Tag: Michael Joseph – Penguin

Guest Review: A Rural Affair by Catherine Alliott

Posted June 27, 2013 by Tracy in Reviews | 1 Comment

Guest Review: A Rural Affair by Catherine AlliottReviewer: Tracy
A Rural Affair by Catherine Alliott
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: July 21st 2011
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 453
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three-stars

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE HUSBAND SHE'S LOATHED FOR YEARS SUDDENLY DIES?

Poppy Shilling may have fantasized about her boring husband slipping on ice on his way to get the paper or contracting malaria from a mosquito bite, but she never imagined Phil would leave her so suddenly. When a freak cycling accident takes out her Lycra -- wearing husband, Poppy can't help but feel relieved rather than distraught.

But when a mysterious visitor arrives after the funeral bearing secrets about her husband, Poppy quickly learns that Phil was not exactly the man she thought he was -- and she might not be the woman she thought she was, either.

International bestselling author Catherine Alliott crafts an endearing and quirky "what if" story that will make your heart sing as you follow Poppy on her unforgettable journey.

Poppy Shilling is in a loveless marriage. Her husband Phil works all the time and then goes out and rides his bicycle. He’s constantly Lycra-clad which, is not necessarily a good look for him. He’s never home to help take care of their two children and gets more and more irritated with them all the time. Poppy wonders how he’ll die. Will he be walking under scaffolding and get hit by a rogue falling hammer? Or will it be something simpler. What it ends up being is completely freaky and a bit shocking. She’s not exactly sure how to feel about his death at first but shock is definitely one of those feelings.

Not long after the funeral she’s visited by a woman who tells her that her husband was having an affair with her – for four freaking years! To say that Poppy went into a bit of a depression was putting it mildly. She figured there was something wrong with her that made her husband stray for so long but she finally realizes, with the help of her friends, that it wasn’t her that had the issues, it was Phil!

Poppy is soon introduced to her solicitor who is new in town but his father always worked for Phil. Sam Hetherington is wonderful and Poppy is infatuated. It may seem too soon to some people but Poppy had been practically a single parent for years so it didn’t seem all that wrong. As much as she likes Sam he gives off varied signals and as a reader I was so confused by them. He was distant, then he wasn’t, then he was distant again and it went on and on. Poppy made a complete fool of herself because of Sam on more than one occasion and I felt sorry for her as she wasn’t the only one who thought she looked like a fool, most of the town did too.

The story is about Poppy finding her way through all of the ins and outs of her life now that Phil is gone. She dates a guy but she’s not sure she likes him all that well. Her and her friends start a book club but that soon ends. She’s not sure how she’s supposed to feel most of the time and I found myself understanding her confusion but yet wanting her to stop floundering around and get her head on straight. On one hand I liked her close friends, Peggy, Angie and Jennie very well but yet at times found them to be pretty rude. (Jennie, her husband Dan and their family was especially entertaining.) This just didn’t sit well with me. Peggy was always wonderful but Angie and Jennie seemed to tear Poppy down to make themselves look good and I didn’t like that at all.

Poppy is a misfit and in her town everyone knows everyone’s business. I got a bit tired of it even though I usually love small town stories. I was very near the end of the book when I realized the author was going to try to stick a “romance” in there and have Poppy have her HEA. I wanted it to happen earlier in the book, yet when it did I was disappointed in the suddenness and the fact that this person was professing their love and they’d hardly spent any time together at all. I guess being a reader of romance novels I expected more and this didn’t hit the mark.

Overall it was an relatively entertaining read but a bit long for my liking. It felt like it meandered when it should have been doing a fast walk. lol. I might try other book by this author in the future but I would have to get a glowing recommendation from a friend before I did.

Rating: 3 out of 5

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

This book is available from Michael Joseph-Penguin. You can buy it here  in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.

three-stars

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Guest Review: The Greatest Love Story of All Time by Lucy Robinson

Posted September 19, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 2 Comments


It’s Fran’s thirtieth birthday and things are good . . .

She’s bluffed her way into a Very Posh Job and her outlandishly handsome and talented boyfriend Michael is escorting her to the Ritz with a bulge the shape of a ring box in his pocket.

But something has gone wrong. Very wrong. By the end of the evening Fran is howling in bed with a bottle of cheap brandy and one of Michael’s old socks.

In her quest to figure out why her life has suddenly gone down the pan, Fran comes up with a fail safe plan: live like a badger, stalk a stranger called Nellie and cancel her beloved Gin Thursdays in favour of drinking gin every night. But then Fran’s friends force a very different plan on her and it’s nowhere near as fun. How could eight dates possibly make her feel better?

But eventually she agrees. And so begins the greatest love story of all time . . .


When we first meet Fran her friends are breaking in to her home to try and help her. You see Fran is depressed because her boyfriend, Michael, who she’s been dating for 2 years has broken up with her – and on her 30th birthday no less! Bastard. The break up is supposedly just a kind of time out and something that Michael called a 3 month break because he needed a few months on his own. Now as far as Fran knew everything was just peachy keen and Michael was about to propose but nooooo – he breaks up with her instead.

Now Fran is understandably upset and even though her wonderful and freaky friends, Stephania, Dave and Leonie try to help her she is determined that after 3 months Michael will want her back. Her friends come up with a plan called the Eight Date Deal. This plan is that she internet dates 8 different men and by the time the 3 months is up she’ll know what’s out there besides Michael. Fran’s sure that there will be no one as great as Michael is but she agrees to go along with it. There are all kinds of freaks and weirdo’s on the dating site but she does manage to make dates with different men and actually has fun a time or two.

We get to know Fran as she goes on these different dates, spends time with her wonderful friends (mostly at Gin Thursdays), deals with her mother’s alcoholism and her feelings toward the whole Michael situation. She is completely mental during this time in so many different way and at one point is stalking a girl named Nellie because all signs point to the fact that she’s dating Michael. OMG the time and effort that is put into stalking Nellie was as hilarious as it was completely disturbing. It just goes to prove what heartache will do to a previously sound person’s mind. Lol On the other hand Fran did some crazy things on her dates that I would think that a person who was truly in love with someone else would never do – even if they were “on a break.” That had me seriously doubting Fran’s commitment to Michael and frankly not liking Fran very much at that time.

In the end this was a very different book than I thought it would be. I found I had a love hate relationship with Fran…but mostly I ended up liking her…mostly. Her friends were the greatest and I loved them to pieces. We only got to see Michael from someone else’s pov but frankly I didn’t like the guy from the get go. How the love story plays out and how it ends was incredibly surprising and I didn’t see that twist at all – I should have, but I didn’t. The problem here is that I can’t talk about my feelings about that part of the book without giving a boat load of spoilers away. Suffice it to say I needed that part to play out a bit more from a romance standpoint.

The writing was…different. I liked that Robinson had her characters being loud and obnoxious when it suited them and she wasn’t afraid to have them making fools of themselves either. Since it was a very character driven book that was a plus. There is a lot of swearing in the book but since I can sometimes swear with the best of them I didn’t mind at all – just mentioning it in case you don’t like heavy cussing in your books. The biggest issue I had with the writing was the over use of exclamation points. There must be hundreds of them in this story and while they showed, at times, how excitable Fran was, the rest of the time it really detracted from my reading experience.

Overall an entertaining book that did have me laughing from time to time. Despite the issues it was a good story and I’d definitely pick up another book by Robinson.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place.

This book is available from Michael Joseph (Penguin). You can buy it here (only available on Kindle in UK) in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.

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