Book Review - A Village Affair by Julie Houston

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Amazon UK

Title: A Village Affair

Author: Julie Houston

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Aria

Publication Date: 6th November 2018

Rating: 4 Stars

Cassie Beresford has recently landed her dream job as deputy head at her local, idyllic village primary school, Little Acorns. So, the last thing she needs is her husband of twenty years being 'outed' at a village charity auction - he has been having an affair with one of her closest friends.

As if that weren't enough to cope with, Cassie suddenly finds herself catapulted into the head teacher position, and at the forefront of a fight to ward off developers determined to concrete over the beautiful landscape.

But through it all, the irresistible joy of her pupils, the reality of keeping her teenage children on the straight and narrow, her irrepressible family and friends, and the possibility of new love, mean what could have been the worst year ever, actually might be the best yet...

Julie Houston's novels are funny, wonderfully warm and completely addictive. Perfect for all fans of Gervaise Phinn, Katie Fforde and Jill Mansell.

It has been a long while for me, but it was good to be back in Midhope in this all new story, focusing on Cassie Beresford.  

It can easily be read as a standalone, but there are familiar faces to those who have been reading other books from the author. 

And what a story this was, I can't believe how many story lines and threads where packed into this book.  There is a lot going on and never a dull moment.  

We have cheating husbands, questions of parenthood, sexuality, a campaign again a development, a hilarious hen party, best friends. and new love.   All of it executed in such a way that you can't help but be drawn into Cassie's life and enjoy seeing just bump in the road she may encounter next! 

For nothing seems to run smoothly in this story for anyone, which keeps the reader on their toes at all times.  Even the characters you want to dislike on the whole are shown to have another side to them.  

I really enjoyed Julie Houston's writing, and everything about this story.  I just regret that I'd had the book on my kindle for about a year before starting to read it, which given how much I liked the book, I now feel very guilty about. 

Thank you to Aria and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

Guest Post - Julie Houston on Mexico - Bookish World Cup - Mexico

When, as a teacher of a class of eleven-year-olds, I was told I’d be teaching about Mexico, I was slightly peeved. If we were intent on heading to South America, at least let it be Brazil or, even better, Peru from where my sixteen-year-old son had just returned with a stack of resources, photos and – despite dire warnings from the age of ten that any drugs, tattoos or piercings would mean instantly being cut out of any inheritance - a pierced lip.  

The little information I had about Mexico was gleaned from the school’s pink Axolotl - a salamander native to Mexico and obviously the natural son of an uncooked Walls’ skinless pork sausage and Gollum – and the confusing Mexican food. I didn’t – and to be fair, still don’t – know a Nacho from a Fajita; a Taco from a Burrito or an Enchilada from a Tortilla. Visiting my son, newly ensconced at Newcastle university – sans piercing and thus back in the running with his sister for anything left in the coffers - he proudly took us to a student dive where we ordered Nachos. The plate that the four of us shared was as big as the table and consisted of fifty-thousand salty triangular crisp things covered in melted cheese, salsa, guacamole and soured cream. A bit like eating two Mars bars on the trot. At the end you ask yourself: Why? And that was just the starter.

So, with knowledge of only the Axolotl and the Nachos, as well as some hazy recollection of the Aztecs from my own Junior school days, my class and I set out to find out about Mexico. To my shame, I didn’t even know that Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and even California once belonged to Mexico, but had become the American spoils of the 1846-48 war. Poring over political and physical maps of Mexico we found Tijuana -  which led to someone bringing in their granny’s Herb Alpert and his Tijuana Brass CD - and the Chihuahuan Desert which, thank God, didn’t result in any uninvited ratty little dogs. We made papier-mâché skulls in honour of El Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, when Mexicans celebrate the lives of friends and family who have died, and learned that much of February is given over to Carnaval, the equivalent of Brazil’s Mardi gras - or Fat Tuesday – in addition to an average 5000 fiestas celebrated throughout the year in Mexico. Obviously a jolly sociable, party-going lot.

