Book Review - How To Say Goodbye by Katy Colins - #HolidayReading Mexico

The Amazon Purchase link below is an Amazon Affiliate link.

Amazon UK

Title: How To Say Goodbye

Author: Katy Colins

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: HQ

Publication Date: 13th June 2019

Rating: 4 Stars

No one is ever happy to see Grace Salmon.

As a funeral arranger, she’s responsible for steering strangers through the hardest day of their lives. It’s not a task many would want – but, for Grace, giving people the chance to say a proper goodbye to the ones they love is the most important job in the world.

From the flowers in the church to the drinks served at the wake,Grace knows it’s the personal touches that count – and it’s amazing what you can find out about someone from their grieving relatives … or their Facebook page. But when she accidentally finds out too much about someone who’s died, Grace is finally forced to step out of the shadows… and start living.

For a book that has a funeral arranger as its main character and is all about creating the perfect goodbye, and grief, it is surprisingly not depressing at all, and in fact rather uplifting and a sensitive look at the topic.

If Grace has any faults it would be caring too much, she is clearly struggling to come to terms with things in her personal life, but at the same time is giving her all at work in order to create memorable send offs for the departed for all the right reasons. 

She even stalks the deceased's social media to be able to add a more personalised touch to each funeral. 

Grace doesn't have the largest group of friends, but those she has are completely wonderful, and a rather eclectic group. 

There is far more to book than I'm really able to find the words to describe properly in this review.  Rest assured, that it's a rather touching story,  and I was interested to see what different people want for funerals, memorials and how they grieve.  

Having thoroughly enjoyed the authors's Lonely Hearts Travel Club series, which is a lot more light hearted than this, I was very happy to see that she is able to write in multiple styles and still tell a fabulous story. 

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

Book Review - Chasing The Sun by Katy Colins

Amazon UK

Title: Chasing The Sun

Author: Katy Colins

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: HQ

Publication Date: 27th July 2017

Rating: 5 Stars

Georgia Green is on the conveyor belt to happiness.
Live-in boyfriend, perfect career and great friends, it seems like Georgia is only a Tiffany box away from her happily ever after. But when she arrives in Australia for her best friend’s wedding and is faced with the bridezilla from hell, she starts to realise that she might not want the cookie-cutter ending she thought.

What was meant to be a trip full of sunny days at the beach and wedding planning over cocktails, has turned into another problem for her to fix – just like the ones she’d left behind. With hardly any time for her boyfriend, let alone herself, it feels like there is just too much to juggle. It might be time for Georgia to step off the conveyor belt to find the balance in life and see if she really can have it all…

Easily one of the most enjoyable books I have read for a while, it whizzed past as I was absorbed in the latest installment in Georgia's story. 

For although the name of the book doesn't feel the same, this is sort of the next in the Destination series that I was reading last year, but since the focus of the book is more to do with Georgia's friends and boyfriend than with the Lonely Hearts Travel Club, the book feels different, but still up to the usual quality. If you haven't read any of Katy Colin's previous books don't worry as this should work as a standalone, and most of the relevant snippets of back story are included. 

I don;t think I have stopped smiling from the second I finally started this book to the moment it ended. I was thoroughly enjoying Georgia's trip to Australia, her bridezilla of a best friend Shelley, the other bridesmaid Cara, the hen party road trip that has an ulterior motive and just everything little unexpected occurrence, or problem that needed to be solved. 

Even before Georgia flew Down Under there were laughs to be had, at her attempts to babysit for another of her best friends, and a rather familiar-ish scene on the plane, where you realise just who is sitting around you on a massively long haul flight. 

Although there wasn't too much sightseeing, I did like the small glimpses I got of Australia, and lets just say Adelaide has some absolutely mad brides to be, who really did get over excited at one little sale....well it was a sample wedding dress sale, but still camping overnight for a shop? As a glorified single person who has never been within sniffing distance of her own wedding dress, please forgive my amusement at the situations! 

Chasing The Sun is another excellent book by the talented Katy Colins and I adored this slight shift in direction for the book. I loved catching up with these fabulous characters and of course exploring a new destination with Georgia.  This is a fabulous summer read that I am sure people will love reading while relaxing in the sun themselves. 

