The Separation by Dinah Jefferies

This is the second book this year that is out of my comfort zone of chick lit and it moved me just as much as the first book and had me hooked from the first page and was felt very honoured that I was sent the book to review .

This is the first book of Dinah Jefferies  and I was not disappointed  the book is set the 1950's when the world is just get over world war two and the story was you to Malaya, We met Lydia Cartwright is married and has two beautiful girls Emma and fleur who are her world . Lydia has been away looking after her sick friend she is taken away from her family for some time which is very hard for her but on her return she faces a an empty home and a mothers worst nightmare her girls are gone !!!!

Dianh has beautiful wrote this book with much detail and with two views  from a mothers live serching for her girls too Emma's a 11 year old who never gives up on her mum even thou she doesn't know where she is ....
In each chapter there is great detail of they surrounds they emotions I was strongly connect to Lydia as I'm a mother of too beautiful girls  and I felt her pain (tissues may be needed).... But I also Emma world rocked me too the way this story is told you get lost in both the worlds and is very hard too put down.

 The story tells of a mothers search and a daughters love and hope that battles to bring them back together.

Well Lydia is just finding out that her family are gone , Emma and fleur are taken by they Father on a shill to England they are not the only people on the ship and you meet some chapters for they journey but two that they father warm too are Veronica and her brother Oliver that are also returning to England they spend sometime with them and the journey so they become friend one night Emma is not feeling well and misses dinner and returns too they cabin too rest so when Oliver has comes too the cabin she thinks her father has sent him to check on her but he is not he is they for things that no man should want to do to a eleven year girl !!!!!! Emma keeps quite hopping that she never see him again and believes that she will not be believed. When they arrive  back in the England her father told them that they mother was missing and that she would not becoming to them and soon started dating Veronica who was very nice  but Emmma did not understand why her father moved on soon quickly and started to play up but one afternoon she came home late from playing out and she knew that they where having visitors Veronica and Oliver she was only a little late but her father was very mad and sent her too her room with no tea she nears her father take Veronica and Fleur out and she is left with Oliver in the house and she hopes and prays he stays down stair s but he does not and enters her room with only one thing on his mind she tells him no but he just her to lay still and that no one will believe her she finds the strength and gets hold of her writing set and stabs her in the neck and manages to get away from her and runs away but later that night she is found by her father but she still does not tell him and he is at his wits end and send her to boarding school for trouble girls.....

On the other side of the world Lydia is finding to hard to accept that her family are gone and is finding clues to where they may be she visits Alec boss to find out that he has been sent up north to work in a different branch and that he would be in a rest house waiting for a house to be allocated to them so she asks plans to reach them whem she goes to they bank to be informed that Alec had with drawn all they money apart from 30 dollars she realised that she was broke and no way of getting to her family what was her husband up to and finds a friend who leans her some money to make the journey up north so she gets a bus that a very long journey but is the cheapest way but the bus is hijacked by rebabs and she tired to a tree for days with a little boy called Maz but when they getaway the lady asks Lydia to take the boy with her to they family up north as he will be safe....
She manages a strange man but he offers to help her get to her family but does know why this stranger would her her or that the importance he would make late in her life . When she arrives at her desination she comes face to face with so make pain that her heart breaks her family had reached the rest home safely but the house was bombed burn down by rebabs and they were only a few survivors and they where not her family her world was gone in a heart beat....

I will stop there with the spoilers this is story is gripping and outstanding and has to be read through your own eyes , I found this book very hard to put down and would highly recommend that everyone should read this story it will take your breath away.

A Seaside Affair by Fern Britton

I was very lucky to win a copy of this fantastic book by Fern Britton  so it had to queue jump my to read pile which has more of her books in to read.

In this book me so many fabulous characters which bring the book together and you actually feel that you are staying in this lovely seaside village life.But in the first half of the story we meet Jess who is a struggling actress with an successful actor boyfriend who is going places , then we meet Brooke  who is very beautiful and is the new model for a coffee chain and has a famous boyfriend we also meet Ollie who is a theatre actor just finishing his current show and is in a relationship with a rock star Red. And is that's not enough people,  then we meet the heart of the story the people of  Pendruggan  who are out to save the old theatre from the coffee chain , Cafe au Lait.  The head of the the complain is Penny Leighton a hotshot tv producer who is married to the town vicar !!!! An then there is Helen her best friend who is seeing  Piran the local historian who heart is not really in saving the Trevay but does has he is told then we met dear old Colonel Walter Irvine who has been with the Trevay from the day it opened and was the ordinal actor and then moved to stage manager.