So, when my husband and kids were planning yet more ski and scuba diving trips from which - as I loathe snow, don’t like water anywhere above my neck and am a physical coward – I’m always excluded, I decided I was off to Mexico. By yourself? Doesn’t your husband mind? Will you go out to dinner by yourself? Won’t you be frightened on your own? I confidently answered: Yes; No, not at all; Yes, with my trusty Kindle; and I’d be far more frightened hurtling down a black run or eyeballing a Great White, to the above questions regularly thrown at me when I say I’m off tout seul.

I’ve now done Mexico two Februarys on the trot. I eschew Cancun which, I’m lead to believe, is a bit of a concrete jungle, and head for Riviera Maya located on the Caribbean coastline in the eastern bit of the Yucatan Peninsula. Imagine, if you will, a huge hotel room overlooking the sea, all to oneself with a whacking great hot tub on the balcony to soak one’s limbs after a hard day on the beach. I’ve spent hours watching herons - poised stone statues that suddenly plummet into the sea like ancient pterodactyls - surfacing with huge fish in their mouths. At dawn and dusk the most wonderful cacophony of bird, insect and, I’m led to believe, howler monkey calls, emanates from the rain forest. There is no shortage of wildlife in the actual hotel grounds and I regularly came across Agouti, Iguana and Racoon ambling down the path in front of me. 

February and March is the best time to go to Riviera Maya: it will possibly rain, but showers last only a few minutes, and without such welcome drenching there would be none of the verdant rainforest for which this area is famous. Even in October and November, when it will probably rain a lot more and is actually the hurricane season, the sun will shine and temperatures rise. A day out to Chichen Itza to see the ancient Mayan civilisation is a must, as is a boat trip to Isla Contoy and Isla Mujeres. 

Such is my love for this area, I’ve given over three chapters of my latest novel: Little Acorns – out November 2018 – to my main character Cassandra’s holiday to Riviera Maya in Mexico. 
But possibly the best thing about the country is that, at just five-foot tall myself, I feel at home with some of the friendliest, happiest - and smallest- people I’ve ever met.

Thank you so much Julie for taking the time to talk to me about Mexico, easily my best memory of Mexico is swimming with Dolphins in Cozumel on my 30th Birthday.

About Julie Houston 

Julie Houston’s first three novels GOODNESS, GRACE AND ME, THE ONE SAVING GRACE and LOOKING FOR LUCY are all Amazon Humour #1 best sellers both here in the UK and Australia. LOOKING FOR LUCY hit the #1 best seller overall in Australia. Her new novel, LITTLE ACORNS will be published in November 2018 and HOLLY CLOSE FARM in February 2019.

Julie lives in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire where her novels are set, and her only claims to fame are that she teaches part-time at ‘Bridget Jones’ author Helen Fielding’s old junior school and her neighbour is ‘Chocolat’ author, Joanne Harris. Oh, and she was once rescued by Frank Bough when, many years ago, she was ‘working as a waitress in a cocktail bar’ at the Kensington Hilton in London. After University, where she studied Education and English Literature, she taught for many years as a junior school teacher. As a newly qualified teacher, broke and paying off her first mortgage, she would spend every long summer holiday working on different Kibbutzim in Israel. After teaching for a few years she decided to go to New Zealand to work and taught in Auckland for a year before coming back to this country. She now teaches just two days a week, and still loves the buzz of teaching junior-aged children. She has been a magistrate for the past nineteen years, and, when not distracted by Ebay, Twitter and Ancestry, spends much of her time writing. Julie is married, has a twenty-four-year-old son and twenty-one-year-old daughter and a mad Cockerpoo called Lincoln. She runs and swims because she’s been told it’s good for her, but would really prefer a glass of wine, a sun lounger and a jolly good book  - preferably with Matthew Mcconaughay in attendance. She is represented by Anne Williams at KHLA Literary agency.

You can contact Julie through her website

www.juliehouston.co.uk

Book Review - An Off-Piste Christmas by Julie Houston

Amazon UK

Title: An Off-Piste Christmas

Author: Julie Houston

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Author supplied copy

Publisher: Self Published

Publication Date: 4th November 2016

Rating: 4.5 Stars

The last thing Harriet Westmoreland wants is Christmas away from home, particularly when skiing, snow, heights and freezing her backside off are on the menu. While her own family, together with her best friend Grace's, are soon whizzing down ridiculously high and scary mountains in the fashionable Italian resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo, Harriet is stuck in the remedial class on the nursery slopes unable, it seems, to remain vertical.

