beate251's reviews
502 reviews

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC.

Joanna is 64, divorced and rudderless until an old friend invites her and best friend Susie to Capri. She and Paulo used to have feelings for each other but she lost his number and he married her friend Ellen. Can they get a second chance?

I liked the setting and the characters but there wasn't much plot, just a lot of agonising and regret, plus some feisty nonnas and a bratty five year old. I like the fact that there were a lot of elderly characters but there are so many books for silver ladies that do it better.

Juliette from The Old Ducks' Club makes a guest appearance as Joanna's neighbour, but this is a standalone. A lot of people will love this but I found the plot too thin, plus, in this day and age you really shouldn't call a woman a trollop anymore.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for this ARC.

This is the story of four women, Jess, Hannah, Kerry and Madison, who have escaped their domestic abusers and come together in a weekly support group to talk about their lives. It soon turns out their exes still make life difficult for them and the police does not help because everything they do, be it stalking or threatening behaviour, is apparently not considered a crime.

But there is the Caretaker, and he looks after those women. Suddenly, their former partners suffer violent accidents and even deaths, and interestingly those deaths all have a connection to how they have mistreated women before. Then the Caretaker releases some videos explaining his motivation, and all hell breaks loose.

DS Sophie Salam, who has a 6 year old autistic daughter named Lottie, is tasked with finding the killer. Her first suspect turns out to be innocent but then she gets an inkling. In the meantime, she bonds with Jess who is a carer for a family with two special needs kids and can therefore relate to Lottie.

This quite complex story is told in the first person POV of Jess and the third person POV of the Caretaker and Sophie. The twist is kind of hinted on in the blurb and therefore a bit obvious but it doesn't hinder the enjoyment of the story. I love serial killer stories, especially if they are vigilante women out for justice and revenge. The Caretaker is an exquisite twist on that, and I loved the female friendships that formed out of shared experiences. These women have created a safe space and would do anything for each other.

Domestic and emotional abuse including gaslighting by violent men who can be oh so charming on the outside is portrayed very realistically and is very upsetting, as is the misplaced guilt of the affected women. The male author knows exactly how abusive men tick - maybe someone should check his background out too???

The murders are quite grisly, but hey, these are bad men. There isn't a lot of dark or other humour to be found here but the dynamic between all the women, the caretaker and the female police officer is so interesting and DS Salam is a fascinating character.

If you are wondering about the open ending, please be advised that this is the first book in the Secret Vigilante series, so we can dive into Sophie's story, and the expansion of the Caretaker role sounds quite promising too. I am very much looking forward to it!

This is one of the choices for the Amazon First Reads April 2025.

Remi Russell is editorial director of Sophisticate magazine and widow of David, a war correspondent who died three years ago in Ukraine due to a retaliatory strike by Russia that Republican senator Celeste Romero had ordered.

Now, Sophisticate is struggling and Jason Ashbloome is sent in to help it back on its feet with the help of AI programme MAUDE that he developed. Remi and Jason are given three months to prove themselves and to decide whether MAUDE is here to stay. Remi uses the programne to help her with dating app Spark! where she makes the acquaintance of doctor Noah. But is he all he seems?

This is an enemy to lovers romance that features a woman’s magazine, some great friends, an over the top Jewish mother, and an adorable dog. Grief looms large, but there are also some lighthearted scenes and doses of humor. 

Unfortunately, I had a number of issues with the plot. The AI angle of course, as even the mere suggestion that AI has a place in journalism makes me irrationally angry. The Ukraine plot and US politics that are so far from what's really happening right now that it's laughable even suggesting a Republican helping Ukraine, plus repeatedly calling Celeste a monster because a war correspondent got caught up in an air strike. War correspondents know the risk and do it anyway. Sure, Remi was grieving, but she was upset with the wrong person.

Also, did we have to have so many cultural references? I like Bridgerton, but the mentions were endless. So, yes, I had a real problem liking this and wished the plot had been less in your face political when all was needed was a way to make the romance work.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC.

Sarah and James move to James' childhood village of Carnington so their 7 year old son Oliver can go to a good school and they generally get more quality of life. The first day at the school gates though, an elderly woman asks how she can bear to be married to "that man". "Don't you know what he did?" 