 As you read this book your fall in love with the characters  and they all gel together in this little seaside town as the complain gets going we meet up with Brooke who is on a night out with her famous boyfriend and the mangers of the huge coffee chain finds herself in a bad situation  at the end if the night  but in the morning her life turns into a nightmare and she really finds out the her relationship was only for status and that her agent has dropped her as well her new contract and that she might never work again until  she see  watching the news on Travey and saving from the clutches of  Cafe au Lait and they she pulls her self together and joins the complain and holds some important cards in her hands to play against them but she does more than that through they book you see that you never judge a book by its cover that is true in Brooke's case !!!!!

The the first half we meet Jess who is stuck in a runt in her acting career until she goes for a casting for a new comedy and gets the part and the show is a hit but she is still alone at home while handsome boyfriend is acting in his hit Tv show he tells her all the things she wants to hear even when he asks her to marry him..... But Jess finds she is sent an invites to save the Travey by playing in production so Jess packs herself and the her two little dogs and head to Travey and a life change but she doesn't know it!!!!!

When we meet Ollie he is just on the end of finish a play in London and is waiting for new jobs to come in and his income is very low but his rock star girlfriend wants him with her but for some reason he stays in the Uk and moves down to see his more in the seaside town for a few days and before he knows it he is Travey show and fighting the complain .
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In the second half of the book we see the fight take hold the Travey is being restored as the village pulls together and miracles do had from finding old films with stars from the past to save the future new relationships and friends are made but I'm not going to give to many spoilers from the second half of the books and it's a must read to find out the outcome but Fern Britton held my imagination from page one to the very end I hope to meet the characters again in her future books.

Open house by Jill Marsell

This is the first book by Jill Marsell that I have read, so when I read the back I was hooked and had to read !!!!!!!
In this book we meet Neil O'Driscoll who since forever has had a crush on Marcus Kilburton according to her diary, so when Marcus opens the castle to the public Neil has to be his to because his  personal assistance to save her mother house from being sold from under her....

Neil is not like everyone in her family she studied at school when to university  so when she got the job she had to proof she was good at it and stay away from Marcus !!! But Neil has served secrets from her past is about to catch yo with one which is being her special gift of fortune telling from her gypsy roots but is there a part of her past that doesn't want to let go can she see her future with!!!!!

But her best Hetty as stuck by her , so now she needs her best friend as her world is falling apart as her husband has left her from a younger model moved in down the road in the same village!!!!!
Hetty is a wonderful cook and in the end gets her revenge as the new girl friend as put dear old Tony on a diet so when visit they daughter tony is craving her food and soon fells into bed with his ex wife that he left and then comes an affair but Hetty has a good heart and stops it as she feels sorry for the growl friend but also gets her confident back that tony took when he left her and towards the end of the book we find Hetty being talked up by the new local doctor ..........

Through the book we have bits and piece of Neil's life but it soon comes together the there is a dark sercert in Neil's heart that when she went away to university she feel in love with a Ben but they was one little problem Ben lived off his parents which Neil so when they had a mother of all rows over a holiday Neil had enough and left Ben but he decided to go away with another girl instead and that night they were involved in a very bad car crash   and Ben was left with not much life at all Neil stood by he sat by his bed everyday till he came around even thou his parents had given up hope months ago on they son. Ben doesn't not remember  breaking up with her so Neil so treats it like it over time Neil's love turns to guilt and is staying for all the wrong reasons does she let Marcus know her dark secret will she open her heart to her and will Ben let her go , that you will have to find out by reading the book but you will not be disappointed .

I'm looking forward to reading more books from this great author .

Ghostwritten by Isabel Wolff

There are so many books out there that left an impression in our lives the first book was The Colour Purple and now I can add this to my list the book is so beautifully written that I felt I was there at it has made an impact and everyone should read this book but warning you will need tissues....

In this book we meet Jenni and ghost writer who has kept a dark sercert for twenty fives years she doesn't even tell anyone not even her best friends or the love of her life Rick !!!!!

Rick and Jenni and rick are at a crossroads in there relationship Rick wants children but Jenni doesn't so when Jenni is approched at her best friends wedding by she and Rick decide sometime apart will do them good but when Jenni finds out where the job is she starts to panic but decides to face her demons head on.

