BookReview: The Secrets Of Happiness by Lucy Diamond

GOODREADS/ PURCHASE

The Secrets of Happiness by Lucy Diamond was an absolute treat, raised me out of my reading slump tomb. I urge you all to go, read it!

I had been having the worst reading slump ever! (@reads.crime knew). Then this book pulled me out of it! Funny, charming, heart-warming. A sister disappears. Her step (and obviously not close enough) steps in to look after her children and find out why the hell her sister's perfect life has crumbled to a husband who's left her, a job that's given her the sack, and strangers calling her for Irish stew concerning fliers she handed out. Lucy Diamond is one author who'd never dry up with beautiful storylines. My fifth book of hers (—she's written more!) and I still won't stop reading her anytime soon (even though women's fic has been playing fiddle to my thirst for literary works these days!). The characters were engaging! The plot was going! The perfect read to Yank me out of my reading slump. I do hope you guys give it a try! #bookstagram #bibliophile #thesecretsofhappiness #lucydiamond #funny #women #fiction #bookporn #malemodel #fashion #night #goodmorning #black #blue #menfashion #model

A photo posted by Kobby Ben Ben (@bookworm_man) on Oct 19, 2016 at 11:33pm PDT

Summer Book Review: Summer at the Shell Cottage by Lucy Diamond

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: The summer holidays are approaching again. But this time around, things are not looking up like they were last year.

Your husband of twenty years is dead. There’s nothing you could do to keep the sorrows away. And not even a much-needed vacation at the Shell Cottage would help since all your most cherished memories with your husband and your two kids live in that house.

You have every right to pull back any plans for summer this year and sit at home and mope. Your daughter tells you a summer vacation would be ideal to help you recuperate, but you have a feeling they, your children, want to keep an eye on you as suicide could be one of the to-dos you’ve planned ahead for this summer.

Things with the other members of your family are not too good this year too. Besides grieving the loss of their hero, your daughter is facing problems juggling the kids and her stressful job as a GP, your son has a secret he cannot afford to disclose to you all.

Surely, summer 2015 at shell cottage wouldn’t be the best of family vacations. But chances are, if you do not pull yourself together and make this summer a memorable one, no one in the family would ever look up to summer at Shell Cottage ever again.

Olivia Tarrant’s story laden with drama, secrets and lots of reckless fun summarised for your delight.

MY REVIEW

Christ it was hard to put up that synopsis without bringing the spoilers and the numerous omg moments right at the start of this title. So for starters, I’m giving the OMG moments in this title a star.── ★

I liked this book.

The storyline was nothing short of Lucy Diamond’s excellence. Telling the stories of one family’s summer after the death of a man they are not sure they could live without. All the characters face individual and joint challenges in making this summer one of the best summers of their lives in the memory of their father and husband. Nothing like an amazing family read full of drama.── ★★

I loved the main characters. Olivia Tarrant, the grieving wife who’s finding it hard to move on after her husband’s death, encounters a friend who will change the idea of a summer vacation for her forever. It’s all about being fun, reckless, and carefree even after sixty! Freya Tarrant, the daughter who’s finding it difficult juggling her three rowdy kids with her super-challenging job and a husband who’s never around would also be admired. Harriet Tarrant-Price, the single-mother who’s had enough of cheating men and is sure is living the dream this time around with a husband who’s landed a huge book deal.── ★★★

Other characters make reading this novel great as well. My very favourite, Gloria, a sixty-year old widow who’s not stopped grieving as well as skinny-dipping. Molly, the teenage daughter of Harriet who’s taking her chance on being a woman this summer. There’s also Libby, Teddy, and Dexter the annoying yet adorable children of Freya with their hilarious peculiar traits. A star to them.── ★★★★

I liked this book. But I wished I could have loved, loved it. I wished it was as fast-paced as Lucy Diamond’s previous, The Year of Taking Chances.

So my rating is a four out of five stars. (4/5 stars).

Lucy Diamond’s amazing latest is available on amazon.

I recommend this to anyone who wants a soothing family vacation read to cosy up to 

this summer. I recommend this to anyone who wants a book with laughing moments and very relatable moments too. I recommend this to anyone who’s a Lucy Diamond fan as she doesn’t disappoint in this title too. It’s all about being fun, reckless and creating a new you this summer!

My work not done. Off to post my review on Goodreads.

Book Review: The Year of Taking Chances by Lucy Diamond

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: It’s New Year’s Eve, your husband has putting down purchase on a massive property which would now be called your new home. And he’s throwing a mega-party inviting all family, friends, acquaintances, and well, everybody.