Apparently, 30 years ago, Lucy Shearer vanished without a trace, and her father Martin has always blamed James, who was known as Abraham, for her death. And Martin Shearer is an influential man. Who can Sarah trust and who can she believe?

I'm afraid this didn't really speak to me. The storyline was too simple. A lot of people behaved suspiciously and yet Sarah managed to solve the whole thing within a week, on her own, because contrary to what the blurb makes you want to believe, she wasn't shunned by everyone, and there were a number of people she could turn to. Whether she could trust them is a different matter because everyone seemed to have something to hide and most of it was quite shocking and not in keeping with such a neighbourly village.
 
There are some interesting twists but they feel rushed towards the end. And I would have wished for a less ambiguous ending where we get to know what she will do with the info. Read if you like domestic suspense, hidden pasts and small-town secrets that are a bit grittier than usual.

I was rejected from this book on NetGalley but upon checking it out online I found it's on KU and out already so I quickly downloaded it as I've always been interested in the Mediterranean diet and this is said to be for beginners.

I can't find anything about the author online but I doubt she has many nutritional credentials because looking at the ludicrous meal plans and calculating the calories per day, they don't even come to a thousand calories. Women need double that, men even more.

The book is American and uses the imperial measuring system throughout. The metric system is mentioned at the end for its precision but while we get a conversion table, it would be a lot more helpful for the international market to have both measurements mentioned in the recipes so we don't always have to look up and calculate what a cup of anything is.

This has to be the most joyless book about eating I've ever seen. The recipes are almost exclusively vegetarian, with chicken the only meat except for one mention of lamb and beef respectively. There are almost no carbs and I wouldn't call the majority of the recipes cooking, it's just throwing mostly raw ingredients together or on top of each other. Almost everything is either a salad or a wrap. Who eats like that? Yes, in isolation the recipes look nice, and the photos are very stylish plus you can properly zoom them out of the text for a close look but you cannot eat like that long-term - you would constantly be hangry.

This is the Amazon First Reads bonus short story for April 2025 and one I clicked on lightning fast once I saw who wrote it. Mike Gayle is one of my favourite authors and he doesn't disappoint here either.

Reuben finds out that his ex-girlfriend Beth, who he separated from six months ago and who he was with for 18 months, is getting married in a week. But Beth doesn't believe in love, or at least that's what she has always told him and led to them breaking up. So Reuben lets his  best friend Pete distract him on her wedding day - until he receives a call from her to come and collect her. Will they get a second chance?

The story has two timelines, then and now, but only Reuben's POV. Writing a good short story is almost harder than writing a good book because you have to condense the story and still make it clever and funny and believable. Mike Gayle manages it effortlessly. I cared for all the characters and thought if was a great lesson in how to detect The One.

If someone says they don't believe in love, they only don't believe in love with the person they're with. If they meet the right person they will believe in love, so be true to yourself and your gut feeling.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC.

Natalie works for a TV production company and is being brought in as a stand-in for a famous presenter who had a medical emergency. The TV show is called Luxe Life Swap, where two well-to-do couples swap places for two weeks. Cate and Phil from Sevenoaks get to stay in a Venetian palazzo and Natalie has to look after them. She realises that Cate used to be her old friend Cathy who has reinvented herself since their school days. Back then they went on a school trip to Venice together, and their friendship imploded because of certain things that were being said and done, to do with boys and parents.

Secrets and lies are exposed, family history is discovered and romance blooms. There are flashbacks, but not too many, and the story is well-rounded, expertly capturing the Venetian feel including art, architecture and delectable Italian food.

This is well-written and interesting and will make you want to visit Venice, though the twists are easy to guess. I liked watchmaker Eraldo and the "pub crawl" through Venetian eateries.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC.

St Magwen Cove is a Cornish fishing village that exactly 400 years ago was befallen by a tragedy that still has repercussions today. 

The story is told in two timelines. In 1625 we have Susanna, a midwife and herbalist healer and her 17 year old daughter Katel who gets under the influence of a woman thought of as a witch, plus a whole host of villagers with unusual names. It's a heartbreaking story of witchcraft, smuggling, death and grief resulting in three ghosts called The Waiting Witch, The Weeping Woman and the Drenched Man, who are still haunting three of the four guest rooms in the Ship Inn because they used to be fishermen's cottages back then.

