A Bakery at the Little Duck Pond Café by Rosie Green @Rosie_Green1988 @rararesources #coverreveal

Happy cover reveal day to this book that is part of a wonderful series! Cannot wait to read this one!🦆

A Bakery at the Little Duck Pond Cafe

Ellie’s dreams of opening a bakery in Sunnybrook are finally coming true and best friends Fen and Jaz are happily rallying round, helping her to plan a fabulous grand opening day. Everything in their garden seems to be rosy – until the arrival of a newcomer brings chaos to the village and tests relationships to the limit. Can the bakery succeed in the face of such upheaval? And more importantly, can firm friendships survive?

Pre-order Links

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bakery-Little-Duck-Pond-Cafe-ebook/dp/B07MLF2N6T

US – https://www.amazon.com/Bakery-Little-Duck-Pond-Cafe-ebook/dp/B07MLF2N6T

Author Bio

Rosie Green has been scribbling stories ever since she was little. Back then they were rip-roaring adventure tales with a young heroine in perilous danger of falling off a cliff or being tied up by ‘the baddies’. Thankfully, Rosie has moved on somewhat, and now much prefers to write romantic comedies that melt your heart and make you smile, with really not much perilous danger involved at all, unless you count the heroine losing her heart in love.

Rosie’s brand new series of novellas is centred on life in a village café. The first two stories in the series are: Spring at The Little Duck Pond Cafe and Summer at The Little Duck Pond Café.

Twitter – https://twitter.com/Rosie_Green1988

Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal @SoniahKamal #bookreview

Happy super Bowl Sunday booklovers! All I have to say is GO RAMS!🏈

Delighted to share with you today my review for this beautiful book! This was a book that really caught me by surprise, I had no idea it would captured my heart so completely!💕

Unmarriageable

My Thoughts

A beautifully told story full of character charm and culture! This was such a magical story, a modern retelling of “Pride and Prejudice“ set in modern day Pakistan… Full disclosure I have never read P&P ( don’t tell anybody) and this book still was pure magic! Soniah Kamal has crafted a wonderfully told tale that really brought the people and the culture of Pakistan to life…

Alys is a modern self-sufficient woman living in a not so modern or forward thinking Pakistan… there is a definite tug-of-war between what Alys wants and what her mother and society believe she needs… Alys is the second daughter in a family of five girls, and her mother is determined to get them all married off well… Alys Who works as a English literature teacher feels as though it is more important to educate girls and teach them that they can be more than just somebody’s wife…

The Pakistani culture absolutely fascinated me and I loved learning about a different culture… The characters in the story were so well developed and likable… I was seriously ready to hop on a plane to Pakistan and visit Alys and sisters… any similarities to P&P were completely lost on me, but as I mentioned previously that definitely did not hinder my enjoyment of this book… The story was captivating, the characters were charming, and the romance was sweet… yes there is a Mr. Darcy and even I know that is from the original…

This is an exquisite story that will make you proud to be a woman and grateful that there are wonderful books like this to read! Absolutely recommend!

🎵🎵🎵 song running through my head! I could see this being Alys’s anthem!

Question, tell me what you think about me
I buy my own diamonds and I buy my own rings
Only ring your celly when I’m feelin’ lonely
When it’s all over please get up and leave
Question, tell me how you feel about this
Try to control me, boy, you get dismissed
Pay my own fun, oh, and I pay my own bills
Always fifty fifty in relationships
The shoes on my feet, I’ve bought it
The clothes I’m wearing, I’ve bought it
The rock I’m rockin’, I’ve bought it
‘Cause I depend on me if I want it
The watch I’m wearin’, I’ve bought it
The house I live in, I’ve bought it
The car I’m driving, I’ve bought it
I depend on me, I depend on me
All the women, who are independent
Throw your…

Destinys Child 2000

*** A huge thank you to Random House Valentine for my copy of this book ***

About the Book

In this one-of-a-kind retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in modern-day Pakistan, Alys Binat has sworn never to marry—until an encounter with one Mr. Darsee at a wedding makes her reconsider.

A scandal and vicious rumor concerning the Binat family have destroyed their fortune and prospects for desirable marriages, but Alys, the second and most practical of the five Binat daughters, has found happiness teaching English literature to schoolgirls. Knowing that many of her students won’t make it to graduation before dropping out to marry and have children, Alys teaches them about Jane Austen and her other literary heroes and hopes to inspire the girls to dream of more.