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

Book Review - Destination Chile by Katy Colins

Amazon UK

Title: Destination Chile

Author: Katy Colins

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Midas PR

Publisher: Carina

Publication Date: 22nd September 2016

Rating: 5 Stars

Georgia Green’s extraordinary year has seen her travel the world – from mending her broken heart in Thailand, to jetting off to India, Spain, Greece and Morocco for her new travel and tour agency ‘The Lonely Hearts Travel Club’. Next on Georgia’s bucket list is Chile, but this time she’s not going alone…

Once in a while a series will come along that just gets under your skin, hits all the marks you are subconsciously looking for in a book, and they are books you become very excited to see the next one is finally ready for publication. For me The Lonely Hearts Travel Club is a series like that, I love the travel elements, I love the relationship elements, and I really do enjoy reading Georgia' s story. 

Having never read anything set in Chile, nor having ever really given the country much thought, I have no idea how factually correct the elements of this book are, but I did get a real feel for just what a country of contrasts it is, from the Atacama to Patagonia, with Santiago adding the city feel. 

The reasons the Georgia is in Chile and this time with Ben, is certainly a different departure from her last two adventures, this time there is a television show involved, and the holiday is expenses paid, but they four couples on it, all have to do various challenges around Chile, in order to compete to win some prize money. 

This holiday is a real test for Ben and Georgia as things just don't go too smoothly, and even what is probably one of most people's top holiday nightmares is dealt with, with the correct amount of despair and humour. 

As such a huge fan of the series, it is hard to make a judgment on whether this works as a standalone, but I feel it should do as all the key relationship and friendship points are mentioned in just enough detail so that you get an idea of what has gone on before. 

There is just a quality to Katy Colins writing that means once I picked up Destination Chile I had a hard job putting it down, and I was almost resentful of a theatre show I had booked which interrupted my reading of this book! 

Destination Chile is a worthy addition to the Lonely Hearts Travel Club series, it moves all the key storylines along, and we keep updated with Georgia's best friends too, even if they aren't given huge amounts of "air time". As always when finishing a book in this series, I am already eagerly anticipating the next installment, and can't wait to go down under next with Georgia! 

Thank you to Midas PR for this review copy of Destination Chile. This was my honest opinion. 

Book Review - Destination India by Katy Collins

Amazon UK

Title: Destination India (The Lonely Hearts Travel Club, Book 2)

Author: Katy Colins

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Carina

Publication Date: 2nd June

Rating: 5 Stars

Let yourself go…
Starting the Lonely hearts Travel Club was supposed to be the second chance that gave Georgia Green back her life. She thought it would be just like travelling, but the reality is far from rosy as she realises that starting a new business is definitely not a beach!

So when Georgia finds herself on an impromptu work trip to India she knows something’s got to give! Where has the girl gone who fought so hard to rebuild her life?

The land of Bollywood, gorgeous beaches and the Taj Mahal might just hold the key to Georgia finding her stride again… Only she is about to find out that when in India the country calls the shots – not you. But Georgia’s not going down that easy!

Join Georgia Green for her next big adventure in Bollywood!

Having spent months and months longing for Destination India to come out, needing another fix from the Lonely Hearts Travel Club, there was a tiny part of me that was nervous, incase either I had hyped the next book up in my mind too much, or that the first was a one book wonder. Well I definitely need not have worried, as Destination India is every bit as good as the first, if not even better. 

Before I start waxing lyrical as that is all I want to do, I should assure people that are new to Katy Colins and her Lonely Hearts Travel Club series that this second book can be read as a standalone very easily, although for full enjoyment I would still recommend starting from the first book, especially if you love virtual travel. 

Destination India starts with a pretty quick pace, that while Georgia was working and trying to keep control over every aspect of her business, she is quickly becoming a workaholic and unrecognisable to her friends and family. When some awful reviews of their India tour start coming through, in a drunken moment with a friend they decide to go on the tour themselves to sort it out once and for all. 

Georgia ends up in India without her friend, but doesn't let it stop her. The descriptions from the second she lands in India, the initial meetings with her tour guide, to the sights and sounds of the places they go to, took me completely away from real life and I felt as though I was alongside Georgia experiencing it all for myself. 

