Book Review - The Happy Home For Ladies by Lilly Bartlett - #HolidayReading Thailand

The Amazon Purchase link below is an Amazon Affiliate link.

Amazon UK

Title: The Happy Home For Ladies

Author: Lilly Bartlett

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Harper Impulse

Publication Date: 31st August 2018

Rating: 5 Stars

Meet Phoebe, who’s 28, and Laney, Dot and Maggie, who are 68, 78, and none of your business. Together they'll prove that age doesn’t matter when it comes to friendship, belonging and an unquenchable zest for life.
A hilarious, uplifting novel about the ties of community, the strength of love and how nobody is truly ordinary.

When Framlingham’s famously all-female senior living home goes co-ed, a war between the sexes is declared.

Stuck in the middle, chef Phoebe Stockton is desperate to help her friends plot to keep the community that means so much to them. It’s become her life raft, too. She finds comfort in her beloved career that might finally make her parents proud. But Phoebe’s darling Nick is lining up on the other side of the battle, and their relationship is suffering collateral damage.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. If the home’s owner can’t improve business by moving the men in, he’ll have to evict everyone.

The women aren’t about to let that happen.

Always a joy to read a book from Lilly Bartlett and this really is no exception. 

I loved getting to know all the residents at The Happy Home for Ladies, which is care home for ladies of a certain age, and has far more of a community feel to it than some.  There are many clubs and activities daily, and it sounded like a really pleasant place to live. 

We meet Phoebe on the day of her mother;s funeral, and I instantly felt a sort of kinship with her, as her relationship with her mother isn't simple, and neither is mine, 

Phoebe is the cook at the care home, but not only that her best friend is the manager, her crush is the all around dogsbody of the place, and they are all friends to ladies that live there. 

I loved hearing about the ins and outs of the home and its various residents, there were some very interesting sub plots at play, in addition  to a few more serious ones too. 

It is a well thought out, fun book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Impulse for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily, 

Book Review - The Big Dreams Beach Hotel by Lilly Bartlett - Blog Tour

Amazon UK

Title: The Big Dreams Beach Hotel

Author: Lilly Bartlett

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Author supplied review copy

Publisher: Harper Impulse

Publication Date: 18th August 2017

Rating: 5 Stars

Rosie never dreamed she’d still be in her faded British seaside hometown three years after skulking back there from New York City. Managing the Victorian hotel where she first started work at sixteen is definitely not the way she expected her life to turn out.

But a lot of unexpected things are about to come Rosie’s way.
Flamingos, for one thing. When the once-grand family hotel is sold to US developers, they set about turning the quintessentially English institution into a copy of their Florida properties. As cultures clash, there’s no longer room for the hotel’s quaint traditions, let alone for the oddball residents who stand in the way of the developers’ big plans. To the 80-something Colonel, the aging torch singer, motherly Jamaican force of nature, narcoleptic dog trainer and his resident Bassett Hound, the hotel is home and family all wrapped into one.

That’s going to make Rory’s job difficult when he arrives to enforce all the changes. And Rosie isn’t exactly on his side. He might be charming, but he’s still there to evict the residents from their home. What’s worse, she’s supposed to be helping him do it.

This is Rosie’s only chance to revive the career she’s always wanted. Will she follow her dreams if it means ending those of her friends?

Utterly fabulous, completely hilarious, with a cast full of eccentric characters, its bright colourful Florida ideals brought to a typically English seaside hotel. It's a complete clash of cultures and within the hilarity, there are some fantastic stories....one of why Rosie is even in Scarborough in the first place, one of how she is going to manage the hotel through its major changes and also the individual storylines of some of the residents of the hotels. 

For at this seaside hotel, although it has been losing money for years, everyone involved is like a family. They run events for the good of the community, and there are assorted people living long term in the hotel for a variety of reasons. Yet everything is set to change when The Colonel announces he has sold the hotel to Americans!

And these are US developers who want to turn this Scarborough property, bought unseen, into a replica of their Florida hotels, right down to the flamingo print! Not to mention their tag line "5 Star experience at 3 Star prices" If you rolled your eyes at that you were completely correct to, it is laughable. 