Tired of trying to stay upright in the dunces' class, Harriet decides to overcome her fear of heights and take her bruised body off to explore the refugios in the magnificent Dolomites above Cortina. And maybe catch a glance of George Clooney, rumoured to be in town... But what happens next triggers a totally unexpected avalanche of events which proves that, for friends Harriet and Grace and all their families, Christmas really is a time for little miracles...

I have just spent a couple of pleasurable if slightly befuddling hours reading this lovely novella set against the backdrop of the Italian Alps. 

I was taken slightly by surprise, as I didn't quite realise until I started that this is the next book in Julie Houston's series, featuring the Westmoreland family, and all of their increasingly complicated relations. I think that if you haven't read any of the previous books you may be slightly confused too by just who is related to who, and why, and since it has been a while since I read them, it took me a while to get it all straight in my head again. 

Regardless once I got into the book which starts with a hilarious opening chapter, I soon was really enjoying the story that was being told. 

Harriet is scared of heights, doesn't like the cold and can't ski, in fact it soon becomes a case of can't ski - won't ski! Yet she and the rest of her family, all five of them, plus her best friend Grace, her family, and also Amanda's family are all heading off for a skiing holiday in the period between Christmas and New Years. 

There are so many light hearted amusing scenes that will really resonate initially with anyone that has flown with a budget airline, and then later on the attempts in getting Harriet to ski are also amusing. 

However its once Harriet gives up and goes off exploring that the whole focus of the story changes in quite a surprising way, and adds a whole new dynamic to the book which makes a good story even more impressive. 

There are some wonderful descriptions of the food being produced in the chalet that my mouth was really watering for, and with children of various ages being present on the trip, there were all sorts of amusing interactions, including with the teenagers who is getting together with who, and the pre-teen commentary on the situation. 

All in all, once I got my head around the characters, I found An Off-Piste Christmas, to be a fun look at an extended family holiday in Cortina, complete with the sheer contrasts with the richest and slightly more regular members of the party! 

Thank you so much to Julie Houston for this review copy of the book. This was my honest opinion. 

Book Review - Looking For Lucy by Julie Houston

Amazon UK

Title: Looking For Lucy (The Midhope Novels Book 3)

Author: Julie Houston

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Author supplied review copy

Publisher: White Glove

Publication Date: 7th April 2016

Rating: 4 Stars

Clementine needs to find Lucy before it's all too late. She also knows bringing up a child on your own down on Emerald Street where the street walkers ply their trade isn't easy, even when your daughter's as adorable as four-year-old Allegra. So when Peter Broadbent, wealthy, kind and possessed of the most beautiful house Clementine has ever seen, proposes, it seems almost too good to be true. It is...

Looking For Lucy is the latest book in the Midhope Novels series by Julie Houston. Although its good to see the ladies from the previous books in the series make an appearance, this story can definitely be read as a standalone, and in a lot of respects is quite different from the previous two. It has a much more serious slant to it, and touches on a whole variety of topics.

However due to the amounts of secrets and lies, and half truths that keep getting unveiled at regular intervals in Looking For Lucy, I'm reluctant to talk too much about the plot. What I can though say is Clementine a marvellous main character, is always trying to act in her four year old daughter, Allegra's best interests with all the decisions she makes. She is big hearted and although may not always be doing things with the anticipated motivation, she is trying to make the best of tough situations. 

Her main concern other than Allegra, is Lucy. She is determined to find Lucy but it takes a good while into the book to discover just who Lucy is and then what the motivation is for her to be found. 

Was also get chapters from Sarah's point of view, which initially I was wondering where they would fit in, but as her back story is revealed, the links were very clear, and was a good way to allowing the reader to have the knowledge in bite sized sections before she is combined with the rest of the story. 

There are moments for all your emotions in this book, from laughter, crying to shock at times, as the story progresses. It is a well written book, that kept me interested and that had plenty of good bits. In some ways its an inspirational story too, about how Clementine pulls herself up continually from tricky situations and tries her hardest to make the best of things. 

Thank you to Julie Houston for this review copy. This was my honest opinion.