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[[Category:Women's Fiction|*]]
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===[[An Italian Summer by Fanny Blake]]===
 
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
 
Set against the backdrop of Rome and Naples, ten very different people meet on a small 'Taste of Italy' sightseeing trip. This is a story of family, friendships and relationships – my favourite. However, it was a departure from the usual formulaic chicklit I normally read focused on sassy independent female characters in their twenties or thirties. Here the characters are middle-aged with children in their twenties and rather than looking for love they are facing different life challenges of maintaining love, empty nest syndrome, and the loss of loved ones. Essentially it is a story of breaking out and new beginnings. [[An Italian Summer by Fanny Blake|Full Review]]
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===[[Falling Short by Lex Coulton]]===
 
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
 
Lex Coulton's debut novel is a story about mistakes, failures, and relationships. The main protagonist, Frances Pilgrim, is a sixth form English teacher who has recently fallen out with her best friend Jackson, a work colleague, and is grappling with the increasingly eccentric behaviour of her mother. This relationship is complicated by the fact that Frances's father disappeared at sea when she was five years old. [[Falling Short by Lex Coulton|Full Review]]
 
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===[[When The Curtain Falls by Carrie Hope Fletcher]]===
 
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]], [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
 
A thoroughly, magical and riveting story that hooks you in from the first page and takes you on a roller coaster ride towards the last. Fletcher weaves together a dash of ''Whodunit'' the thrill of romance, (the course of which never runs smoothly,) and an unpredictable ghost. The ghost appears once a year, the principal star of her very own show, to meet with the love of her life and re-enact her death. A tragic accident with the roots buried deep within the whole array of human nature. Love, joy, care, friendship, jealousy, possessiveness, selfishness, cold ambition, all laid bare on centre stage.
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So as another typically dreary British summer is drawing to a close, I found myself craving a fix of literary sunshine and sea kissed romance. In such a mood it was then, that I came across the cover for The Picture House by the Sea. Perfect blue skies, glistening sea, a beautiful Art Deco building and to top it off an old fashioned ice-cream cart. Consider me sold! [[The Picture House by the Sea by Holly Hepburn|Full Review]]
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===[[Angelica Stone by Susi Osborne]]===
 
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
 
I'd say that Angelica Stone was known as Angel to her friends, but she's not big on friends. She has the sort of background you dread hearing about: sexually abused as a child, grabbed by the care system and didn't so much fall through the cracks as escaped its clutches and then had to learn how to cope. She's been told that she's tainted, that she ruins every relationship without intending to and that she's best staying away from 'decent' people. One of her jobs is working in a supermarket and it's there that she meets Lola Moriarty and ''she's'' a completely different kettle of fish. [[Angelica Stone by Susi Osborne|Full Review]]
 
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===[[Chasing the Sun by Katy Colins]]===
 
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
 
Author Katy Colins became Britain's most famous jilted bride when the true story of her subsequent lonely hearts backpacking trip went viral, before becoming a romantic comedy book series with this the latest one. [[Chasing the Sun by Katy Colins|Full Review]]
 
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===[[Coming Home to Cuckoo Cottage by Heidi Swain]]===
 
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
 
I absolutely loved this book. It was utterly enchanting with its charming feel-good storyline, delightful characters and innocent romance. It was also an easy read with short chapters making it easy to pick up and put down (not that I wanted to) throughout the day. [[Coming Home to Cuckoo Cottage by Heidi Swain|Full Review]]
 
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===[[Coming Home to Cuckoo Cottage by Heidi Swain]]===
 