With lots of booze, canapés and laughter, the party is fun contrary to what you envisaged. There you meet in two newcomers in your tiny, country village and you three bond over fortune cookies and the shitty, crappy messages in them.

Three, two, one. Happy New Year! Resolutions made, you are about to embrace the New Year with style and much more commitment to becoming a size six (not that you have ever seen that weight on you all the forty years of your life).

But who knew the crappy messages in your fortune cookies would turn to reality? Who knew tragedy would strike and your perfect family would crumble? No one to help you restore the hope you had for the New Year, not even your mum dying her hair in Ibiza, getting a tattoo and a nose ring who only shows up when she’s broken up with another boyfriend.

If only your new friends didn’t have problems on their own. On another side of the country, it turns out their fortune cookies also weren’t lying at all.

Gemma’s, Caitlin’s and Saffron’s hellish new year summed up for your delight.

MY REVIEW

I loved, loved this book! So you know in my review I’d be urging you to make your own fortune cookies and wish your life to crumble to the barest so you could pick the pieces all up and learn valuable New Year lessons, don’t you? (Crazy, I know!).

I absolutely adore Lucy Diamond. Sadly, One Night In Italy, her previous work, had only been my introduction to her amazing-ability! Now, I have this book to add to my LUCY DIAMOND TITLES YOU CAN’T FORGET (BUT CAN YOU REALLY FORGET ANY?) shelf.

Brilliant storyline. The whole thing with the fortune cookies. The whole thing with the perfect or remotely perfect lives deteriorating to absolute nothingness. It’s amazing the way Lucy Diamond crafts her stories and star, star, star, star to the storyline(s).── ★

The three main characters are off the hook! Gemma, Caitlin and Saffron! Utterly engaging! I do say I have never read anyone who handles multiple-character third-person point-of-view like Lucy Diamond excels in it. No, this is not your kind of story where all the characters are the same except for different names and different husbands! You would love Gemma for being the take-charge mother coming to the rescue when everything else is broken down. You would love Caitlin for her humorous humour and her ability to doubt what she wants for the New Year and go for it (much like us!). You would also love Saffron the no-nonsense girl in PR who knows how to give a verbal lashing to just about anyone who’s ‘lost the plot’. A star to all the characters.── ★★

Oh, and are there absolutely fantastic supporting cast as well? Karen, Gemma’s mum who loves to put down anyone within a mile radius every time she’s back in town. You would love Spence, Gemma’s husband who’s a moron for most part of the book. There’s also the adorable Darcey, Gemma’s daughter who never fails to point out when her mum is looking and acting weird. Will, Gemma’s sulky teenage son who’s taken up smoking (but really, haven’t they all?). In Saffron’s life, you would hate Charlotte, the PR boss who always takes pride in stealing the accolades of her employees to herself and posting cheerful messages on her wall to boost employee morale {TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE IT (my arse!)}. There’s Bunty, the opinionated D-list celeb who’s always calling non-stop for someone to pick up her laundry and making talk show hosts stay fifty metres from her reach for fear of being slapped for an offensive joke. In Caitlin’s life, you would adore Harry, the hot bloke who is going by a ten-date rule and trying not to begin the New Year for almost marrying someone again (about the tenth time). Loads and loads of fab characters I do not want to lengthen my review about… BUT HELL! It’s my blog! You would love Bernie, the pub owner who’s a total hottie for celebs who’ve ‘lost the plot’.  A star!── ★★★

Humor, check.── ★★★★

Suspense, check.── ★★★★★

Tear-jerking and swoony moments, check.── ★★★★★

My rating: Most definitely a five/five star read! (5/5)!

I feared I was going deep down into the four-star title rut, but this book saved it all! Now I know it wasn’t just me finding I needed a little extra with a book. This book had more than extras!

Lucy Diamond’s fan-freaking-tabulous latest, The Year of Taking Chances is available on amazon.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves an amazing New Year title to get back their groove on! Anyone who wants to read women’s fiction packed with warmth, humour and lots of heart should also get this title! And just about anyone who’s had their lives scammed by a fortune cookie they failed to believe!

My work not done here! Off to post my review on Goodreads!

