid of the old…?

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback