Dear Reader,
Today I have a wonderful review for you as I am one of the hosts on Rebecca Raisin's Blog Tour today to promote her brand new book, Brides & Bouquets, Book 2 in the Cedarwood Lodge Trilogy. I adored her first book, so I jumped for joy when I was invited to take part in hosting book 2! First let's do our usual routine of looking at what the books about before we find out exactly what I thought of it. I'm so glad that you are here for this!
Title | Brides & Bouquets at Cedarwood Lodge
Author | Rebecca Raisin
Publisher | HQ Digital
Source | Review Copy
My Rating | 4/5
Blurb
Christmas has come to Cedarwood Lodge in the second part of the feel-good romance serial from best selling author, Rebecca Raisin!
Dreaming of a happily ever after at Cedarwood Lodge is Clio Winters’ current focus, especially with a winter wonderland wedding expo planned. But with brides coming from far and wide the heat is on for Clio to fulfil everyone’s dream of a Christmas wedding!
It seems like Clio’s new business might be off to a rocky start and surrounded by love struck brides she can’t help but hope for a little Christmas romance of her own…
Cedarwood Lodge is a delectable romance told in three parts – following Clio Winters journey back to her hometown of Evergreen. This is Part Two.
What Dawn-Tracy Thinks
I adore Cedarwood Lodge and the town of Evergreen, so to return there was a pure treat especially as the lodge prepares for its first Christmas in quite a few years. The last time we caught up with Clio and her friends, they'd finally successfully restored the lodge to its former glory - with a few minor hiccups, and Amory, Clio's friend from Manhattan had arrived just as Clio and... Well I don't want to spoil it for you if you've not read it just yet. <Looks at you accusatory; "why haven't you read it yet?">
Now we're back and there is a bride expo to plan for. There's the vendor's to confirm which Amory is helping with, the food to organise - but we have Georges to deal with that, everyone is helping. It's going to be fine. Or is it?
Amory suddenly turned up, but why? And what's going on with her and Cruz? Things are quiet since Kai left and Clio kind of misses him, but refuses to allow herself to miss him or ponder on why that might be.
Things are pottering along nicely, everything is coming together, even Clio and her Mum are getting on better - until Clio finds out that her Mum is hiding something and it involves a baby. After some digging, she realises that everyone else seems to know, but her.
Just as it all starts to come together, and people are imminent to arrive Georges announces that he's off on some cruise and Clio will have to warm the canapes up herself! OMG It could be a disaster!
When the bride's' turn up everything goes so well, potential bookings and then this awful bridezilla who could ruin everything in a single second with her... mouth!
I loved the twists and turns of Brides & Bouquets, my heart was beating so fast in places I wondered if I'd survive if I didn't just turn another page. Also, I secretly wondered if Kai would make a return... can't resist a bit of eye-candy can we girls? ;-)
I'm sad that I have wait until next year (March I believe for the final installment in the trilogy) but what a treat that will be in the new year. Definitely something to look forward to.
Author Info:
Rebecca aims to write characters you can see yourself being friends with. People with big hearts who care about relationships, and most importantly believe in true love.
Website: http://rebeccaraisin.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jaxandwillsmum
Thank you to the publishers, tour promotions team, and of course Rebecca for allowing my to have an early copy to read, and to be a part of the blog tour. I wish you much success
With Love,
Dawn-Tracy xx
Dawn-Tracy xx
Dear Reader,
Today I have a gorgeous book for you, one that I have been looking forward to, and one that I have thoroughly enjoyed! One of my favourite authors ever as many of you know I do have a few, but one of them is Debbie Macomber, writer of the famous Cedar Cove TV series which is based on her books. Every year I look forward to Debbie's christmas novels because for me they always manage to capture the true meaning of christmas. This year's title is definitely one of my absolute favourite books ever.
Title | Twelve Days of Christmas
Author | Debbie Macomber
Publisher | Arrow
Source | Review Copy
My Rating | 5/5
Blurb
Julia is infuriated by her grumpy neighbour, Cain, who can’t even be pleasant when they bump into each other.
So on the suggestion of her best friend, Cammie, Julia concocts a plan. She starts a blog in order to clinch her perfect job, and now she has a subject. Over the next twelve days, she is going to kill Cain with kindness – and Christmas cheer – and document it for all to read about.
But as the experiment goes on, Julia realises she underestimated the effect it would have on Cain, and on their relationship, and things take an unexpected turn…
What Dawn-Tracy Thinks...
I admit that I got just a little excited when I began reading this book as both my Mum and my Partner will vouch for. When I think of this story I immediately smile and have such fond memories. Even though my Partner doesn't have time to read much I like to think that he read this book through my telling him what was happening in the storyline - which he found really amusing. Funnily enough, I heard my Mum laughing out loud during certain moments in the book, so when I read it, I was adamant that I didn't want her to tell me anything about the book to spoil it for me. But I kept updating her as to where I was in the book.
To say that this book is a book that I adore, and that the storyline cheered me up is an understatement. I don't want to spoil it for you so i'll just give you a little brief on what it's about.
Julia lives across the hall from Cain, and as much as she tries to be neighbourly and polite when she sees him, he is simply grouchy with her and earns himself the name of Ebenezer. He actually infuriated Julia so much that she told her friend Cammie on the phone all about him. Cammie, like all best friends always know what to do, so Julia was shocked when Cammie suggested that Julia kill him ... with kindness!
As Julia was in competition with another prospective employee for her dream job in social media, she was set the task of writing a blog - (You can see why I got excited now can't you?) and the person with the highest readership would get the job. Julia had no idea what to write about on her blog so when Cammie suggested killing Cain with kindness in the run up to Christmas, Julia decided to try just that - and document it all on her blog.
I will admit that as Julia's readership rose, and the thousands of readers, pages of comments and such were mentioned - I was so envious of her :-) I think any blogger would be! But I was also rooting for her and proud of her. Keeping a blog can be tough!
As the challenge went on, there were many twists and turns, misunderstandings, and hilarious tongue in cheek moments. The one thing that stood out to me was the way that kindness was the central theme, and just how kindness can change people. It's something we could all do more of, to make this world a better place.
I highly recommend Twelve Days of Christmas, if you love traditional christmases, and traditional stories, this is definitely one not to be missed.
Thank you Debbie for writing another much treasured book in our home, we loved it!
Merry Christmas Debbie from our homes to yours,
With Love,
Dawn-Tracy & Family xxx
Hello,
Today I am taking part in the blog tour for "It's Not You, It's
Them"
by Portia MacIntosh and am I so pleased that Portia has written a
little guest post for us all to enjoy about
Writing 'Grown-Up' Fairy Tales. Of course we also have the
details and links you need to get yourself a copy of It's Not You,
It's Them which is all found below. But first, I want to hand
over to Portia.
When
I was a kid, I would love reading fairy tales. Even now, as an
adult,
I am a sucker for a good romance. It’s no surprise that
writing
books is a dream come true for me, because it means that I
get to
invent my own love stories for other people to enjoy
.
Fairy
tales are a big source of inspiration for me, that’s why, when
I
was writing It's Not You, It’s Them, I wanted an opening chapter
that paid tribute to them.
I
had my Cinderella character (dressed as Harley Quinn) and my
Prince
Charming (dressed as Heath Ledger’s Joker in his nurse
outfit) meet
at a (charity) ball. Cinders didn’t think she was special
enough
for the prince, and in classic fairy tale style, she flees the
scene,
leaving her glass slipper (well, baseball bat) behind her. My
prince
travels to all the houses (media outlets) in the land (city) to
find
the girl (journalist) who left her slipper (bat) behind.
You
do have to tweak what you write, to write a fairy tale for
‘grown
ups’ though. For starters, you have to throw a little sex into
the
mix. The fairy tales we know and love don’t have any funny
business, but adults like a little funny business with their romance
(because that’s real life) so we have to work that into there. The
same goes for swearing, it’s just a part of adult life that you
can’t
really avoid – even if you don’t swear yourself, we’ve
all got that
one friend who throws around F-bombs like confetti at a
wedding.
I
do have to make my stories more realistic than a fairy tale, but I
don’t think that means losing the magic. Falling in love is
magical.
It’s such a wonderful feeling and it doesn’t matter how
much
realism surrounds it.
I love a fairy tale even more now as a grown-up than I did as a
young girl, probably because not only does it give you an avenue
of escape from the real world, but you do get the joy of reading the
sex scenes. I've loved reading about Portia's thought process when
writing fairy tales for the adult audience, and reading that alone
makes you want to read the book doesn't it? Shall we have a look at
what it's about and where you can get your copy from? Let's take a
peek then.
From the Blurb:
An irresistible, feel-good romance, perfect for fans of Rosie Blake, Sophie Kinsella and Lindsey Kelk.
First comes love. Then comes family…
After a lifetime of kissing frogs, Roxie Pratt has given up on finding her own fairytale romance. That is, until she meets her very own Prince Charming, Mark Wright, and he sweeps Roxie off her feet!
So when Mark finally gets down on one knee and pops the question, there’s only one thing left to do: meet the family! And when everything has been picture-perfect so far, what could possibly go wrong…?
About the Author:
Portia MacIntosh has been 'making stuff up' for as long as she can remember - or so she says. Whether it was blaming her siblings for that broken vase when she was growing up, blagging her way backstage during her rock chick phase or, most recently, whatever justification she can fabricate to explain away those lunchtime cocktails, Portia just loves telling tales. After years working as a music journalist, Portia decided it was time to use her powers for good and started writing novels. Taking inspiration from her experiences on tour with bands, the real struggle of dating in your twenties and just trying to survive as an adult human female generally, Portia writes about what it's really like for women who don't find this life stuff as easy as it seems.
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