When she arrives at Polvarth, Cornwall the place she vowed never return too as it was too painful and now everything she pushed to back of her head was coming rushing back over and over again.....
But Jenni was here to do a job and pushes throughout it to meet Klara her client for the next few days.

As Jenni starts to record Klara story she finds that they share the same grief for a lost brother and opens wounds that Jenni doesn't  want to deal with from chapter five Klara starts to talk about her children hood and her family moving to Java on a plantation farm they are all close and family life is grand but as Klara opens up more about her family and the war moving to Java and book travels through the time of the war moving to Java, this book is beautiful written. Into great detail of the time Klara , her mother brother in war camps I really felt the I was there too as the story pulled me in I felt like I was Jenni listening to the detail but as the Klara story comes to and end Jenni opens up about what happen to her brother and Klara and Jenni find a bond that will never break and Jenni starts to heal and I not saying to much as this book needs to be read by your own eyes and I hope it leaves a mark in your reading history as a book that must be read.

White Wedding by Milly Johnson

I'm now a hard core Milly Johnson fan and need to read all her books before anymore new ones come out !!!!!!!!!
As you can tell this book is based around weddings , in this book we are introduce to three brides Bel, Max and Violet who meet by chance and become close friends. the first wedding we visit is Bel's to
Richard. Bel has control on her she not even let her step mum help her even thou she has been there all her life but she still can't let her in due to her dead mother,  Bel as arrange everything to the 'T ' for her big day. Bel is very calm up till the day when she puts on a very pain dress but nit her mothers one that was left to her she has a moment where she feels is she doing the right thing but she has come this far it's just getting through the day. The wedding is a very plain occasion  as did Vicky and Max felt something was not right !q but everything was revel at the reception as to why it was very pain and low key in cost. Bel takes the stand at the speeches and informs her family and friends the new husband had been having an affair which her cousin Shaden for many months and had made a special cake showing exactly what they had been doing .Bel walked out of the reception and runaway too her fathers cottages but before she went she let notes for her friends and dad explaining why she had to go through with the wedding. All Bel wants is to be alone but when she arrives she finds that one of the cottages has been rented out all Bel wants is a place to hide and cry out her broken heart but there is the most ignoring man staying in the cottage will he leave her alone with her broken heart or will he be the one to fix it!!!!
The next wedding we visit it is Max's to Stuart , Max is a high powered business women how runs her own business and is not short of money Stuart is school teacher on a normal wage stuart wants a small do which his wages can cover, But Max secretly wants a big fat gypsy wedding and starts planning behind his back knowing that she will be her way in the long run, closer to the wedding stuart starts to feeling that no longer belong to together as it will not work they are too different people and his head is turned by an old friend from school but dies not do a thing as he loves Max until he finds the wedding folder hidden with a lock on it once he is indies it proves that they are not meant to be together but Max still goes ahead with the wedding hope that he meets her at the church but he doesn't so Max is left heart broken but Max a friend waiting in the background will he be team. Stuart or will he mend her broken heart and become team Max.
The third wedding is Violet and Glyn , Violet is the distance from all the girls when it comes to planning of the wedding  she still doesn't have a dress up in till the month if the wedding but Violet hiding a secret she is marry Glyn for all the wrong reason but feels trapped in her own life but is still going through with it !!!! Violet lives with Glyn in his flat but Glyn lost s job and had a nervous brake down and is now house bound and all he needs is Violet 24/7 and she could breath so she escapes to her mothers and her new business for an ice cream shop but Glyn phones every second she is not with him. She finally finds a dress but it still doesn't feel right on even every dress fitting  the dress feels tight but really it's lose and has to be taken in from losing weight. Violet business is her only escape leading up to the wedding but she is not alone in the shop as she has a painter in to decorate the shop she starts  to have feeling for him and knows that she does not love Glyn and hadn't for many years but stay with him because if she left again he would try and kill himself  but she makes the break this comes at a cost as Glyn leaves the flat and need to the shop where he finds Pav working in the shop and he see red and hurt hi and sets fire to the shop!!!!! Violet world is turned upside down but knows that all she wants is her Prince Charming will Pav be that guy you will have to read all the book to the very end to get all the twist and turns in the girls life's . another 10  out of 10  everyone must read.