The new owners are complete eccentrics and mainly communicate via skype or fax, they send in a transition manager, Rory to help smooth over the take over and to to do their bidding.

We get to read all about Rosie's past heartbreak spread over chapters, that are spaced throughout the book, generally any time that Rosie starts getting confused between Rory and Chuck! 

There is just so much to love about this book, but if I tried to list everything here I would be spoiling it for you, and not doing the book justice either. But lets face it its not often you read a book featuring of a narcoleptic children's entertainer with a dog, a 60s singer who is still trying to make it big, one surfer dude, a man with brightly coloured hair with unusual ideas, 6 course taster menus but an ex-army chef who generally cooks comfort food and a whole lot more besides.  

The Big Dream Beach Hotel is by far my favourite of the three Lilly Bartlett books to date, but probably also my favourite book by Michele Gorman too. It just hits everything I like in a book, and was a great match for me. This is a pure escapist read, perfect pretty much anytime you want something incredibly entertaining to absorb yourself in. 

Thank you so much to Lilly Bartlett for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

Please follow along with the rest of the blog tour. 

Book Review - The Second Chance Cafe in Carlton Square by Lilly Bartlett - Chances Fortnight

And as my last review for Chances Fortnight, instead of reading an author that I was taking a chance on, I thought a book about Second Chances would be rather fitting instead! 

Amazon UK

Title: The Second Chance Cafe in Carlton Square

Author: Lilly Bartlett

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Author supplied review copy

Publisher: Harper Impulse

Publication Date: 23rd June 2017

Rating: 5 Stars

One chance isn't always enough…

Everyone expects great things from Emma Billings, but when her future gets derailed by an unexpected turn of events, she realizes that getting back on track means traveling in a different direction.

She finds that new path in the closed-down pub on Carlton Square. Summoning every ounce of ingenuity, and with the help of her friends and family, she opens the Second Chance Café. The charity training business is meant to keep vulnerable kids off the streets and (hopefully) away from the Metropolitan Police, and her new employees are full of ideas, enthusiasm … and trouble. They'll need as much TLC as the customers they’re serving.

This ragtag group of chancers have to make a go of a business they know nothing about, and they do get some expert help from an Italian who's in love with the espresso machine and a professional sandwich whisperer who reads auras, but not everyone is happy to see the café open. Their milk keeps disappearing and someone is canceling the cake orders, but it's when someone commits bloomicide on all their window boxes that Emma realizes things are serious. Can the café survive when NIMBY neighbors and the rival café owner join forces to close them down? Or will Emma’s dreams fall as flat as the cakes they’re serving?

I think I may have enjoyed this second book in the Carlton Square series even more than the first one.  I loved the idea of the Second Chance Cafe, in that it gives vulnerable youths a chance to learn some skills and get valuable on the job training.   

This can easily be read as a standalone book, however if you have read the first one you are in for even more of a treat, as this is set 2 years later, Emma and Daniel are now married with toddler twins and are trying their hardest to cope, and that is before Emma's cafe is fully set up. 

Of course first Emma has to hire some trainees, and that is hilarious, given the selection of candidates on offer. I probably shouldn't laugh as its also incredibly realistic, but the interviews were amusing. 

I've always thought that Michele Gorman, aka Lilly Bartlett is brilliant at writing female friendships, mothers and realistic characters, and she really does herself justice in this book, as I loved the various characters, and cafe customers. 

I loved seeing more of Emma's family and her East End neighbours, its such a close community, and that really comes in handy during the story. The cafe has a real struggle on its hands, as its clear someone in the neighbourhood wants it closed, and the motivation behind it kept me guessing the whole way through.   There are many acts of sabotage to keep everyone on their toes. 

The two trainees that Emma hires at first a polar opposites, there is Joe who wants to be a CEO one day, but hasn't quite twigged he needs to work his way up and learn the smaller jobs first, and Lou, who at first is really hard to get to know, but by the end of the book was one of my favourite characters. 