[[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
 
Rebecca Chance's much anticipated and praised latest novel is definitely worth a 'chance' but for me it was a very mixed read. The cover blurb describes it as 'irresistibly readable' and 'a glittering page-turner' which it most certainly was, starting with a famed but as yet unidentified woman on a revengeful warpath against a second glamorous mystery woman. The story then restarts from the beginning setting the scene, characters and events that will eventually lead up to the revengeful opening act. It's not until the end of the book that this mystery betrayal is fully revealed which is what kept me hooked throughout what is quite a long book. [[Coming Home to Cuckoo Cottage by Heidi Swain|Full Review]]
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{{newreview
|author=Susi Osborne
|title=Angelica Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I'd say that Angelica Stone was known as Angel to her friends, but she's not big on friends. She has the sort of background you dread hearing about: sexually abused as a child, grabbed by the care system and didn't so much fall through the cracks as escaped its clutches and then had to learn how to cope. She's been told that she's tainted, that she ruins every relationship without intending to and that she's best staying away from 'decent' people. One of her jobs is working in a supermarket and it's there that she meets Lola Moriarty and ''she's'' a completely different kettle of fish.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911320947</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Katy Colins
|title= Chasing the Sun
|rating= 4
|genre= Women's Fiction
|summary= Author Katy Colins became Britain's most famous jilted bride when the true story of her subsequent lonely hearts backpacking trip went viral, before becoming a romantic comedy book series with this the latest one.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008202192</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Heidi Swain
|title= Coming Home to Cuckoo Cottage
|rating= 5
|genre= Women's Fiction
|summary= I absolutely loved this book. It was utterly enchanting with its charming feel-good storyline, delightful characters and innocent romance. It was also an easy read with short chapters making it easy to pick up and put down (not that I wanted to) throughout the day.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471147282</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Rebecca Chance
|title= Killer Affair
|rating= 3
|genre= Women's Fiction
|summary=Rebecca Chance's much anticipated and praised latest novel is definitely worth a 'chance' but for me it was a very mixed read. The cover blurb describes it as 'irresistibly readable' and 'a glittering page-turner' which it most certainly was, starting with a famed but as yet unidentified woman on a revengeful warpath against a second glamorous mystery woman. The story then restarts from the beginning setting the scene, characters and events that will eventually lead up to the revengeful opening act. It's not until the end of the book that this mystery betrayal is fully revealed which is what kept me hooked throughout what is quite a long book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447282914</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sophie Divry and Alison Anderson (translator)
|title=Madame Bovary of the Suburbs
|rating=2.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''It starts with becoming a homeowner, then settling in, then reproducing.''
Well, it actually starts a lot before then, with a set of fractured memories of our heroine's childhood – things she recalls her parents and relatives saying both to and about her. It goes through her childhood, and pen letters to a best friend conveying her wishes for her life, those wishes being revised and affirmed by the liberty of university years, those wishes being met with or denied by married life… Someone archly could point out that you should be careful what you wish for, but not even our wise, modern woman could not see the next step after the reproducing – ''standing disappointed in front of the refrigerator''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857054686</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Louise Pentland
|title=Wilde Like Me
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=World famous fashion and beauty vlogger Louise Pentland, also known as Sprinkle of Glitter, takes on a new challenge in the form of her touching debut novel, ''Wilde Like Me''. You will be transported into a world full of exasperating drama with the PSMs (Posh School Mums), heart-warming mother daughter moments and self-righteous men who you realise aren't the be all and end all. Now enters Robin Wilde, a single mum to Lyla and make-up artist living in her granny's house simply just trying to get by. The novel follows her journey of self discovery, which even she'd admit sounds like some awful cliche, and shows you that only '''you''' can make you happy.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785762931</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Dorothy Koomson
|title=The Friend
|rating=5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Maxie, Anaya, Hazel and Yvonne – four friends and school-gate-mums who meet for coffee, wine, gossip and momentary escape from their respective lives. Nothing unusual about that until Yvonne is found battered and half-dead in the playground. Three weeks later Cece moves into the area, her children starting that same school. Gradually she finds herself falling into the orbit of Maxie, Anaya and Hazel and hears what happened to the still comatose Yvonne. Two questions still hang in the air though: who did it and why? The police believe that the perpetrator is one of the three remaining friends and that Cece is in the perfect position to help them with their enquiries… a very dangerous position to be in.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780895984</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Nora Roberts
|title=Come Sundown
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Bodine Longbow's family has learnt to live with tragedy. A quarter of a century earlier Bodine's Aunt Alice disappeared without a trace. Nothing has softened the pain but life goes on and the family business (a ranch-style resort) certainly keeps them all busy. Bo is fully focussed as the resort's manager but distraction is on the horizon in the form of Callen Skinner. Local lad Callen comes home with a successful Hollywood film career on his CV and an eye for a certain Longbow lady. However, when a woman's body is found on resort land Callen is implicated. Is history repeating itself? Can Callen and Bo shake themselves free of a lawman's prejudice in order to discover the truth? The clock's ticking as Bo and Callen try to solve a mystery while putting themselves in the firing line and then Aunt Alice returns...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349410909</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jenny Colgan
|title=Spandex and the City
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary= Touted as a super-hero romantic comedy, ''Spandex and the City'' features a girl-next-door Holly, a typically insecure 20-something rom-com heroine, enjoying her life in Centerton (Colgan's stand in for Gotham). When a handsome stranger she meets at a bar turns out to be the ''Ultimate Man'', a vigilante superhero straight from the Marvel or DC universe (the superpowers are more of a Marvel kind, but the character - both of the UM and of his adversary - reference Batman, among others), she can't help falling for him.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356505448</amazonuk>
}}

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