Category: Adventure

Adventure · chick-lit · romance

*BLOG TOUR* Tilly’s Tuscan Teashop – Daisy James.★★★★

bookclubbetweenthepages1 Comment

Blurb; Welcome to Tilly’s Tuscan Teashop, the first book in a brand new series from the author of the Hummingbird Hotel and the Cornish Confetti Agency series.

When photographer Natalie Nicholson’s beach hut studio – and everything she’s spent the last two years working on – is destroyed in a fire, she doesn’t think things can get any worse. Until she sees her boyfriend Josh Clarke on Instagram frolicking on a palm-fringed Balinese beach with a fellow cabin crew member.

Devastated and heartbroken, she heads to Italy to help out at her sister’s English teashop in the heart of the Tuscan countryside, where she encounters sun-dappled hilltop villages with attractive terracotta bell towers, cobbled piazzas housing world-famous art and architecture, and a national fixation with getting from A to B as quickly as possible whether in a glamourous Ferrari, a scarlet Vespa, or a snail-like ape.

With handsome local filmmaker-cum-waiter Matteo Ferretti on hand to guide her, can Tilly learn to ditch her workaholic ways and embrace the Italian pursuit of la dolce vita? Or will she miss out on her chance at a happy-ever-after?

My Review; This is book one in the blossomwood Bay series, and I am already excited and looking forward to seeing what happens in the future for Tilly and her friends. Tilly is an Amazon character who is heading away for a break to help run her sisters tea shop in Italy. It is a feel-good, uplifting, romance, and fresh start story. A brilliant ending for all the characters and the town was a perfect setting. I adored this book and really enjoyed it. A breathe of fresh air from all my thrillers. Made me smile. I’ve got my eye on Matteo myself. Hotting alert. A well deserved four stars and highly recommend. Take a break to Italy with Tilly, you won’t forget it.

Amazon Link UK

Amazon Link US

Adventure · chick-lit · romance

*BLOG TOUR* There’s No Place Like Home – Jane Lovering ★★★★

bookclubbetweenthepagesLeave a comment

Blurb; Isabel, Izzy to her friends, has got nothing left to lose when she makes the bravest decision of her life. 

A month living under canvas on the Yorkshire Moors with five strangers wouldn’t normally be her idea of a good time, even if there is prize money to be won at the end of it, but she’s all out of options.

Joining her in this wild goose chase, being filmed for a TV show, are farmer Seb, whose marriage is creaking but who is desperate not to lose his family. Sheltered Ruth who needs an opportunity to show she can make her own decisions. Glamorous socialite Kanga, who has been living a lie. American Junior who has his own secret that has led him there. And last but not least, mysterious and brooding Mac, who Izzy can’t help but be drawn to.

As the fickleness of nature tests them all to their limits, this disparate group come together to face the challenge. But when Izzy finally tells them the truth that has brought her out on the Moors, will that be the end of their adventure, or the beginning of her future? Because what Izzy really needs is a place to call home, and someone to share it with could be even better…

My Review; This was a lovely read to end the year on. It’s a reality tv/camp out with other strangers trying to find a big cat on the loose, will they find it? Tempers get heated, romances occur and feuds. But each person who is there has their own reason for being there and all have very different backgrounds and come from different lifestyles. Maybe they could all learn something from each other? It’s a coming together story with a beautiful ending for all. I loved Izzy and Macs characters. It’s a story full of endurance, learning and new beginnings for all the characters. I really enjoyed it. But some of the chapters were a little long for my personal liking. A well deserved four stars. Could easily have a follow up book to this which I’d love to read. Highly recommend.

Amazon Link UK

Amazon Link US

Adventure · Bestsellers · Comedy · TV series

Diddly Squat: A Year on the Farm – Jeremy Clarkson ★★★★

bookclubbetweenthepagesLeave a comment

Blurb; Pull on your wellies, grab your flat cap and join Jeremy Clarkson in this hilarious and fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the farm we’re all obsessed with.
Welcome to Clarkson’s farm.

An idyllic spot offering picturesque views across the Cotswolds, bustling hedgerows and natural springs, it’s the perfect plot of land for someone to delegate the actual, you know, farming to someone else while he galivants around the world in cars.

Until one day, Jeremy decided he would do the farming itself.

After all, how hard could it be? . . .

Faced with suffocating red tape, biblical weather, local objections, a global pandemic and his own frankly staggering ignorance of how to ‘do farming’, Jeremy soon realises that turning the farm around is going to take more than splashing out on a massive tractor.

Fortunately, there’s help at hand from a large and (mostly) willing team, including girlfriend Lisa, Kaleb the Tractor Driver, Cheerful Charlie, Ellen the Shepherd and Gerald, his Head of Security and Dry Stone Waller.

Between them, they enthusiastically cultivate crops, rear livestock and hens, keep bees, bottle spring water and open a farm shop. But profits remain elusive.

And yet while the farm may be called Diddly Squat for good reason, Jeremy soon begins to understand that it’s worth a whole lot more to him than pounds, shillings and pence . . .

My review; I’ve always been a huge fan of Jeremy Clarkson in top gear, grand tour and now his own farm series over on Amazon which I enjoyed and thought it was hilarious. So imagine me seeing him bringing out a book about it too. Its basically everything that was shown in series one of his farm series with a few bits I don’t remember being in the show. Each chapter is written just how Jeremy would speak it himself. So parts had me laughing away while reading. But it’s a very interesting read. I’m not one to read about farms usually but put Jeremy Clarkson running it I’m interested. He’s blunt. Honest. Funny and he tells everything as it is. I actually learnt a lot about farming through his program and this book so he made me aware of several things. A brilliant read. An easy, short read at just over 200 pages. A well deserved four stars.

Amazon Link US

Amazon Link UK