Author: Greig

Professional Librarian from Fife who likes books and music.

bute?

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Wildflower Bay

Rachael Lucas

Super uptight Isla loses her job as top stylist in a chic Edinburgh salon. In the aftermath she allows herself to be talked into to taking the reins of her Aunt’s hairdressers shop while she helps look after her newborn grandchild. Finding herself on an isolated island (a fictional version of Bute) the confirmed city girl finds herself making friends and having fun for the first time in ages.
I liked this one OK but the relationship between Isla and her pensioner friend was so much more interesting and involving than the eventual love story.

Rating: B-

oceanographer?

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True Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop

Annie Darling

I received this book for review from Netgalley.
Verity runs admin for the Lonely Hearts Bookshop. An introvert dreamer with a bad break up behind her she’s invented a fake boyfriend to stop the well meaning interventions of her friends into her dating life. Nearly caught out in her lie she relies on the kindness of a stranger to divert her friends. Turns of the stranger thinks the idea of fake dating is a great one and proposes they be each others fake dates for the summer.
Fun book that was total catnip for me. As I’ve said before the ‘fake dating’ trope just works for me. The lead character is easy to root for and the world around the leads is well drawn. The only thing that spoils it is just how dumb the lead male is about his ‘one true love’. I could get it if she was a decent human but she’s just spoilt and awful.

Rating: B

review?

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Until Love Do Us Part

Anna Premoli

Super rich upper crust Defense Attorney and middle class ‘Irish’ Assistant District Attorney carry bad blood from college into the courtroom. The resultant petty squabble finds the two sentenced to community service. They slowly learn that the other person isn’t quite who they thought they were.
This is one of the most forgettable books I’ve ever read. I honestly had to check on Goodreads to remind myself of the plot after only a couple of days. Forgettable it may be but I still liked some of the back-and-forth dialogue. Still definitely the weakest of the three Premoli books I’ve read.

Rating: C

breeding?

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Love To Hate You

Anna Premoli

She’s the daughter of organic farmers who grew up to be a tax lawyer and he’s the titled heir to a family business empire that has decided to become an economist instead.
Separated from working together because their relationship is so poisonous they find themselves forced to join forces at the insistence of an important client and things take a turn for the interesting.
I only read this second Premoli book because the preview at the end of You Drive Me Crazy was so up my street. A proper enemies to lovers via fake dating story will always hit my buttons even when it’s as basic as this one.

Rating: B-

seoul?

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You Drive Me Crazy

Anna Premoli

Maddison works in mergers at a corporate bank. She’d much rather be set free to shop using the money of whichever rich guy she can snag.
She applies for a transfer to the bank’s New York office and instead finds herself being sent to Seoul.
Shocked by the culture clash and her stern new boss (and next door neighbour) she begins to grow as a person and to take a chance at real love.
The characters in this are pretty cardboard and the plotting incredibly by-the-numbers but occasionally the dialogue crackles into life enough to be enjoyable.

Rating: C+

publisher?

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Romancing Mister Bridgerton

Julia Quinn

This is a really enormously enjoyable piece of historical romantic comedy.
Penelope Featherington is the perpetual wallflower of the London Set and has had a lifelong crush on Colin Bridgerton – her best friend’s brother. When a scandal erupts around notorious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown the two are involved in the mystery and pushed together.
I’m not a huge fan of historical romances but this is a really well written and thoroughly entertaining slice of romantic fiction. Funny and emotionally involving I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who likes romantic comedies.

Rating: B+

camp?

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Scrappy Little Nobody

Anna Kendrick

Kendrick’s short memoirs are entertaining but never particularly revealing (unless you’re surprised to learn that a twentysomething has taken some recreational drugs).
The best parts are about her early days as a child actor breaking into Broadway and the sacrifices her family made to get that to happen.
I would have been disappointed by this book if I had paid full price for it. At a discount it was worth it.

Rating: B-

na?

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Hold Me

Courtney Miilan

A very enjoyable slice of contemporary romance that basically does the whole ‘Shop Around The Corner/You’ve Got Mail’ plot with Physicists and science bloggers.
Unusually among the romance novels I’ve read this one has a very diverse cast none of whom are defined solely by their ethnicity, identity or whatever.
I much preferred it to the first in this series.

Rating: B

concrete?

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Wishful Drinking

Carrie Fisher

Only a few days ago I nearly bought a physical copy of this book in a bargain bookstore.
Since I’ve just a had a big clear out of books I didn’t want to start adding new books to my shelves.
Imagine my delight when I saw it pop up in the Kindle Daily Deals on Amazon. Especially because I had a credit that meant I could get the book for nothing!
Wishful Drinking is a book adaptation of Fisher’s successful one-man show of the same name.
It’s a mostly hilarious, occasionally moving piece of autobiography. The best parts are when she talks about her family and her battles with mental illness but it’s never less than entertaining.
Given it’s stage show origins it’s not surprising that it’s a little on the short side but it’s still very much worth reading – especially if you can pick it up at a bargain price.

Rating: A-