In the present day, 28 year old Megan, also into herbalism and crystals, has booked a room in the Ship Inn for a holiday - sun, sand, surfing and finding the half sister she never knew she had. She starts a romance with diver Patrick who is interested in an old shipwreck, but she also gets drawn into the history of the Ship Inn and the ghosts who are very much still around, in their grief-stricken and angry form.

The story is compelling but somewhat uneven in narrative. The supernatural element and the treatment of women in the 17th century, expected to still cook and clean while ill or just having given birth, is a lot more interesting than the lukewarm present day romance and trying to de-ghost an old pub. I don't believe in ghosts and it makes no sense whatsoever for an upset unalived witch to still kill men 400 years later - there wouldn't be anyone left! However I did find that story well-researched, atmospheric and compelling, and the haunted pub full of locals singing sea shanties while trying to be modernised by a gay couple is a fascinating mixture of the old and the new.

I can't believe that this is the third genre that Judy Leigh (under a pen name) has mastered, after her cosy murder mysteries and her romances for the older gals. Despite reservations about ghosts, I had a good time reading this and would recommend to anyone interested in historical fiction coupled with the supernatural and a contemporary romance in a Cornish setting with a gorgeous cover.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hera Books for this ARC.

Joe, 45, is a comedy writer who lives with wife Freya, a paralegal, and daughter Dolly, 16, in Brighton. Their marriage has soured in the past 18 months, partly due to his failure to earn money with his writing. His last sitcom for the BBC was ten years ago, and the communication between him and his wife has broken down, mainly due to Joe never mentioning important things like his panic attacks or his secret visits to a therapist even though he refuses marriage counselling.

Unfortunately, neither of them can afford to leave the marital home and selling it is also not a financial option right now so they try to muddle along in the same house but separate bedrooms, at least until Dolly is going to uni in six months' time. Then Joe's agent Carl suggests making his next writing project about his unusual living situation and all hell breaks loose.

So, Jon Rance is a writer (hopefully without marriage troubles) who writes about a writer with marriage troubles who writes about a writer with marriage troubles. Got it.
To be honest, I didn't see this as a funny book so I have no idea how anybody would be able to turn this into a laughter-filled sitcom. What's funny about a crumbling marriage, about people who still love each other but have allowed life's disappointments to get in the way? 

There are some quirky side characters like Stepdad Martin who is called Marmalade for reasons I have forgotten already, or the members of the Cold Water Club that Freya joins, and they round out the story nicely.

Joe and Freya however are complex characters, and I didn't always connect with them or think they were compatible. Joe is a man child who defines himself through his work and is emotionally illiterate. He constantly doesn't tell Freya really important things like that he is putting their family life in a sitcom, and that is not normal to me. His personal growth journey just takes too long. Simultaneously, Freya is competent but sometimes too rigid in her opinions and doesn't see how Joe struggles.

While I'm not entirely certain whether those two people should be together because when the chips were down, they turned to other people for advice instead of talking to each other, the dual POV storytelling works well, and the book is a well-written, very realistic exploration of love, marriage and family dynamics. Read if you like stories about middle-aged marital introspection and self-discovery.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC.

Sophie-Leigh, 34, is a wedding planner and marriage delebrant for I Do Destinations. Eight years ago she had asked her South Tyrolean boyfriend Andreas to marry her but he had said no and broken her heart. Andreas, 40, is a mountaineer who hates weddings, loves risks and swears impressively in German. He works for an adventure travel company when it is suddenly bought up by Sophie's boss who sees potential in combining their two businesses. They have clients, a couple named Lily and Roman, who want to get married on top of a mountain and have fixated on the mountains close to Lake Garda in Italy. Sophie and Andreas have to reluctantly work together to make this happen, awakening old feelings in the process.

This story is extremely predictable and also drags in the middle when the two of them do nothing but bicker. They have the worst communication skills and never say what they really think or want, when it's clear to everyone else. Gruff mountaineer Andreas is hard to like especially when we find out the silly reason why he said no back then. But it was Sophie's stupid decision to block his phone number, without which everything could have been resolved years ago.

Also, there is a lot of assumption that the reader knows the Italian and German that was sprinkled throughout and knows what a via ferrata is. However, I liked the Italian setting, the wedding on the mountain and the speech in the cave. It redeemed a lot. If you like second chance romances that feature weddings, mountains and Italy, this is for you.