The destination and travel writing in the book doesn't overpower you with facts, although the "tour guide-off" at the Taj Mahal was fascinating and hilarious, with hidden messages being passed between the two guides in question, while their groups watched on bemused. The 15 hour train trip across India sums up a lot about this vibrant and misunderstood country and the section in Goa was colourful and felt like everything I imaginated the island to be. 

I loved getting to know not only Georgia but also all the characters on the tour with her, where she is undercover, and seeing how she tried to help out her guide and understand the reasoning behind the reviews, just showed what a great person she really is. 

Before I started this, I think I had been suffering a bit of a book hangover for a few days and had been struggling to read anything for longer than half an hour at a time. This has fixed me again thankfully and I devoured this in a matter of hours on a lazy Sunday afternoon. My only suggestion would be to make sure you order some Indian to go alongside this book, as you may find yourself craving a curry!

My only fault with this story was, that it had to end, and that I now have to wait months again for the next book, which I am as I suspect goes without saying really looking forward to. This is a series and author that is hitting all the elements I love in a book and putting them together in a fantastic way, creating unputdownable stories. 

Thank you to much to Netgalley and Carina for this review copy. This was my honest opinion. 

Book Review - Destination Thailand by Katy Colins - Blog Tour

Amazon UK

Title: Destination Thailand (The Lonely Hearts Travel Club, Book 1)

Author: Katy Colins

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Carina

Publication Date: 21st January 2016

Rating: 5 Stars

What if you had a second chance… to find yourself?
Instead of slipping on her something borrowed and tripping up the aisle to wedded bliss, Georgia spends her big day crying into a warm Sex-on-the-Beach, wondering where it all went wrong.

Forced to make a bucket list of her new life goals by best friend Marie, it’s not long before travel-virgin Georgia’s packing her bags for a long-haul adventure to Thailand.

Yet, Georgia’s big adventure doesn’t seem to be going to plan. From strange sights, smells and falling for every rookie traveller scam in the book Georgia has never felt more alone.

But the good thing about falling apart is that you can put yourself back together any way you please. And new Georgia might just be someone she can finally be proud of…

It takes a very rare book for me to be enjoying so much by half way through that I was already wondering just what the next ones in the series would be, and how the destinations would be dealt with. And that is exactly what happened to me during Destination Thailand. I was so hooked on the writing of Georgia's adventure that I need to read books two and three and really don't want to wait. 

Anyone that knows me knows that I love travel and also reading about foreign locations in books, so in that respect Destination Thailand could have been made for me. 

We join Georgia while she is on a last minute trip to Turkey, that takes place the week when Georgia was due to be married. Instead she is sipping cocktails and sobbing on the beach and generally unhappy until Marie, her best friend, challenges her to write a bucket list, to try and focus Georgia's life. 

From that Georgia decides that travelling is what she has always been putting off, and despite some cautions from parents, sets off on a six week tour of Thailand. Only things don't initially go to plan, and Georgia falls for a lot of the cons that any inexperienced traveller could be taken in by quite easily. 

I was hooked from the opening but it ramped up a gear once Georgia got onto the plane to Thailand. The descriptions of the country and her tour group are so believable, I almost felt I was on the tour alongside her. Some of the others on her tour may be slightly stereotypical characters, but that is because they are the sorts of people you would definitely meet on your travels.

There are the loud and lairy Essex boys, just up for a good time, the couple who are very cautious and use hand sanitizer everywhere and turn their noses up at trying anything local and authentic, then there are the girls, best friends, that think every man will fall in love with them. Add in a gorgeous guy who appears to only have eyes for Georgia and the tour guide Kit, who isn't exactly on the level, and you have a mixed group for the beginning of Georgia's adventure. 

I'm not sure I can describe just how great my enjoyment of this story was. The writing is excellent and you can tell that the author is drawing on personal experiences, which gives the book a greater depth and richness. 

I am so looking forward to discovering India next with Georgia, The Lonely Hearts Travel Club and Katy Colins. 

Destination Thailand is the perfect escape to warmer climates this winter, and you don't even have t leave the comfort of your armchair to enjoy the journey. 

Thanks so much to Carina and Netgalley for this review copy. This is my honest opinion.