Book Review: One Night On Italy by Lucy Diamond

 

Blurb: If journalist Anna had to write up the story of her own life, it wouldn’t make for a great headline: Dull Journo Has Dull Boyfriend! The only mystery in Anna’s life is that she’s never known who her dad is but with her mum refusing to tell her more she’s at a dead end. When she accidentally comes across a clue that her father is Italian, it opens up a burning curiosity in Anna. Soon she’s cooking Italian food, signing up for an Italian class and even considering dusting off her passport to go and find her dad in person… Sophie is serving gelato to tourists in Italy when she gets the call that her father has had a serious heart attack. In a rush, she grabs her well-worn backpack and heads back to the one place she’s been avoiding for so long – home. Living with her mum again while her dad recuperates, and taking a job teaching Italian to make ends meet, Sophie has to face up to the secrets she’s kept buried in the past. Catherine has no idea what the future holds. Her children have left for university, her husband has left her for another woman and her bank account is left empty after dedicating her life to raising her family. She needs a job and an identity all of a sudden. At an Italian evening class she makes a start in finding new friends Anna and Sophie. And she’s going to need good friends when she discovers her husband’s lies run even deeper than his infidelity… As Anna embarks on the trip to Italy that could answer all of her questions, will the truth live up to her dreams?

MY REVIEW

I loved, loved this book! So you know in my review I’d be screaming at you to go get it.

To start of this review, yes, I love chick-lit about taking vacations. Yes, I love chick-lit set in exotic places. Yes, I love chick-lit about Rome, Florence, Tuscany. So you could tell how elated I was to pick this book. Very el—ong—ated.

I adored the storyline. Three different women with dissimilar lives, sharing one passion for Rome. One cheated on by her husband on her matrimonial sheets. One on a quest to look for her long-lost Italian father.  One jetting back home from her wanderlust bliss to look after an ailing father. It’s all magnificent. I liked how Lucy Diamond choreographed all these women to coincide, stemming away from the best-friend characters from start-to-finish norm. ── ★

Secondly, the three main characters were brilliant. It’s hard to pull off the multiple-main-character thing and still have all the voices of the leads standout. You would simply adore Catherine for being the somewhat shy, damaged self-esteem wife stemmed from constantly being emotionally abused by a jerk of a husband, the mum who would want a little acknowledgement from her family so she wouldn’t haul the cooked turkey at the wall during Thanksgiving, the woman with the tendency to blush like a schoolgirl when put on any spot. Anna would also be the journalist you love, for her enthusiasm to experiment, for being the girlfriend who snoops into her boyfriend’s computer to view his accounts of their every lovemaking and his closing remarks (‘gained too much weight over Christmas’) in spreadsheet(!), the colleague who brings to work loads of treats from her cooking exploits. Sophie must be remembered for being the wanderlust travel blogger who is constantly in time to update a Facebook status, put on her Good Teacher outfit to offer lessons in Italian, and constantly contemplate if she should chase after a long-lost dream and a long-lost man.

You would be cheering these characters on, on their journey to self-discovery, reconnecting with their newly-found heritage and wondering where on earth to jet next! A star to these main characters.── ★★

Also, the supporting cast were as fabulous. Marla, the office bitch who wouldn’t lay off Anna’s weight. Joe, the charming office colleague rumoured to slip his hands under skirts during Christmas parties. Imogen, Anna’s Editor who bestows on her the most ridiculous columns which are far out of reach of her skills. Pete, Anna’s boyfriend who constantly keeps record of every sex encounter (with any woman) on spreadsheet. Tracey, Anna’s mum dreading her daughter’s ‘impending’ pregnancy and lacking warmth as a result of being a successful struggling single-mum. Emily and Matthew, Catherine’s children who are eager to get rid of her and move on with their college lives. Rebecca, Cath’s rival who incurs the wrath of hairdressers by being demanding and leaving no tip. Jim, Sophie’s dad whose humour poured in radiance into her dull Sheffield life. The students’ of Sophie’s Italian class were spot-on well-developed and hilarious too. A characterization party in this book. ── ★★★

It’s amazing when a chick-lit title has all the elements to keep you glued. Humor, check. Suspense, check. Lucy Diamond is so witty her writing keeps a smile glued to your lips impending the moment when she’d drop in a line that makes you laugh-out-loud. I loved that this book was so unpredictable, you never once could I guess the outcome of this book.── ★★★★★

My rating: Five out of Five Stars (obviously).

Lucy Diamond’s amazing latest can be got on Amazon.

I recommend this book to any fan of chick-lit. I recommend this book anyone who loves summer-tastic chick-lit based in far-flung exotic places. Anyone who loves chick-lit with leads they would be cheering on. And anyone who loves Lucy Diamond as she doesn’t disappoint in this title.

My only question to Lucy  Diamond is, Why didn’t Mike ever notice Cath’s (hair)do-over.

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads.