In Pursuit of Happiness – Freya Kennedy

Rumour has it that I am personally no longer ‘in Pursuit of happiness’, I have attained that elusive goal from reading this story. This book gifted me the chance to escape the drudgery of 2020, with its tale of achieving your goals and living your dreams, mixed with generous sprinkles of romance, friendship and family. What’s not to enjoy?

Jo Campbell is a single, wannabe author who launches her first novel in her dreams at the beginning of the book. it seems that she is too nervous to actually send her manuscript anywhere. She seems to feed her publishing dreams by working part time in a bookshop.

Lorcan – initially a visiting sourpuss from Northern England, but soon proves otherwise; he does however seem to be hiding something. Potential for romance? Now that would be telling, and I don’t want to ruin a really great story.

Further romance potential is personified by the stereotypical tall, dark and handsome Ewan, who offers to help Jo with her writing,

Things, unfortunately are not always what they seem, but you will have to read the book for yourself to find out how, and whether or not Jo realises happiness – and I thoroughly recommend that you do just that!

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Christmas at the Little Waffle Shack

I hadn’t read the first book in the Heritage Cove series, but I was assured that this was a stand-alone novel, and this proved to be true.

One thing that this book is – ADDICTIVE – hence me finding myself still reading at 3:20am, with no clear plan to stop. Sweet comfort food, a sprinkle of Christmas and the prospect of romance; what’s not to love!

The main characters are:

Lucy, a blacksmith – I get the impression fairly early on that she has been unlucky in love; I later find out that she’s is around a year post divorce.

Daniel, a fairly grumpy but gorgeous local businessman, with family issues ( he seems to have had some kind of falling out with his Brother, Harvey); a definite dark past – (including having been a bit of a ‘wrong’un’ in his youth), about to launch the Little Waffle Shack.

Daniel initially seems to be keeping a low profile in the village; who or what does he not want to come face to face with?

Hopefully Daniel’s bad boy days are in the past, but you will have to read the book to find out!

Heading Over the Hill

by Judy Leigh

The first thing that comes to me as I start reading this book, is that the main characters, Billy and Dawnie are in their seventies; what a refreshing change. They have brought their own view of getting older to Devon, but Devon doesn’t seem sure that it’s ready for them!

What I know is that I most certainly was ready for this book; it was lovely to have a story that was so different to most contemporary fiction, with its original characters. The more I read, the more engrossed I became in the people and their outcomes and I struggled to put the book down. Judy Leigh seems to have mastered the art of bringing of characters to life and at times I found myself both talking out loud to them and laughing with them!

Billy is a gentle giant of a biker and Dawnie his fashion conscious wife who seems to dress what some might call inappropriately for her age, but she doesn’t care what people think; she deserves every plaudits going for that!

This septuagenarian couple have moved to Devon from the North of England and are renting a house in ‘Maggot’ Street while they hunt down their dream home. The story details their altercations and encounters with a motley bunch of neighbours, which will have you laughing in your boots. An example is when Dawnie is decorating the living room and worries about whether or not Malcolm next door will hear her and come around to complain about the noise! Malcolm seems to take acting out the role of miserable f******r next door neighbour to the extreme, with his complaining and log keeping of Billy and Dawnie’s comings and goings. You would not wish him on anyone! He even has Billy labelled as a bigamist, due to the blond wig Dawnie was wearing when they moved in!

I loved the ‘Malcomism’ that comes from the ever watching next door, when Billy brings home a biker friend ‘‘There’s a whole pack of Hell’s Angels living next door now. Whatever will we have next? An orgy?’ Rest assured reader, that if I owned a Honda Jazz like Malcom’s, it would be on the market within a week!

As the book progresses Billy and Dawnie gradually spread their own brand of magic over the residents of ‘Maggot’ Street, but will they win over the dreadful Malcolm? You will have to read the book for yourself to find out!