When an invitation arrives to the biggest wedding their small town has seen in years, Mrs. Binat, certain that their luck is about to change, excitedly sets to work preparing her daughters to fish for rich, eligible bachelors. On the first night of the festivities, Alys’s lovely older sister, Jena, catches the eye of Fahad “Bungles” Bingla, the wildly successful—and single—entrepreneur. But Bungles’s friend Valentine Darsee is clearly unimpressed by the Binat family. Alys accidentally overhears his unflattering assessment of her and quickly dismisses him and his snobbish ways. As the days of lavish wedding parties unfold, the Binats wait breathlessly to see if Jena will land a proposal—and Alys begins to realize that Darsee’s brusque manner may be hiding a very different man from the one she saw at first glance.

Told with wry wit and colorful prose, Unmarriageable is a charming update on Jane Austen’s beloved novel and an exhilarating exploration of love, marriage, class, and sisterhood.

Advance praise for Unmarriageable

“[A] funny, sometimes romantic, often thought-provoking glimpse into Pakistani culture, one which adroitly illustrates the double standards women face when navigating sex, love, and marriage. This is a must-read for devout Austenites.”Publishers Weekly (starred review) 

Unmarriageable is a joy to read! It transforms a familiar story into something new and fresh and different, but keeps all of the warmth and intelligence of the original. I loved everything about these characters and spending time in their world.”—Jasmine Guillory, author of The Wedding Date 

Unmarriageable raises an eyebrow at a society that views marriage as the ultimate prize for women. Crackling with witty dialogue, family tensions, humor, and rich details of life in contemporary Pakistan, it tells an entirely new story about love, luck, and literature.”—Balli Kaur Jaswal 

Hope your day is full of books and words! Berit☀️✨

Shelter In Place by Nora Roberts #NoraRoberts @justjanuary #Mystery #Thriller #Romance @audible_com #AudiobookReview

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 Deputy Barney Stars

The Blurb

Sometimes, there is nowhere safe to hide.

It was a typical evening at a mall outside Portland, Maine. Three teenage friends waited for the movie to start. A boy flirted with the girl selling sunglasses. Mothers and children shopped together, and the manager at the video-game store tended to customers. Then the shooters arrived.

The chaos and carnage lasted only eight minutes before the killers were taken down. But for those who lived through it, the effects would last forever. In the years that followed, one would dedicate himself to a law enforcement career. Another would close herself off, trying to bury the memory of huddling in a ladies’ room, hopelessly clutching her cell phone–until she finally found a way to pour her emotions into her art.

But one person wasn’t satisfied with the shockingly high death toll at the DownEast Mall. And as the survivors slowly heal, find shelter, and rebuild, they will discover that another conspirator is lying in wait–and this time, there might be nowhere safe to hide.

36425796

My Thoughts

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 Deputy Barney Stars

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 Deputy Barney Stars

After listening to one of Nora Roberts books the other week, a few more came up in the U.S Audible sale, so I may….or may not have bought a few more to listen to …ummm 4 more!!

I’ve decided that I really like her writing style, and the fact that January LaVoy was narrating it made it even more of a one click for me, Ms LaVoy has been bumped up to my one-click narrator list!

On a normal evening in Portland Maine, Simone is waiting with her two friends to watch a movie in the DownEast Mall, while her mother and her sister do a little bit of retail therapy while waiting for the movie to finish.

That evening will be one that they will ALL never forget.

While waiting for the movie to start Simone decides to visit the bathroom.

Thinking that the movie is really loud as she already hears the gunshots, the moment she opens the bathroom door, she realises that this is not a movie!

For 8 minutes the lives of the people in that Mall was pure terror, the death toll that day was pure heartbreak.

The story then jumps forward years later and we find out what happened to a select few of the people who were there that fateful day.

I absolutely loved this story, Roberts captured the characters so well, Simone and her grandmother CiCi were just fab (I wish that I had a grandmother like that)

I love Reed and the way that he took such a sad tragedy and made a future for himself as a cop, and I love the fact that the person that helped him do that was Essie.

And then we get to the meat of the story, someone isn’t happy about the way that the shooting went down, there were survivors after all, and that should have never happened, perhaps they should finish the job!

An absolute page turner (even though I listened to it) that I couldn’t put down, and I’m going to slowly make my way through Ms Roberts back-catalogue!

🎧🎧 – Narrated by January LaVoy, who I mentioned before is firm becoming a favourite narrator of mine, I picked this up because of her, and I wasn’t disappointed at all. Fantastic narration, and a great story.

Grab this little page turner and strap yourself in!

Vicci

image-90