A hopeless romantic by Harriet Evans

This is the first book I have read by by this lovely lady and probably the longest book I have read to date but loved every page.
Laura foster is the hopeless romantic who falls in love at a drop of a hat and this is how the story starts will Laura fallen for off on Dan who is in a relationship but they have been off on for so long that it seems he has a relationship with Dan  which is kept a secret even from her best friends paddy, Jo and Hilary but then one bad day turns into a bad week as Jo finds out about the affair and then Laura finds out that dan is never leaving his girlfriend especially now she is pregnant and too top this off her job that she has worked at so hard but in the last months as gone down hill she gets herself  suspended!!!!!!!
Laura world falls apart and she trows all her rom con films books out the window as they is nothing of Prince Charming and happy endings anymore.
In part two we see Laura coming out of her self pity pit and going away with her parents and gran to theory holiday home in Norfolk to turn clear her head. While there to please her parents she visits a stately home charley hall for the day she was not really in the mood but was trying to keep her parents happy when she bumps into nick and cheeky groundsman who after a few minuets asks her out for drinks that night the new Laura tells herself that it is just a friends things but they got it off like a house on fire and before she how's she fallen for nick against all her rules with the new Laura , then Laura finds out as secret that Nick is not a cheeky groundsman but the Marquis of Ranlagh and runs has she knows that they are from different worlds and that it would not work but it has change her and realised that Dan was never going to be Prince Charming  and is strong for it she comes home after her grand party ready to get her job back and move on with her life just with no men in it for awhile , while on a job do she bumps into Nick and he is cold a brass and Laura confirms that they are from different worlds she try's to leave but nick insist on taking her home this does nit go while and Laura insist at getting out half way home and again she is not with her Prince Charming but she moves on with her life in work no one knows her secret apart form gran . So when she gets a text saying they need to talk and that he wants her to attend a n autumn ball from advice of gran that life is too shirt and too see what she might want she goes to find out that his best friend has set the whole thing up and she is thrown in the deep end and she can't cope and it only confirm her fears that they r from different worlds but before nick could tell her any different her worst nightmare had happened her fear gran had dead from a heart attack but she never got to say goodbye but her dear gran  wrote to her when the days where coming near and told her that life is too short to have the worms man in it and to chase those dreams of Prince Charming and there is one out there for everyone so does Laura get her Prince Charming  by following her heart nit her head you will just have to read the book to find out .

Take a Look at Me Now by Miranda Dickinson.

This is the first book by Miranda Dickinson I have read. I added this book to my reading pile due to my fellow bloggers giving it a great review and I was not disappointed.
If I did not have my lovely daughters and housework to deal with I would have read this book in one sitting !!!!!! It's that good.
Thus story is based alround Nell Sullivan, she works for the council in the planning department and has been there for mny years. Nell has always stuck to her five year plan in work and relationships or should I say relationship with Aiden who is on off boyfriend material .
Nell walk into work one morning think that Aiden had a change of heart and that they are meant to be together but hits her with the blow that she is losing her job there and then due to downsizing. Nell stocked then mad then calm as the information sets in Nell starts to think that she wants to do something special with her payout. As they leave the office most of the group head to the pub to drown they sorrows but Nell's as other ideas and walks into a travel agents and out of the blue she decides to visit her cousin Lizzy in San Francisico for 8 weeks !!!!!
As soon as Nell arrives she knows she made the right choice, after spending a week sight seeing with Lizzy the city starts to feel like home. While in this lovely city  meets some great characters in the way from Annie a crazy diner owner that dishes up the die for waffles to Prince Charming Max Rossi.
Being in San Francisco Nell has a clear head and realises that Aiden really isn't the love of her life and also starts to think about her future and realising that she has been putting her dream on hold  her live for cooking, so Nell volunteers at Annie's for the rest of her stay to get work experience  and soon loves working there but that's  not the only thing Nell is falling in love with......
But before she knows she fallen in love with Max and it's time to go on the eve of her return to the Uk Nell discovery the max has a daughter and he is still live his wife!!!!!!
When home Nell has no time for tears as she is making her dreams comes true and along the way Aiden gets her on the way to her dream we'll she thinks it's her dream will she open her diner in  the UK or will Nell find her way back to the heart of San Francisco!!!!!

I live this book from ten first Chapter and it reminds me of all the places I visited on my honeymoon so if you have not read this book then go get a copy and read xxxxx