Then there are the three rather distinct groups of people that frequent the cafe, there are those using it as an office space, plugging in everything from standard office equipment to nose hair trimmers. Then there are the teenagers, friends of Lou and Joe, that society would tend to misjudge just on appearances. The other group are mothers with their children. There is a play area set up, and the only problem with the mothers is that the pushchairs get in everyone's ways.  

The Second Chance Cafe is a story of young motherhood, a new business owner,  friendships, supporting your community, giving people second chances, a business rivalry and its incredibly well written and highly enjoyable to read. 

Thank you so much to Lilly Bartlett for this copy of the book which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

Book Review - The Big Little Wedding in Carlton Square by Lily Bartlett

Fab Firsts is my new regular Sunday feature, that is going to be highlighting books that are firsts. When interviewing authors, it will be about their first book, as well as other firsts in their lives. When reviewing books for this feature, there will be a mix of debuts, first books in a series, the first time I read an author, and possibly other firsts depending on what I can think of!

If you are an author wanting to take part in Fab Firsts then please do email on gilbster at gmail dot com and I'll whizz the questions over to you.

I hope you enjoy this look at a variety of hopefully fabulous firsts, while making some sort of dent in my review and paperback TBRs which are my current main focus!

Well this is Michelle Gorman's first book writing as Lily Bartlett and such a great book it is too! 

Amazon UK

Title:  The Big Little Wedding in Carlton Square

Author: Lilly Bartlett

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Publisher supplied copy

Publisher: Harper Impulse

Publication Date: 7th April 2017

Rating: 5 Stars

When Emma’s boyfriend Daniel pops the question with a ring the size of a small country, she suddenly realises just how different they are. She’s the Eastenders to his Made in Chelsea. She wants a low-key wedding with close friends and family in Uncle Colin’s pub, while Daniel’s mother is expecting a society do that their high-brow guests won’t forget!

How on earth can Emma put together a celebration fit for Lords and Ladies on a shoestring budget? Not to mention the fact her cross-dressing Uncle Barbara wants to be a bridesmaid, her best mate Kelly can’t stand Daniel’s best friend Cressida, and her dad is too proud to accept any help from Daniel’s family towards the costs.

There’s three months to go until the big day. Will Emma’s happy-ever-after end in disaster?

Absolutely wonderful romantic comedy that is guaranteed to lift your spirits and put a great big grin on my face. As a North West Londoner, I was especially  amused to see this was a romance of an East End London girl, to a rather more upper class Chelsea based man. 

However until the proposal, Emma hadn't actually realised that Daniel came from a completely different way of life from her, and as they plan together a wedding on a shoe string budget, it really is East meets West (London) as they all see how the other half lives. 

Emma loves Daniel's mother, but she has completely different ideas to her on every single aspect of wedding planning, and Daniel although he knows there is a budget, well his idea of economising was using the same chauffeur for more than one journey during the day, whereas Emma's thoughts on getting to and from venues involved walking! 

It's not just Emma and Daniel that need to find a happy medium, its equally amusing when the two sets of parents meet, and also when the friends merge. Wedding dress shopping included two very different experiences, and what really amazed me was just how inventive Emma and her family and friends were when it came to the nitty gritty details of the wedding. 

Let's not forget that in Emma's extended family is her Uncle Barbara who is very comfortable in a dress, and rarely wears male clothes anymore, and Auntie Rosie who tends to go walkabout. Her father is unfortunately suffering from a horrible disease, and I really felt for her, as I know what its like to have a dad  with MS. 

I don't think there was a second of this book that I didn't completely enjoy. I loved everything about it, and there are some great surprises in it too. And the wedding, without spoilers let me just say that although we have seen all the preparations, I still couldn't believe how everything came together on the day, and I just thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. 

This is a fabulous feel good story, that is easy to follow, that made me want to keep on reading to keep the good feelings going, and has been written by a clearly talented author. I am just crossing my fingers that there may be a sequel as I really want to see more from this colourful cast of characters.  

Thank you so much to Samantha Gale at Harper Impulse for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.